Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Sign Language”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources
PubMed2001

Chimpanzee sign language and Darwinian continuity: evidence for a neurological continuity for language.

The current article addresses the empirical validity of the Cartesian view of language by first examining a sample of the results generated by over 30 years of chimpanzee sign language studies and then examining some neurological and behavioral data that accounts for the similarity between human and nonhuman communication systems. Finally an attempt will be made to propose a unified model of language that accounts for these findings and shows how the Cartesian world view has proposed a theory of language that is incomplete.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Involving institutional staff in the development and maintenance of sign language skills with profoundly retarded persons.

A program to involve institutional staff in developing manual sign language skills with profoundly retarded persons was evaluated. In Experiment 1, six direct care staff, with close supervision, taught a small repertoire of signs to six profoundly retarded residents who had not benefited from previous training in vocal language. Training was conducted in a group format using instructions, modeling, manual guidance, contingent reinforcers, and feedback. During training, all residents learned to identify pictures of objects with manual signs. Generalization observations during unstructured times on the residents' living unit indicated that staff used their signing skills with the residents in addition to their vocal interactions but the residents did not increase their signing or vocalizing. In Experiment 2, the residents' skills in signing with real objects on their living unit as opposed to pictures of objects were evaluated and provided with additional training where necessary. Results indicated that all participating residents learned to communicate with signing during structured interactions on their living unit, and the skills maintained during follow-up assessments ranging from 39 to 49 weeks. Results are discussed regarding the variable generalization effects noted as well as the general benefits and disadvantages of teaching manual signing skills to profoundly retarded persons.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Nouns and verbs in Australian sign language: an open and shut case?

Results of the noun-verb pair comprehension and production tests from the Test Battery for Auslan Morphology and Syntax (Schembri et al., 2000) are re-presented, re-analyzed, and compared to data from two other cases also dealing with noun-verb pairs: the Auslan lexical database and a comparison of Auslan and American Sign Language (ASL) signs. The data elicited through the test battery and presented in this article confirm the existence of formationally related noun-verb pairs in Auslan in which the verb displays a single movement and the noun displays a repeated movement. The data also suggest that the best exemplars of noun-verb pairs of this type in Auslan form a distinct set of iconic (mimetic) signs archetypically based on inherently reversible actions (such as opening and shutting). This strong iconic link perhaps explains why the derivational process appears to be of limited productivity, though it does appear to have "spread" to a number of signs that appear to have no such iconicity. There appears to be considerable variability in the use of the derivational markings, particularly in connected discourse, even for signs of the "open and shut" variety. Overall, the derivational process is apparently still closely linked to an iconic base, is incipient in the grammar of Auslan, and is thus best described as only partially grammaticalized.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1998

Why is learning American Sign Language a challenge?

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in American Sign Language (ASL), the language used by Deaf Americans. As a result, an unprecedented number of schools and agencies now offer ASL classes. This welcome development signals growing awareness of and respect for the American Deaf community and ASL. Unfortunately, misconceptions persist about ASL. One major misconception is that it is an easily learned, picture-like language. This understanding is due partly to the fact that some of the first basic signs learned may be thought of as iconic (e.g., signs for eat, sleep, and drink). This even leads some new ASL learners to believe they can become instructors after one or two classes. This mistake is not made among people learning a spoken language. ASL is a complete and complex language, with all the nuances and subtleties of a spoken language. Like all languages, it is not mastered easily beyond a basic level. Mastery requires extensive exposure and practice. Presently, there is no consensus on where ASL might fall on a learnability continuum for native English speakers. Nonetheless, this article posits that learning ASL should be approached with respect and with the knowledge that mastery only occurs over a substantial period of time.

Humans↗
PubMed1999

Differences in the use of American Sign Language morphology by deaf children: implications for parents and teachers.

Newport (1988) has noted differences in how American Sign Language (ASL) is used by the following three groups of deaf adults: those with deaf parents (native signers); those, with hearing parents, who learned ASL upon entering school at age 5 years (early signers); and those who learned to sign after puberty (late signers). The present study extends this research to children by investigating the use of morphological inflections in ASL by native and early signers. Thirty deaf children between ages 3 and 9 years were asked to sign a story in ASL. The videotaped stories were analyzed for morphological and contextual complexity. Qualitative differences were found between native and early signers on measures relating to the aspectual complexity of signs but not on measures relating to the complexity of the utterance. Implications of these differences are discussed in terms of communication at home and ASL use in the classroom.

Child↗
PubMed1981

Perception of sign language from an array of 27 moving spots.

Many deaf people in the USA communicate in American sign language (ASL), which has an expressive capacity equivalent to that of spoken language, although structurally independent of spoken languages. It comprises hand and arm movements often combined with particular facial gestures; together these are sufficiently precise to transmit all the complexities and innuendoes of language. Here we demonstrate that fluent ASL users can communicate easily when all they see of each other is an array of 27 light spots strategically placed on the hands and face. The results indicate the salient locations in normal sign perception, and suggest that it is feasible to transmit sign using the bandwidth of one telephone line rather than a much more expensive TV line.

Form Perception↗
PubMed1992

Biomechanical factors affecting upper extremity cumulative trauma disorders in sign language interpreters.

Symptoms associated with upper extremity cumulative trauma disorders (UECTDs) recently have been reported in professional sign language interpreters. The present investigation is a case control study of potential biomechanical factors that may exacerbate or maintain UECTD-related symptoms in this occupational group. Based on the results of a medical screening, interpreters were classified into two groups: working with pain (n = 16) and working without pain (n = 13). There were no significant differences between the groups on age, gender, years signing, years interpreting, and wrist and forearm endurance and flexibility as measured during an isokinetic strength test of the upper extremities. Subjects were exposed to a standard interpreting task. Groups were compared on measures of repetitiveness of hand/wrist motion, work/rest cycle, postural stress, and smoothness of movement. Heart rate, pain, fatigue, and perceived reduction in extremity flexibility also were measured. The group working with pain demonstrated a distinct pattern of potential biomechanical risk factors previously associated with UECTDs in other occupations. By comparison with the control group, those working with pain exhibited fewer rest breaks, more frequent hand/wrist deviations from neutral, more frequent lateral excursions from an optimal work envelope, and more rapid finger/hand movements while interpreting. Significant group differences on self-report measures of pain, fatigue, and perceived limitation in range of motion also were observed. An analysis of heart-rate response to the interpreting task revealed that both groups demonstrated a modest increase in heart rate to the interpreting task, although interpreters working with pain displayed lower heart rates across all phases of the experimental task.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1991

The role of iconicity in sign language learning by hearing adults.

The feature of transparency has been identified as facilitating the learning of manual signs as word surrogates. The recognition and retention of transparent and nontransparent signs by 50 sign-naive hearing college freshmen was investigated in three tasks: (1) a transparency task; (2) after a training period, a short-term memory task; and (3) a long-term memory task. Results indicated that both transparent and nontransparent signs were retained over a short and a long period of time; however, there was a significant decrease in the number of nontransparent signs retained as the period of time after training increased. Implications for sign language training are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Role of speech therapy and sign language prior to cochlear implantation.

The speech therapist should assess and develop the communication skills of the deaf child prior and after a cochlear implantation. The goals are first the acquisition of a useful communication system by the deaf child (for avoiding a cognitive stimulation lack) and parallely the acquisition of good oral language competencies. The different modes of communication useable in the profoundly deaf education are presented. Exclusive sign language use is not indicated in implanted children. It is well demonstrated that an exclusive oral communication is associated with an insufficient knowledge of the oral language. The total communication (combination of listening, speech reading, signing with or without finger spelling) is a defective communication mode with a bad representation of the morpho-syntactic and the phonologic aspects of the oral language. The best choice seems to be the simultaneously use of a spoken language and a manually coding of their phonological structures. The limits of this alternative are discussed.

Child↗
PubMed1984

Cerebral organization of oral and signed language responses: case study evidence from amytal and cortical stimulation studies.

A normally hearing left-handed patient familiar with American Sign Language (ASL) was assessed under sodium amytal conditions and with left cortical stimulation in both oral speech and signed English. Lateralization was mixed but complementary in each language mode: the right hemisphere perfusion severely disrupted motoric aspects of both types of language expression, the left hemisphere perfusion specifically disrupted features of grammatical and semantic usage in each mode of expression. Both semantic and syntactic aspects of oral and signed responses were altered during left posterior temporal-parietal stimulation. Findings are discussed in terms of the neurological organization of ASL and linguistic organization in cases of early left hemisphere damage.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Intelligibility and comprehension of time compressed sign language narratives.

A method of time compressing visual displays was devised to assess the effects of compression on the comprehension of American sign language (ASL). Two ASL narratives were visually presented to three groups of deaf ASL users. A compression group was presented narratives compressed to 50% of the duration of the normal rates. A no-compression group was presented narratives signed at normal rates. A pause groups was presented compressed narratives with blank pauses inserted so that the total time per narrative was equal to that of the no-compression versions. Following each narrative, subjects completed a written comprehension task. Comprehension in both compression and pause groups was significantly lower than in the no-compression group. Pauses did not significantly affect scores relative to compression. An additional group of deaf ASL users was presented an intelligibility task in which signs taken from the narratives were presented in isolation either with or without compression. The total number of signs correctly identified was significantly lower with compression. Decrements in comprehension were best explained as the result of cumulative decrements in sign intelligibility and not as the result of decrements in available processing time.

Deafness↗
PubMed1990

Intelligent temporal subsampling of American Sign Language using event boundaries.

How well can a sequence of frames be represented by a subset of the frames? Video sequences of American Sign Language (ASL) were investigated in two modes: dynamic (ordinary video) and static (frames printed side by side on the display). An activity index was used to choose critical frames at event boundaries, times when the difference between successive frames is at a local minimum. Sign intelligibility was measured for 32 experienced ASL signers who viewed individual signs. For full gray-scale dynamic signs activity-index subsampling yielded sequences that were significantly more intelligible than when every mth frame was chosen. This result was even more pronounced for static images. For binary images, the relative advantage of activity subsampling was smaller. We conclude that event boundaries can be defined computationally and that subsampling from event boundaries is better than choosing at regular intervals.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

When learners surpass their models: the acquisition of American Sign Language from inconsistent input.

The present study examines the impact of highly inconsistent input on language acquisition. The American deaf community provides a unique opportunity to observe children exposed to nonnative language models as their only linguistic input. This research is a detailed case study of one child acquiring his native language in such circumstances. It asks whether this child is capable of organizing a natural language out of input data that are not representative of certain natural language principles. Simon is a deaf child whose deaf parents both learned American Sign Language (ASL) after age 15. Simon's only ASL input is provided by his late-learner parents. The study examines Simon's performance at age 7 on an ASL morphology task, compared with eight children who have native signing parents, and also compared with Simon's own parents. The results show that Simon's production of ASL substantially surpasses that of his parents. Simon's parents, like other late learners of ASL, perform below adult native signing criteria, with many inconsistencies and errors in their use of ASL morphology. In contrast, Simon's performance is much more regular, and in fact on most ASL morphemes is equal to that of children exposed to a native signing model. The results thus indicate that Simon is capable of acquiring a regular and orderly morphological rule system for which his input provides only highly inconsistent and noisy data. In addition, the results provide some insight into the mechanisms by which such learning may occur. Although the ASL situation is rare, it reveals clues that may contribute to our understanding of the human capacity for language learning.

Child↗
PubMed1986

Generalization of a sign language rehearsal strategy in mentally retarded and hearing deficient children.

Memory deficits are common in mentally retarded individuals who lack verbal skills. Training in manual signing may be of value. In this study we trained a sign language rehearsal strategy so that the strategy would be used with no instructions to perform it; and assessed whether the strategy would transfer across tasks, and how to train for transfer. Subjects were five essentially nonverbal severely mentally retarded children and three essentially nonverbal deaf children. Each was trained to use a sign-rehearsal strategy in one of two memory tasks. Use of the strategy showed marked increases when children were instructed to rehearse, but showed less change when no instructions were given. Generalization to uninstructed trials was then achieved by gradually delaying the instructions. After this training, two of three children trained in a more complex task transferred uninstructed sign-rehearsal to a less complex task, but children trained in the simpler task did not generalize to the complex task.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Lexical and sentential processing in British Sign Language.

Studies of spoken and written language suggest that the perception of sentences engages the left anterior and posterior temporal cortex and the left inferior frontal gyrus to a greater extent than non-sententially structured material, such as word lists. This study sought to determine whether the same is true when the language is gestural and perceived visually. Regional neural activity was measured using functional MRI while Deaf and hearing native signers of British Sign Language (BSL) detected semantic anomalies in well-formed BSL sentences and when they detected nonsense signs in lists of unconnected BSL signs. Processing BSL sentences, when contrasted with signed lists, was reliably associated with greater activation in the posterior portions of the left middle and superior temporal gyri and in the left inferior frontal cortex, but not in the anterior temporal cortex, which was activated to a similar extent whether lists or sentences were processed. Further support for the specificity of these areas for processing the linguistic-rather than visuospatial-features of signed sentences came from a contrast of hearing native signers and hearing sign-naïve participants. Hearing signers recruited the left posterior temporal and inferior frontal regions during BSL sentence processing to a greater extent than hearing non-signers. These data suggest that these left perisylvian regions are differentially associated with sentence processing, whatever the modality of the linguistic input.

Adolescent↗