Describes the "Personal Communicator," a CD-ROM communication tool designed to enhance social interactions of deaf children and their hearing associates. Each of the program's five components is described: the chat screen, the dictionary, the writer's notebook, the conversation recorder, and the sign language playroom. Examples of the program's…

The article describes activities and outcomes of a home-based early intervention project in Jamaica which helped two mothers learn to communicate with their young congenitally deaf children. The program suggests a pragmatic approach to help Third World parents who are unable to participate in structured sessions in the school environment. (DB)

Four hearing-impaired students were mainstreamed into an English class of normally hearing students. Classroom communication progressed from sign interpreting, to sign interpreting along with a real-time graphic display (RTGD) of words spoken by teacher or students, to RTGD alone. Student reactions to the mainstreaming experience and to the…

Contends music education can help hearing-impaired students achieve both academic and social goals of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1990). Describes instructional content and methods of elementary program utilizing sign language, vocal music, and keyboard computer music systems. Concludes with description of school performance in…

Australia and New Zealand are two South Pacific nations with a shared history of British colonisation and close links maintained through kinship, travel, shared media and business relationships. Our public education systems also reflect a shared history of educational ideas and responses to the challenges of increasingly heterogeneous populations.…

In 1991, a study was conducted by Oakland Community College (OCC) in order to evaluate the need for a proposed Sign Language Interpreter program. OCC's study focused on validating and updating findings from a similar research project begun in fall 1989 by Macomb Community College (MCC) in Warren, Michigan. Federal and state legislation, data from…

A regional center for physically disabled children in Gothenburg, Sweden, called Bracke Ostergard, teaches non-speaking pupils to communicate with Bliss symbols. School records were examined for the 38 non-speaking pupils, mostly cerebral palsied, who had been trained to use Bliss symbols. Results showed that, of the 32 cerebral palsied children,…

The curriculum guide was developed to serve hearing impaired children at the Kendall Demonstration School elementary/middle school in Washington, D.C. An introductory section explains the philosophy/rationale of the language arts curriculum which emphasizes the development of spoken, signed, or written language. The next section offers suggestions…

This annotated bibliography on the reading achievement of the deaf is designed to aid those who wish to learn more about how children with severe auditory handicaps read. The various sections focus on the severity of the reading deficit of deaf students, the findings of basic research on how they read, and some of the instructional approaches…

AN INVESTIGATION WAS UNDERTAKEN TO DETERMINE WHETHER EARLY MANUAL COMMUNICATION WITH DEAF CHILDREN INFLUENCES THEIR SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION OF (1) INTELLIGIBLE SPEECH, (2) READING ABILITY, (3) SPEECH READING ABILITY, (4) WRITTEN LANGUAGE, AND (5) PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT. THE DESIGN INVOLVED MATCHED PAIRS OF SUBJECTS BECAUSE OF THE LARGE NUMBER OF…

Spanish-speaking families (N=58) of deaf children participated in a two-year televised trilingual (Spanish, English, and Sign Language) class through the project "A Mass Media Approach to Sign Language Instruction for Spanish-Speaking Parents of Deaf Children." Evaluation revealed that over 85 percent demonstrated positive change in…

Cued Speech (CS) is a tool used to make spoken languages visible. While it uses the hands to communicate information visually, it is not a form of sign language. Signed languages are languages in their own right and use the hands, body, and face to present complete concepts rather than words. They have their own grammar systems and vocabularies.…

This booklet contains 28 fact sheets on communication written primarily for parents and families with a child who is deaf-blind. They attempt to address fundamental but complex issues related to the communication needs of children with vision and hearing impairments. Each fact sheet targets a specific area, including: (1) communication; (2)…

This thesis explores parental perspectives on hearing-screening of children, and the importance of the time of detection of a congenital hearing impairment for the child's development. A qualitative approach based mainly on interviews was employed, and the results were analyzed according to three different methods-empirical phenomenology, grounded…

Evaluates methods used by New Zealand researchers on language maintenance and shift among ethnic minorities to collect data on community languages. Points out that there are many communities in that country whose patterns of language use are mostly unknown. Makes a case for the social, cultural, and educational benefits of research on community…