Reprints an historical study that investigated the value of the oral method in teaching speech to 40 children with deafness. Results indicated the oral method did not permit participants to enter into relations with strangers and did not allow them to have a consecutive conversation with their relatives. Additional research is recommended. (CR)

This reprint of an article from 1909 responds to a study that found the oral method was not effective in teaching speech to students with deafness. It charges that the investigation was unscientific and driven by economic influences. (CR)

This reprint of a 1970 article examines some emergent concepts of psycholinguistics and relates them to the development of a language-training program for children with deafness. It discusses the stages and process of language development, and the advantages and disadvantages of the total-communication approach, oral communication, and the…

This study examined developmental characteristics of 82 deaf and hard-of-hearing children identified through the high-risk registry in Colorado either before or after 6 months of age. Children identified early and receiving intervention two to three months after identification had significantly higher levels of receptive and expressive language,…

This article explains a movement-based approach to the development of language in children with deaf-blindness. This approach uses the salient features of individuals or objects to stimulate use of language in the immediate environment, and later to refer to persons or concepts in a more abstract fashion. It stresses the use of structure and a…

A survey of 404 parents of children with hearing impairments born in 1989 or 1990 found that parents favorably evaluated intervention programs and reported teachers to be helpful. Parents from minority groups and those with no college training reported their children showed more behavior problems and less language progress. (Author/CR)

Describes the Deaf Mentor Experimental Project, which provided deaf-mentor services to young deaf children, ages 0 to 5, and their families. Deaf adults (mentors) shared their language (American Sign Language), culture, and personal knowledge of deafness while serving as role models for the children. Program children made greater language gains…

Summarizes characteristics of Hispanic students at the Texas School for the Deaf. It discusses trilingual (American Sign Language, English, Spanish) situations and problems related to multilingual home and school environments. A model is proposed for language instruction and support-services programs. (DB)

This study evaluated a method of adult mediation with a deaf second grader which involved identification of language needs through transcription and analysis of the child's retellings of weekly basal stories, followed by targeted adult-mediated conversations. Evaluation indicated the student's performance on targeted semantic and syntactic…

A study compared characteristics of two preschool boys with profound bilateral hearing impairments. The linguistic and social development of the boy whose hearing impairment was detected at age 2 was found to be much slower than that of the boy whose hearing impairment was detected at 4 months. (Contains references.) (CR)

A four-year study explored face-to-face English competence of five students (ages 7-12) with deafness participating in a study of teachers' use of English-based signing. Grammatical forms similar in English and American Sign Language were initially more readily produced when tested for in English and students showed consistently higher attainment…

This article presents a conceptual model of the cognitive social bases of language derived from the philosophical view of constructionism and theoretical perspectives of speech act theory and relevance theory. The centrality of intent, modality and core issues of language, lack of construct validity in assessment, and heterogeneity are discussed.…

Behaviors of eight children (ages 2-5) with profound congenital deafness were analyzed using six classes of egocentric language: motor reaction activity, silent lips articulation, murmur, oral-facial mimics, body expression, and vocalization. Events in which children engaged in "dialogue" with themselves or a toy, while pursing a specific…

This study examined the behavior of 70 children with hearing losses attending a clinical program providing an auditory-verbal intervention. Parents' ratings indicated that boys were more likely to display temperament features nonconducive to traditional clinical language intervention. Girls' language and placement outcomes surpassed the boys',…

Deaf students with multiple disabilities have a long history of limited opportunity, including limited access to educational opportunities available to their deaf peers. This article places the individual needs of deaf students with multiple disabilities in the context that guides much of deaf education--the importance of language acquisition.…