A study examined the effects of the use of sign language in young hearing children's language development. The study tracked a class of 19 Maryland students from their first week of prekindergarten over the 2-year period that ended with the last week of their kindergarten year. Subjects received sign instruction during the prekindergarten year and…

Studied accuracy and use of sequence number string in hearing 3- to 5-year-olds and in deaf 4- to 6-year-olds using the Belgian French Sign Language. Found that deaf children exhibited age-related lags in knowledge of the number sequence, and made different errors from those of hearing children, reflecting the rule-bound nature of sign language.…

Despite the fact that American Sign Language (ASL) courses at the college-level have been increasing in frequency, little is understood about the capabilities of hearing individuals learning a sign language as a second language. This study aims to begin assessing the language skills of advanced L2 learners of ASL by comparing L2 signer productions…

Naturalistic studies show that children can create language-like communication systems in the absence of conventional language. However, experimental evidence is mixed. We address this discrepancy using an experimental paradigm that simulates naturalistic sign creation. Specifically, we tested if a sample of 6- to 12-year-old children (52 girls…

Examined cerebral activation during sign language comprehension in six persons with deafness and nine hearing persons, all of whose parents were deaf. The group with deafness showed more activation than the hearing group in the right parieto-occipital region, indicating that they were more dependent on the spatial components in sign language than…

In everyday communication, not only do speakers describe, but they also depict. When depicting, speakers can take on the role of other people and quote their speech or imitate their actions. In previous work, we developed a paradigm to elicit depictions in speakers. Here we apply this paradigm to signers to explore depiction in the manual…

Evaluates the contribution of visuo-gestural modality versus linguistic factors in determining the order of elements in sign language. The results of a study show that Italian Sign Language differs along significant lines from both spoken Italian and pantomime. (22 references) (GLR)

Examines the influence of sign language structures on the spontaneous use of time and space markers in French and French Sign Language. The study compared the use of nonspatialized utterances and spatialized structures of deaf and hearing children, adolescents, and adults. Findings shed light on the different types of errors in understanding. (17…

Several screening instruments for ASD in young children were developed during the last decades. Only few studies compare the discriminative power of these instruments in the same sample. In particular comparisons of instruments that use different informants are scarce in young children. The current study compared the discriminant ability of the…

The present study evaluated the efficacy of a new preschool early literacy intervention created specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children with functional hearing. Teachers implemented "Foundations for Literacy" with 25 DHH children in 2 schools (intervention group). One school used only spoken language, and the other used…

The Guidelines for Good Practice of the European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA) stress the importance of collaboration between all parties involved in the process of developing instruments, activities and programmes for testing and assessment. Collaboration is considered to be as important as validity and reliability,…

Teachers were surveyed for their opinions of Signed English and American Sign Language. Of the 85 responses, most felt that deaf children should begin signing as early as possible, use Signed English as their base language, and eventually be bilingual in the sign languages. It was also felt that teachers should be bilingual. (MSE)

Because the relationship of gesticulation to sign language has not received much research attention, this study considers gesture and sign among users of signed and oral languages. Results suggest that gestures produced by deaf individuals can be distinguished from the sign language in which they are embedded, including their semantic and…

Compared production of gestures, signs, and words by a child simultaneously acquiring sign language and speech to that of a group of children exposed only to speech. Found that exposure to sign language influences the extent to which the manual modality of expression is used for communicative purposes but does not alter the rate or course of…

College and university requirements for undergraduate deaf education teacher preparation programs from 1986 and 2006 were compared. Thirty percent fewer undergraduate programs were in existence in 2006 than in 1986. Compared to programs in the 1986-1987 academic year, programs in 2006-2007 placed less emphasis on course work related to speech and…