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PubMed1979

Teaching autistic children to use sign language: some research issues.

Three questions are raised with respect to the use of sign language as an alternative system of communication for nonverbal autistic children. First, does teaching a child to sign facilitate speech development? The data suggest that following simultaneous communication training, mute children are not likely to learn to talk; however, a combination of simultaneous communication training and separate vocal training may have a synergetic effect on speech development. In contrast, children who initially have good verbal imitation skills apparently show gains in speech following simultaneous communication training alone. Second, what is the upper limit of sign acquisition? Data suggest that abstract concepts, syntax, and generative skills can be taught. Procedures used in the operant conditioning of speech may prove useful in training complex signing skills. Third, does sign acquisition result in a general improvement in adaptive functioning? It appears that following sign training, some children do show increases in spontaneous communication, decreases in self-stimulatory behavior, and improvement in social skills. However, these outcomes are often difficult to interpret. Some data are described that help clarify the relationship between sign training and general behavioral improvement.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1991

Communication profiles of two types of gesture using nonverbal persons with severe to profound mental retardation.

A structured communication sampling procedure was used to measure the form and function characteristics of intentional communication acts produced by nonverbal adults with severe mental retardation. Four "contact" subjects (who communicated only with contact gestures) and 4 "distal" subjects (who used distal as well as contact gestures) participated in this study. All subjects produced communication acts that were coded as initiations, and all subjects produced protoimperative-type communication acts. However, contact subjects produced no protodeclarative-type communication acts, whereas all distal subjects produced some protodeclaratives. Distal subjects also produced significantly more repair/recast acts than did contact subjects. Other findings included a tendency for distal subjects to communicate at a higher rate, to initiate more communication acts, and to produce more accompanying wordlike vocalizations than contact subjects. These results are discussed in light of Werner and Kaplan's (1984) concept of distancing as central to symbolization. Implications for future research and for clinical practice are also discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1985

Signs of intelligence in cross-fostered chimpanzees.

In cross-fostering, the young of one species are reared by adults of another, as in the classical ethological studies of imprinting and song-learning. In our laboratory, infant chimpanzees were reared under human conditions that included two-way communication in American Sign Language (A.S.L.), the gestural language of the deaf in North America. A large body of evidence from five chimpanzees demonstrated stage by stage replication of basic aspects of the acquisition of speech and signs by hearing and deaf children. Here we review evidence that, under double-blind conditions: (i) the chimpanzees communicated information in A.S.L. to human observers; (ii) independent human observers agreed in their identification of the chimpanzee signs, (iii) the chimpanzees could use the signs to refer to natural language categories: DOG for any dog, FLOWER for any flower, SHOE for any shoe.

Animals↗

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↗

PubMed1983

The use of nonvocal communication techniques with autistic individuals.

Studies reporting the use of sign languages and symbol systems with autistic children and young people are reviewed. The studies suggest that signs and symbols can be used in communication by individuals who are above and below the age of five, mute and mentally handicapped. The communication skills developed may, in some cases, be complex, and speech may develop in the context of sign or symbol programmes. However, problems concerned with the description of subjects, methods and outcome of studies mean that many conclusions can only be supported tentatively by existing data.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Augmentative communication systems taught to cerebral-palsied children--a longitudinal study. III. Teaching practices and exposure to sign and symbol use in schools and homes.

A longitudinal study of augmentative communication training with 40 language-impaired, cerebral-palsied children examined the teaching practices adopted in schools, and the extent to which teachers and parents used the augmentative systems with the children. The study found limited exposure to sign and symbol training in formal teaching sessions and in other school settings, and teachers made relatively few attempts to foster spontaneous use of the systems and generalisation outside of formal training settings. Exposure to augmentative communication in the children's homes was equally limited, and a significant number of parents expressed reservations about the value of the systems for their children. These findings may at least partly account for the children's limited progress in sign and symbol acquisition and use over an 18-month period, which was documented in two earlier reports.

Attitude↗

PubMed2004

The effects of simultaneous communication on production and perception of speech.

This article reviews experiments completed over the past decade at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the State University of New York at Geneseo concerning speech produced during simultaneous communication (SC) and synthesizes the empirical evidence concerning the acoustical and perceptual characteristics of speech in SC. Comparisons are drawn between SC and other modes of rate-altered speech that have been used successfully to enhance communication effectiveness. Of particular importance are conclusions regarding the appropriateness of speech produced during SC for communication between hearing and hearing-impaired speakers and listeners and the appropriateness of SC use by parents and teachers for speech development of children with hearing impairment. This program of systematic basic research adds value to the discussion about the use of SC by focusing on the specific implications of empirical results regarding speech production and perception.

Deafness↗

PubMed1988

Cues-pause-point training and simultaneous communication to teach the use of signed labeling repertoires.

We taught two mentally retarded students who communicated by signing to answer questions with signed labels and evaluated the generalized effects of this training on their correct responding to untrained questions. The students received cues-pause-point training on one question set followed by generalization assessments on a different set in other settings. Periodic probes were conducted on two novel question sets in other settings to determine further the strength and spread of any generalization effects. A multiple baseline across-subjects design revealed that the students' incorrect signing was replaced with correct responding in the training and all generalization sets. These results replicate and extend previous research and suggest that cues-pause-point procedures can be useful in teaching students to use their manual signing repertoires.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1981

A strategy for research on the use of nonvocal systems of communication.

This paper discusses problems with current research on the use of nonvocal communication systems with special reference to the severely and profoundly mentally retarded. A strategy for research, designed to provide a method whereby critical practical and theoretical issues can be isolated, is described. The approach involves surveys of use, development of procedures for assessment and program monitoring, the development of teaching methods for use with neglected groups, and experimental investigations of the interaction of system variables and subject characteristics. The strategy is illustrated with examples from ongoing research.

Child↗

PubMed1976

Acquisition of American sign language by a noncommunicating autistic child.

Experiments in the perception and language abilities of autistic children indicate that the children have auditory-visual association problems. These findings, combined with the findings that autistic communication is primarily gestural, led to the teaching of elements of American Sign Language to a 5-year-old nonverbal autistic boy. Results after 20 hours of training indicate that the child did acquire signs, that increasing signing led to increasing vocal speech, and that the child has rudimentary English syntax. The use of Ameslan signs spontaneously generalized to other situations and the training resulted in increased social interaction.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed1976

Sign language acquisition in a mute autistic boy.

A mute autistic boy learned to communicate extensively through American Sign Language. Over a six-month period he produced many spontaneous signs and sign combinations, and analyses of child's sign combinations indicated the presence of a full range of semantic relations. Further evidence of conceptual progress was provided by the child's increased score on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. In addition, parents' and teacher's reports indicated that the child's social behavior improved. The extent of the boy's linguistic progress and associated improvement in social behavior markedly exceeds that usually reported for mute autistic children.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed1979

Language: perspectives from another modality.

Human languages have been forged in auditory-vocal channels throughout evolution. This paper examines the formal properties of a communication system that has developed in the absence of speech: the sign language of the deaf. The objective is to investigate to what extent the overall form and organization of language is determined by the articulatory and perceptual modality in which it has developed (its transmission system) and to what extent its form and organization represent more fundamental aspects of the human mind (intellect). Experimental and linguistic evidence is brought to bear on the analysis of the sign: studies of coding and processing of signs in memory; of slips of the hand; of historical change in signs over time; the heightened use of language in poetry and wit. American Sign Language differs dramatically from English and other spoken languages in the mechanisms by which its lexical units are modified. For the form of its morphological processes, the mode in which the language develops appears to make a crucial difference. Finally, the issue of cerebral specialization with respect to a visual-manual language is addressed.

Dominance, Cerebral↗

PubMed1981

Nonauditory suffix effects in congenitally deaf signers of American Sign Language.

A series of unordered recall tasks was administered to groups of congenitally deaf subjects for whom American Sign Language (ASL) is the principal means of communication. A suffix effect was observed when an ASL sign was suffixed to a list of ASL signs (Experiment 1), and when a line drawing of an ASL sign was suffixed to a list of line drawings of ASL signs (Experiment 3). The suffix effect was a diminished magnitude when a printed English word was suffixed to a list of printed words (Experiment 2). The findings of Experiment 1 and 3 argue conclusively against the suffix effect resulting solely from sensory store differences. Additionally, the results of Experiment 3 argue conclusively against explanation of the effect as arising solely from differences in the processing of "static" versus "changing-state" input.

Deafness↗

PubMed1984

Sign language as a communication prosthesis with language-impaired children.

Many language-impaired children rely on telegraphic speech for expression. Functors such as prepositions and pronouns are mostly absent from their utterances. In an experimental analogue to clinical work, 14 3- to 11-year-old children with various levels of language impairment were exposed to drawings portraying a single scene. A meaningful sentence including either a pronoun or a preposition, which the children were not spontaneously using at pretesting, was associated with each drawing. Training the children to use the functors followed one of two approaches. The experimenter either vocalized the functor, or she vocalized and signed it. Results revealed that, for both functor acquisition and functor recall, speech and sign training was superior to speech training. Type of functor trained was also important, with prepositions faring better than pronouns. Reasons for this speech facilitation through signs, and issues related to implementation, are discussed.

Child↗

PubMed1984

A discussion of apraxia, aphasia, and gestural language.

It is understood that damage to the left cerebral hemisphere in adulthood may result in syndromes of language disturbances called the aphasias. The study of these syndromes sheds light on normal language processes, the relationship between language behavior and the brain, and how best to treat aphasic individuals. Aphasia, for some, is a central communication disorder affecting all symbolic behavior in all modalities (i.e., speech, writing, and gesture). Difficulty producing symbolic gestures on command is called apraxia. Others view aphasia as a manifestation of a motor-sequencing disorder affecting all gestural systems including those required for speech movements. These divergent theories of the underlying nature of aphasia can be tested through examination of deaf individuals who use sign language before onset of aphasia. Poizner et al. [Am. J. Physiol. 246 (Regulatory Integrative Comp. Physiol. 15): R868-R883, 1984] studied three such patients with different aphasia syndromes: one patient had a nonsymbolic, motor-sequencing disorder; one had a gestural apraxia; and one had neither. These findings force the conclusion that neither the symbolic nor motor-sequencing theory of aphasia can account for the many varieties of that disorder.

Aphasia↗

PubMed1983

Acquisition of sign language by autistic children. II: Spontaneity and generalization effects.

Autistic children typically do not use their language repertoire in order to communicate. Six autistic children who exhibited poor communication skills were trained to use their sign repertoire to make spontaneous requests of adults. Training consisted of imitative prompting, fading, and differential reinforcement, and included aspects of incidental teaching. The children displayed an increase in the rate and variety of spontaneous sign requests (Experiment 1). Generalization of spontaneity across adults (Experiments 1 and 2) and settings (Experiment 2) was also observed. We suggest that spontaneity may be facilitated when language is brought under the control of broadly defined stimuli such as adult attention rather than narrowly defined stimuli such as the presence of specific objects or verbal prompting in the form of questions. Finally, response generalization was observed as well (Experiment 1). Specifically, as spontaneity increased, self-stimulatory behavior decreased. This result may be accounted for in terms of reinforcer competition, reinforcer consistency, or discriminative stimulus effects.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1988

Language training with autistic children using four different modes of presentation.

The purpose of this study was to determine (1) whether comprehension, production, and spontaneous use of language are greater following language training by sign-alone, speech-alone, simultaneous communication, or alternating between speech and sign; (2) whether high- and low-verbal imitators benefit from the same mode of treatment; and (3) whether retention of the language skills differs among the four training conditions. Subjects were 60 moderate to severe autistic children randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions. Subjects were divided into high- and low-verbal imitators based on verbal imitation performances. The results indicated that the high-verbal imitators did equally well in all four treatment conditions, while the low-verbal imitators did poorest in the speech-alone condition. The high-verbal imitators performed better than did the low-verbal imitators in all of the treatment conditions. Words or signs learned were retained for three months after treatment regardless of the treatment condition or level of imitative ability. The results were discussed in terms of the efficacy of using sign language with autistic children.

Autistic Disorder↗

PubMed1978

Development of communicative behavior in autistic children: a parent program using manual signs.

Mothers of four 6- and 7-year-old autistic classmates were taught to use manual signs for verbalizations to aid development of appropriate communicative behavior and to deter undesirable behavior in their children. The experimental treatment was initiated in a daily mother-child laboratory session using a multiple-baseline design across subjects. The preschool classroom program remained unchanged. Data were recorded for each child daily over a 5-week period, in the classroom and in a mother-child session, on four types of communicative behavior and four types of inappropriate behavior. Communicative behaviors increased and inappropriate behaviors decreased in relation to baseline conditions for each child. The manual sign program facilitated generalization of communicative behavior to the child's total environment. Desirable behaviors were maintained and had improved in the classroom 3 months after initiation of the program.

Autistic Disorder↗