Purpose: The aim of the study was to describe the expressive sign vocabularies of a group of children learning Australian Sign Language (Auslan). Method: The spontaneous signs of 44 children aged 3.0-6.8 years enrolled in one early-years bilingual-bicultural educational program were documented using a new approach, the Handshape Analysis Recording…

Purpose: Caregivers of deaf/hard of hearing infants are faced with challenging decisions regarding their child's communication method. The purpose of the current research note is to characterize the advice that caregivers receive and value as well as the factors that influence caregivers' decision making. Method: The current study enrolled 105…

Purpose: The development of vocabulary size in deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) children and adolescents can be delayed compared to their peers due to lack of access to early language input. Complementary vocabulary interventions are reported in the literature. Our aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention methods for their vocabulary…

Purpose: Sign language, like spoken language, incorporates phonological and articulatory (or motor) processing components. Thus, the learning of novel signs, like novel spoken word forms, may be problematic for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). In the present work, we hypothesize that phonological and articulatory deficits in…

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children show difficulties in their morphosyntactic abilities. Purpose: The current study aimed to examine morphosyntactic errors in sentences produced by DHH students, who are signers of Israeli Sign Language, and also users of Palestinian Colloquial Arabic (PCA) and written Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Method:…

Purpose: Children are assumed to acquire orthographic representations during autonomous reading by decoding new written words. The present study investigates how deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children build new orthographic representations compared to typically hearing (TH) children. Method: Twenty-nine DHH children, from 7.8 to 13.5 years old,…

Purpose: Key word signing (KWS) entails using manual signs to support the natural speech of individuals with normal hearing and who have communication difficulties. While manual signs from the local sign language may be used for this purpose, some KWS systems have opted for a distinct KWS lexicon. Distinct KWS lexicon typically aims for higher…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine how speech while sign (simultaneous communication [SimCom]) affects the spoken language of bimodal bilingual teachers and how individual differences in sign-language vocabulary knowledge, SimCom teaching experience, and the ability to perform speech under dual-task conditions explain the variability in SimCom…

Purpose: The use of sign-supported speech (SSS) in the education of deaf students has been recently discussed in relation to its usefulness with deaf children using cochlear implants. To clarify the benefits of SSS for comprehension, 2 eye-tracking experiments aimed to detect the extent to which signs are actively processed in this mode of…

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review is to identify and evaluate the available scientific evidence on the effectiveness of rehabilitation approaches proposed to children with severe-to-profound prelinguistic deafness on the hearing, speech, and language skills development. Method: Databases (PubMed, CINHAL, PsycInfo, Cochrane, ERIC, and…

Purpose: Diagnoses, assessments, and treatments, as well as social and language interventions, can be effective in identifying and interpreting specific linguistic features that present special challenges to the language abilities of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). This article reports on a study analyzing complex sentences and…

Purpose: We present the first study of echolalia in deaf, signing children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We investigate the nature and prevalence of sign echolalia in native-signing children with ASD, the relationship between sign echolalia and receptive language, and potential modality differences between sign and speech. Method: Seventeen…

Purpose: Research has demonstrated that formal training is essential for professionals to learn key word signing. Yet, the particular didactic strategies have not been studied. Therefore, this study compared the effectiveness of verbal and video feedback in a key word signing training for future direct support staff. Method: Forty-nine future…

Purpose: Sign language users recruit physical properties of visual motion to convey linguistic information. Research on American Sign Language (ASL) indicates that signers systematically use kinematic features (e.g., velocity, deceleration) of dominant hand motion for distinguishing specific semantic properties of verb classes in production…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of sign characteristics in a key word signing (KWS) system on the functional use of those signs by adults with intellectual disability (ID). Method: All 507 signs from a Flemish KWS system were characterized in terms of phonological, iconic, and referential characteristics.…