The article surveys literature and research about deaf children's acquisition of American Sign Language, especially as it compares to language acquisition of their hearing peers. The development of manual articulation as well as vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and fingerspelling acquisition are discussed. (JL)

A discussion of American Sign Language looks at its history in the context of deaf education and its increasing acceptance as a complete natural language both among linguists and in the college curriculum. (MSE)

The use of sign language with severely handicapped students is analyzed in light of commonly held rationales. Cognitive, motor, and sociocommunicative factors affecting the learning of sign language are discussed, as well as environmental considerations (including attitudes toward sign language and competence of teachers and other caregivers in…

When hearing raters subjectively evaluated the signed and spoken output of 25 sign language interpreters, rater agreement was between 0.52-0.86; the correlation between subjective and objective evaluation was between 0.59-0.79. Raters were unsuccessful in identifying which interpreters had deaf parents. (CB)

The fundamental link between language and action is the rationale behind the design of four interactive video programs intended to teach deaf children verb tenses, literacy, and reading comprehension, and to teach hearing parents of deaf children to use British Sign Language. The four interactive video programs are described. (MBR)

Coding of printed letters in a task of consonant recall was examined in relation to the level of success of prelingually and profoundly deaf young children. Results indicated that the success of good readers appears to be related to their ability to establish and make use of linguistically recoded representations of the language. (Author/CI)

Describes a paired-associate learning experiment in which American Sign Language signs of high and low translucency and high and low cheremic similarity were presented to sign-naive subjects. One hypothesis, that translucency would facilitate learning, was confirmed; a second, that cheremic similarity would retard sign learning, was not.…

Reports research which investigated the effects of microcomputer technology on the acquisition of writing and reading skills in 32 deaf children. The learning mechanism underlying the instructional system used is responsive, interactional and exploratory, reflective of the way most children acquire a first language. (SED)

Reports on a study that investigated the perception in deaf children, aged 6 to 10, of American Sign Language signs that differ in only one major parameter to determine whether any of the three parameters (handshape, movement, and location) is more difficult than others for deaf children to discriminate. (SED)

Describes the details of a semantic extension of the American Sign Language lexical item "stuck," as it was used during the 1981-82 school year at a U.S. high school. Sees this semantic extension as indicative of poor communication between teacher and students at the high school. (SED)

Uses techniques of the study of conversational analysis in oral language in the study of American Sign Language conversations, and concludes that such conversations are structured in ways that parallel those of spoken language. (FL)

A study tested the hypothesis that manual encoding aids learning in the prelingually deaf. Twenty-four adults who used fingerspelling as their primary means of communication participated in two groups of a paired-associate learning paradigm, using eight study-test trial sequences. Those using fingerspelling showed more recall and a faster learning…

This final report discusses the outcomes of a project designed to promote higher standards for Sign Language interpreter preparations programs and to provide an opportunity for such programs to engage in self-examination. The project field-tested a set of program standards and a program self-study process with five Sign Language interpreter…

This paper describes public library services to deaf and hard of hearing persons in Denmark. Topics covered include: (1) target groups, including deaf, deafened, hard of hearing persons, professionals and relatives who have contact with the hearing impaired, and other groups using visual communication; (2) means of communication, including sign…

Research supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. (DD)