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 613 records · Page 34Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Prelingual deafness and psychiatry.

This article provides an introduction to the neglected area of psychiatry and prelingual deafness. 'Deafness' refers to prelingual profound deafness except where indicated, although many of the observations apply to some extent to prelingually partially hearing people.

Communication↗
PubMed1997

From here and now to there and then: the development of displaced reference in homesign and English.

An essential function of human language is the ability to refer to information that is spatially and temporally displaced from the location of the speaker and the listener, that is, displaced reference. This article describes the development of this function in 4 deaf children who were not exposed to a usable conventional language model and communicated via idiosyncratic gesture systems, called homesign, and in 18 hearing children who were acquiring English as a native language. Although the deaf children referred to the nonpresent much less frequently and at later ages than the hearing children, both groups followed a similar developmental path, adding increasingly abstract categories of displaced reference to their repertoires in the same sequence. Caregivers in both groups infrequently initiated displaced reference, except with respect to communication about past events. Despite the absence of a shared linguistic code, the deaf children succeeded in evoking the non-present by generating novel gestures, by modifying the context of conventional gestures, and by pragmatic means. The findings indicate that a conventional language model is not essential for children to be able to extend their communication beyond the here and now.

Child↗
PubMed1980

A simultaneous treatment comparison of three expressive language training programs with a mute autistic child.

A study was conducted in order to simultaneously compare the relative effectiveness of three different language training models (total communication sign training, nonverbal "sign-alone" training, and oral [vocal] training) for teaching expressive language skills to a 4 1/2-year-old mute autistic child. A single-subject, alternating-treatment (multielement) design with replication within subject was used to compare the rate of expressive word acquisition across training models. Results show the total communication model to be substantially superior to both oral and sign-alone training models, and place in question the theory of an intersensory integration disability to explain the success of sign language. Alternatively, the data suggest that the use of physical prompts combined with multisensory inputs provide a basis for the demonstrated success.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1985

Creative language abilities of deaf children.

The language flexibility and creativity of deaf children was investigated by having four deaf and four hearing 12-15-year-olds generate stories to experimenter-supplied themes. These were videotaped and examined for instances of nonliteral communication. Contrary to previous claims that deaf children are extremely rigid and literal in their language use, subjects here showed considerable use of creative language devices when evaluated in sign rather than vocal language. Deaf students produced traditional types of figurative contructions at a rate equal to their hearing age-mates and surpassed them in four other categories of nonliteral expression. These findings are discussed in terms of the cognitive skills required for and reflected by figurative language use and common assumptions concerning deaf children's related abilities.

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↗
PubMed2003

Communication options for children with hearing loss.

This article examines the communication options that are available for use within families of infants and young children who are hard-of-hearing or deaf. The need for language development, regardless of the specific communication mode, is stressed. The demands of the current environment of early identification and intervention often put families in a position of needing to decide among communication methods before they are fully knowledgeable and/or emotionally ready. Specific communication options are delineated and considered within a continuum of spoken and visual language. Available research related to early acquisition of language by infants and young children who are hard-of-hearing and deaf is reviewed; outcomes, when available, are presented for specific methods from reports of older children. Factors that influence families' decisions regarding the selection of a communication option are highlighted in the context of the existing literature. An ongoing evaluative process that respects the choices of families is advocated; a context in which change(s) in communication mode through childhood is viewed as a positive circumstance. The ultimate goal in the selection of any communication approach is to ensure that infants and young children who are hard of hearing or deaf and their families are language proficient and fluent communicators.

Child↗
PubMed1987

The origin of the human mind. A speculation on the emergence of language and human consciousness.

The study of human evolution has attracted scientists of various disciplines, judging by the attendance of the conferences devoted to it, and by the publications concerned. In the course of years I became amazed about the seeming absence of a synthesis of the available information. This article presents an attempt to combine some results of the various publications. The study of human evolution has become particularly focussed on the emergence of language and human consciousness with respect to the social behaviour and mental capacities of our closest relatives: the apes. Social relations imply communication, and mentation underlies the ability to communicate. The more it becomes apparent that the social behaviour of the apes resembles that of man in many respects, the greater the danger that typically, and perhaps even uniquely, human traits are ascribed to anthropoids. Anthropomorphic descriptions of animal behaviour tend to prevent a clear view on animal mentality. It will be argued that there is no direct evolutionary link between the apes' communication systems and language. Neither the language experiments, nor the speculations on the evolution of social behaviour have, so far, presented a basis for the explantation of the corresponding evolution of the neurological substrate of mentality, i.e. the central nervous system. It will be argued, instead, that language and human consciousness are rooted in a socially nonfunctional preadaptation that gave rise to their essentially independent evolution.

Animal Communication↗
PubMed1995

Mother father deaf: the heritage of difference.

Almost 90% of the children born to life-long profoundly deaf parents are hearing. Within this extraordinary family setting, hearing children of deaf parents are exposed to and interact with two differing cultural, social and linguistic systems: that of their deaf parents and the Deaf community, and that of hearing peers and adults. The present paper focuses on cultural identity and affiliation of hearing children of deaf parents--a population whose lives incorporate the paradox of being culturally 'Deaf' and yet functionally hearing. Data reported here are primarily based on interviews and life histories with 150 adult hearing children of deaf parents throughout the United States. The informants in this study provide an opportunity to explore the parameters and norms of Deaf culture as it contrasts and conflicts with those of Hearing culture.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1998

Phonological representations in deaf children: the importance of early linguistic experience.

It is argued that the development of phonological representations in deaf children does not necessarily depend on auditory speech experience, neither at the perception nor at the production level. Instead, this development depends upon early experience of an input in which all phonological contrasts are well specified, independently of input modality. This is argued on the basis of the studies investigating phonological and morpho-phonological abilities of profoundly deaf children early exposed to Cued Speech. The paper is concluded with some speculations about the effect of early exposure to CS on the development of language specific processes housed in the left-hemisphere.

Awareness↗
PubMed1977

Thinking with restricted language. A personal construct investigation of pre-lingually profoundly deaf apprentices.

By means of the deaf manual system of communication, Personal Construct grids were elicited from profoundly deaf apprentices. Contrary to expectation, the grids are not uni-dimensional, and they are as well elaborated as grids with the same supplied elements and constructs elicited from hearing subjects. Implications of the deaf subjects' grids are considered in the light of the relationship between thinking and language explored by Furth.

Adolescent↗