Manual Signs Research Articles

Manual Signing in Adults With Intellectual Disability: Influence of Sign Characteristics on Functional Sign Vocabulary

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of sign characteristics in a key word signing (KWS) system on the functional use of those signs by adults with intellectual disability (ID). All 507 signs from a Flemish KWS system were characterized in terms of phonological, iconic, and referential characteristics. Phonological and referential characteristics were assigned to the signs by speech-language pathologists. The iconicity (i.e., transparency, guessing the meaning of the sign; and translucency, rating on a 6-point scale) of the signs were tested in 467 students. Sign functionality was studied in 119 adults with ID (mean mental age of 50.54 months) by means of a questionnaire, filled out by a support worker. A generalized linear model with a negative binomial distribution (with log-link) showed that semantic category was the factor with the strongest influence on sign functionality, with grammatical class, referential concreteness, and translucency also playing a part. No sign phonological characteristics were found to be of significant influence on sign use. The meaning of a sign is the most important factor regarding its functionality (i.e., whether a sign is used in everyday communication). Phonological characteristics seem only of minor importance.

Los signos manuales como sistema de comunicación alternativa y aumentativa. Artículo de revisión

Hay una larga tradición científica sobre el uso de los signos manuales de manera simultánea a la lengua oral para promover el desarrollo de la comunicación y el lenguaje en niños con o sin discapacidad. Este artículo tiene como objetivo revisar y analizar trabajos de intervención centrados en el uso de signos manuales como sistema de comunicación aumentativa (AAC) en participantes oyentes. Se han utilizado diversos criterios para delimitar la búsqueda, selección, codificación y síntesis de los 50 artículos científicos originales que finalmente han formado parte de la revisión. Se han incluido estudios publicados desde 1970 hasta la actualidad, nacionales e internacionales, en lengua inglesa y española, utilizando búsquedas mediante palabras clave en bases de datos bibliográficas, en motores de búsqueda (Google Académico) y en citas bibliográficas. La información obtenida mediante los artículos científicos seleccionados ha puesto de manifiesto que, a pesar de la diversidad en cuanto a resultados, el uso de los signos como sistema de comunicación aumentativo es efectivo para mejorar el desarrollo del lenguaje, en el aspecto receptivo y expresivo.

Acquisition, Preference, and Follow-up Data on the Use of Three AAC Options by Four Boys with Developmental Disability/Delay

We compared how quickly four boys with developmental disability/delay learned to use manual signing (MS), picture exchange (PE), and a speech-generating device (SGD) to request the continuation of toy play. Opportunities to choose to use MS, PE, and SGD were included to determine if the boys showed a preference for using one of these options. Follow-up sessions occurred at 12, 15, and 18 months post-intervention. With intervention, three of the four participants learned to use each option, but one child only learned to use PE. Trials to criterion across children ranged from 22 to 28 for the SGD, from 12 to 60 for PE, and from 21 to 64 trials for MS. For the three participants who reached criterion with each AAC system, maintenance results were best for PE and SGD. Preference assessments during follow-up showed that participants most often chose the SGD, indicating a preference for that option. The findings suggest there may be value in assessing a child’s preference for different AAC options as part of the post-intervention follow-up process.

Nonmanuals in Sign Language ed. by Annika Herrmann, Markus Steinbach (review)

Nonmanuals in Sign Language, edited by Annika Herrmann and Markus Steinbach (Philadelphia: Benjamins, 2013,203 pp., hardcover, $128.00, ISBN 9789027202727)Sign linguistics research has traditionally focused on the actions of the hands and arms during signing. The head, eyes, mouth, and body are referred to in the sign language literature as nonmanual articulators. Most researchers have assumed that the hands produce lexical content during signing and the nonmanual articulators produce prosodic or intonational content.The new volume Nonmanuals in Sign Language, edited by Annika Herrmann and Markus Steinbach, originates from a conference at the University of Frankfurt am Main in 2009. The work includes original papers with a range of theoretical and methodological approaches. Additionally, it includes analyses of multiple sign languages, specifically American Sign Language (ASL), Turkish Sign Language (TID), Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL), German Sign Language (DGS), and British Sign Language (BSL). Although the languages, research questions, and theoretical approaches vary, several common themes run throughout the volume, including the multifunctionality of nonmanuals, the development of nonmanuals from autochthonous nonlinguistic gestures, and the interface between nonmanuals and syntax, semantics, and morphology.Many of the papers focus on syntax and analyze nonmanuals as indices of linguistic scope or constituent structure. For example, Churng extends past research on ASL nonmanuals and i^/z-questions to examine sentences with multiple w/i-questions (e.g., Where are you going and why?). Churng does not describe the form or structure of the nonmanuals in detail except to say that shoulder shift, lowered brows, and head thrust are associated with conjoined elements, wh-marking, and focus marking, respectively. Based on grammaticality and meaning judgments by ASL consultants, she concludes that ASL prosody is sensitive to syntax and that nonmanuals can be analyzed to uncover derivational history.Gokgoz also focuses on syntax, but the author examines negation markers in TID based on narrative and conversational data. Past research suggests that TID relies primarily on manual signs for negation, but Gokgoz proposes that the full range of nonmanual correlates of negation had not been considered.The nonmanual negation markers that he documents for TID include backward head tilt, headshake, single head turn, brow raising, and brow lowering. He suggests that the last four of these are syntactic but that backward head tilt accompanies only specific lexical signs.Hosemann describes an empirical study of eye gaze and verb agreement in DGS, which attempts to replicate a similar study by Thompson, Emmorey, and Kluender (2006). Based on eye-tracking data, she finds that eye gaze is related to verb agreement but that a high degree of variability in gaze patterns exists across signers. Like most experimental sign language research, this study is somewhat limited by its small sample size, particularly in light of the intersubject variability. Nonetheless, it makes an important contribution by replicating an earlier study in a different sign language and by adding to the body of empirical sign-production data.Lewin and Schembri's chapter is unique in that it investigates a mouth gesture, which raises issues about the relationship of sign to speech and of sign to nonlinguistic gesture. In particular, the researchers examine tongue protrusion in BSL, based on narrative data from two signers. The researchers suggest that the th gesture has more functions in BSL than had previously been recognized. Lewin and Schembri emphasize that th mouth gestures are distinct in ASL and BSL.This is noteworthy because it illustrates that mouth gestures are not universal in their form or meaning. Moreover, this demonstrates that mouth gestures need not be derived from speech sounds.Sze examines nonmanual markers of topic constructions in HKSL based on conversational and narrative data. …

Augmentative and Alternative Communication for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability are candidates for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). We review two current trends in AAC research involving persons with ASD and intellectual disability. The first trend is the use of smartphone and tablet devices in AAC interventions. The second trend is the direct comparison of the relative efficacy of differing AAC options, for example comparing the use of manual signs versus picture-based communication systems versus speech-generating devices. Studies in the first group suggest that this new technology can be effectively used in AAC intervention. Studies in the latter group have found differences in how quickly some individuals have learned to use different options and differences in preference for the various options. These research trends suggest a possible new direction for AAC intervention that incorporates aspects of self-determination.

Comparing acquisition of and preference for manual signs, picture exchange, and speech-generating devices in nine children with autism spectrum disorder

Objective: To compare how quickly children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) acquired manual signs, picture exchange, and an iPad®/iPod®-based speech-generating device (SGD) and to compare if children showed a preference for one of these options.Method: Nine children with ASD and limited communication skills received intervention to teach requesting preferred stimuli using manual signs, picture exchange, and a SGD. Intervention was evaluated in a non-concurrent multiple-baseline across participants and alternating treatments design.Results: Five children learned all three systems to criterion. Four children required fewer sessions to learn the SGD compared to manual signs and picture exchange. Eight children demonstrated a preference for the SGD.Conclusion: The results support previous studies that demonstrate children with ASD can learn manual signs, picture exchange, and an iPad®/iPod®-based SGD to request preferred stimuli. Most children showed a preference for the SGD. For some children, acquisition may be quicker when learning a preferred option.

Acquisition and generalization of key word signing by three children with autism

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of Key Word Sign (KWS) intervention on the acquisition and generalization of manual signing among three children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and to measure any changes in their production of spoken words and gestures following intervention.Methods: A multiple baseline single-case experimental design was used to measure changes for each of the three children.Results: All three children began using signs following the introduction of the KWS intervention, and generalized their use of some signs across activities. The introduction of the intervention was associated with either neutral, or statistically significantly positive, changes in the children’s production of spoken words and natural gestures.Conclusion: The results provide preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of KWS for preschool children with ASD, which parents, therapists, and educators can use to inform clinical practice.

Prompt delay and vocal prompting may increase vocal responses in children with developmental disabilities

This review provides a summary and appraisal commentary on the treatment review by Carbone, V. J., Sweeney-Kerwin, E. J., Attanasio, V., & Kasper, T. (2010). Increasing the vocal responses of children with autism and developmental disabilities using manual sign mand training and prompt delay. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 43, 705–709.Source of funding and disclosure of interest: Funding was not reported. No conflicts of interests were reported.

Comparing communication systems for individuals with developmental disabilities: A review of single-case research studies

Studies that have compared different communication systems for individuals with developmental disabilities were systematically reviewed in an effort to provide information useful for clinical decision making and directions for future research. Specifically, 28 studies that compared (a) non-electronic picture systems to speech generating devices, (b) aided AAC (e.g. picture exchange systems and SGDs) to unaided AAC systems (manual sign), or (c) AAC to speech-language interventions were included in this review. Dependent variables forming the basis for comparison included: (a) effectiveness (e.g. acquisition of systems and/or rate of use), (b) efficiency or rate of skill acquisition (c) participants' preference for systems, (d) occurrence of vocalizations and problem behavior, and (e) generalization across communication partners, settings, and time (i.e. maintenance). Results suggest that clear and consistent differences between communication systems are rare, precluding definitive statements regarding a universal best approach for all people with developmental disabilities. Instead, findings of this review support the consideration of an individual's existing skills, goals and preferences as part of the process of selecting an approach to communication.

Preference-Enhanced Communication Intervention and Development of Social Communicative Functions in a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who exhibit limited speech can learn to communicate using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. We describe the case of Ian, a 10-year-old boy with ASD who had learned to use an Apple iPod®- and iPad®-based speech-generating device (SGD)Note 1, picture exchange (PE), and manual signing (MS) for functional communication (e.g., requesting), but had difficulty in using these AAC systems for spontaneous and socially oriented functions of communication. His difficulties were originally conceptualized as reflecting the social interaction and communication deficits characteristic of ASD. Alternatively, we suggest that the intervention did not allow for the development of more advanced communication. A preference-enhanced intervention was introduced with Ian’s chosen AAC system only, that is the iPad®-based SGD. Opportunities for communication were created using highly motivating activities and behavioral strategies. Results suggest that the approach facilitated development of spontaneous and socially oriented communication.

Effective training of manual signs without physical prompts and the potential for overgeneralization of mands across reinforcers for challenging behavior

This review provides a summary and appraisal commentary on the treatment review by Falcomata, T. S., Wacker, D. P., Ringdahl, J. E., Vinquist, K., & Dutt, A. (2013). An evaluation of generalization of mands during functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 46, 444–454.Source of funding and disclosure of interests. No source of funding was indicated, nor were any interests declared.

Prediction, events, and the advantage of Agents: The processing of semantic roles in visual narrative

Agents consistently appear prior to Patients in sentences, manual signs, and drawings, and Agents are responded to faster when presented in visual depictions of events. We hypothesized that this "Agent advantage" reflects Agents' role in event structure. We investigated this question by manipulating the depictions of Agents and Patients in preparatory actions in wordless visual narratives. We found that Agents elicited a greater degree of predictions regarding upcoming events than Patients, that Agents are viewed longer than Patients, independent of serial order, and that visual depictions of actions are processed more quickly following the presentation of an Agent vs. a Patient. Taken together these findings support the notion that Agents initiate the building of event representation. We suggest that Agent First orders facilitate the interpretation of events as they unfold and that the saliency of Agents within visual representations of events is driven by anticipation of upcoming events.

Teaching Multi-Step Requesting and Social Communication to Two Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders with Three AAC Options

The present study involved comparing the acquisition of multi-step requesting and social communication across three AAC options: manual signing (MS), picture exchange (PE), and speech-generating devices (SGDs). Preference for each option was also assessed. The participants were two children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who had previously been taught to use each option to request preferred items. Intervention was implemented in an alternating-treatments design. During baseline, participants demonstrated low levels of correct communicative responding. With intervention, both participants learned the target responses (two- and three-step requesting responses, greetings, answering questions, and social etiquette responses) to varying levels of proficiency with each communication option. One participant demonstrated a preference for using the SGD and the other preferred PE. The importance of examining preferences for using one AAC option over others is discussed.

Turn-taking in Brazilian Sign Language

This study investigates the interactional skills of fluent sign language users, with special attention to contexts of overlapping talk. Data from semi-spontaneous conversations were analyzed from the video record, transcribed in ELAN, with tiers for non-manual signals and with a ‘gesture phase’ analysis of manual signs. Results show that signers closely coordinate their contributions in accordance with the sequential implicativeness of gesture phases. They deploy conventional resources similar to those described for spoken languages to resolve overlap quickly and efficiently. We show that signers, like speakers of oral languages, orient to ‘one party talks at a time’, and that the management of talk-in-interaction is achieved within a tightly organized system which includes resources traditionally associated with the ‘linguistic’, ‘paralinguistic/prosodic’, and ‘kinetic/gestural’ domains, thus possibly contributing to investigations of explicitly ad hoc and multimodal forms of communication and eventually to a reevaluation of what might legitimately be termed ‘talk’.

AN EVALUATION OF GENERALIZATION OF MANDS DURING FUNCTIONAL COMMUNICATION TRAINING

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the generalization of mands during functional communication training (FCT) and sign language training across functional contexts (i.e., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement). A secondary purpose was to evaluate a training procedure based on stimulus control to teach manual signs. During the treatment evaluation, we implemented sign language training in 1 functional context (e.g., positive reinforcement by attention) while continuing the functional analysis conditions in 2 other contexts (e.g., positive reinforcement by tangible item; negative reinforcement by escape). During the generalization evaluation, we tested for the generalization of trained mands across functional contexts (i.e., positive reinforcement; negative reinforcement) by implementing extinction in the 2 nontarget contexts. The results suggested that the stimulus control training procedure effectively taught manual signs and treated destructive behavior. Specific patterns of generalization of trained mands and destructive behavior also were observed.

Alignment of two languages: The spreading of mouthings in Sign Language of the Netherlands

Mouthings and mouth gestures are omnipresent in Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT). Mouthings in NGT are mouth actions that have their origin in spoken Dutch, and are usually time aligned with the signs they co-occur with. Frequently, however, they spread over one or more adjacent signs, so that one mouthing co-occurs with multiple manual signs. We conducted a corpus study to explore how frequently this occurs in NGT and whether there is any sociolinguistic variation in the use of spreading. Further, we looked at the circumstances under which spreading occurs. Answers to these questions may give us insight into the prosodic structure of sign languages. We investigated a sample of the Corpus NGT containing 5929 mouthings by 46 participants. We found that spreading over an adjacent sign is independent of social factors. Further, mouthings that spread are longer than non-spreading mouthings, whether measured in syllables or in milliseconds. By using a relatively large amount of natural data, we succeeded in gaining more insight into the way mouth actions are utilised in sign languages.

Comparing Acquisition of Exchange-Based and Signed Mands With Children With Autism

Therapists and educators frequently teach alternative-communication systems, such as picture exchanges or manual signs, to individuals with developmental disabilities who present with expressive language deficits. Michael (1985) recommended a taxonomy for alternative communication systems that differentiated between selection-based systems in which each response is topographically identical (e.g., card selection and exchange systems) and topography-based systems in which each response is topographically distinct (e.g., signed language). We compared the efficiency of training picture exchanges and signs with 3 participants who presented with severe language deficits; all participants acquired the picture-exchange responses more readily.

Parents’ Mode of Communication with Their Hearing Impaired Children in Gweru Urban

The study sought to establish the mode of communication used by parents with their hearing impaired children. A qualitative interpretive research methodology was adopted. Data was collected from Gweru Urban District in Zimbabwe. The population comprised of visually impaired pupils attending school at Jairos Jiri and their parents. The researchers used purposive sampling or availability sampling to come up with 20 parents and 20 children. The study observed that parents struggle to communicate with their hearing impaired childr en hence some parents end up using gestures, facial expression, pointing, touching and other manual signs tha t are not recognised in trying to communicate with their children. The study also established that hearing par ents and guardians use Total Communication as a mode of communication with their hearing impaired children.

The Mute’s Voice: The Dramatic Transformations of the Mute and Deaf-Mute in Early-Nineteenth-Century France

What does the mute have to tell us? In France at the end of the eighteenth and the start of the nineteenth centuries, this question propelled some important early melodramas, including Guilbert de Pixerecourt's Coelina ou l'Enfant du mystere (Coelina, or the child of mystery) (1800) and Jean-Nicolas Bouilly's LIAbbe de l'Epee (1799), with the secrets harbored by the mute character being central to the play's resolution. Outside the theater, in classrooms, hospitals, and institutions, this question also challenged pedagogues and philosophers who sought to determine just what kind of consciousness lay within the so-called deaf and dumb. The deaf-mute's social identity also performed important symbolic work in late-eighteenth-century France, as representative of those exiled from power and citizenship who were being welcomed into the new national community. This blend of the theatrical, pedagogical, and sociocultural significance of the deaf-mute is nowhere more apparent than in Bouilly's play L!Abbe de l'Epee, a dramatization of an episode from twenty-five years earlier in which the Abbe Charles-Michel de l'Epee, renowned his work in teaching the deaf and dumb to communicate through manual sign language, embarked a quest to have an abandoned deaf-mute adolescent recognized as the deposed Comte de Solar and returned to his rightful social position. Just as this play was drawing Parisian audiences, the capture of a feral in the woods of Aveyron, followed by his transfer to Paris to be examined by the leading intellects of the day, posed a similar set of questions: Who is this mute, and what can he tell us? The quickly became a subject speculation and appropriation in journals and stage, and the language and imagery of the theater, in return, exerted its influence scientific and philosophical observations, weaving with them to shape the way in which he was to be perceived by his contemporaries.This essay develops a perspective informed by studies to track the literary and social significance of the mute and muteness in Bouilly's play and in the world outside the theater in France at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Bouilly's UAbbe de i'Epee offers a unique site of tension between modes of representing the mute, thanks to its ostensibly realistic portrayal of a thinly veiled historical deaf-mute individual, the Comte de Solar, and his teacher and patron, the Abbe de l'Epee.1 The narratives around the mute wild boy captured in Aveyron and brought to Paris early in 1800 express the immediate impact of literary and theatrical discourses in shaping a popular understanding of the kind of difference embodied by the feral child, who was to become the subject of an extended and influential philosophical and educational experiment conducted by Jean Itard. Juxtaposed, Bouilly's play and Itard's reports his pedagogical progress with the can be seen to share significant features, including a concern with the place of the mute in society and the presentation of the teacher as heroic advocate of the disadvantaged. But we can also catch glimpses of literary, especially theatrical, in Itard's portrayal of his boy.My primary interest is in the relationship between the theatrical representations of muteness and that muteness-often combined with deafness-that existed outside of the theater, in the towns and villages of France. David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder argue that disability pervades literary narrative, first, as a stock feature of characterization, and second, as an opportunistic metaphorical device.2 Coining the term narrative prosthesis to point to how literary narratives lean on imagery for their representational power, disruptive potentiality, and analytical insight,3 they argue that disability characterization can be understood as a prosthetic contrivance upon which so many of our cultural and literary narratives rely. …

A Review on 3D Signing Avatars

Signing avatars are becoming common thanks to their potential to improve deaf education. These 3D animated characters are able to perform manual and non-manual signs. As they tap the natural skills...