Editorial

Editorial "Sign language is too good for deaf people." Anne Greenberg Author of In This Sign, 1 Never Promised You a Rose Garden, Founders Praise, and other books. Mrs. Greenberg made this comment, primarily in jest, but to a significant extent as a reflection of her respect for the beauty and complexity of the language of signs. There is a certain prophetic irony to her quotation because today signs and fingerspelling are becoming increasingly important in the reading instruction of hearing children. The initial efforts at using signs with the nondeaf involved autistic youth. Success with them led to the application of both signs and fingerspelling as a remedial technique with children and adults having learning disability, aphasia, mental retardation, intellectual giftedness , psychological disturbance, and even blindness (on a tactile basis). Starting about 10 years ago, the efforts have been mushrooming, especially during the last 3 years. Clinical and research findings are yielding highly positive results. Like many other techniques of teaching reading , once the use of signs and fingerspelling proved effective with exceptional children it moved into the curriculum for regular nonhandicapped students. With them the emphasis has been on the technique as part of a reading readiness and early reading instructional program . Recent publications in widely circulated professional journals such as The Reading Teacher, Psychology Today, and the Instructor have described the value of manual communication in a regular reading program and greatly increased its use over the past 2 or 3 years. The basic rationale for method is that, used in a Total Communication framework, signs and fingerspelling offer hearing children a multisensory approach which is strongly motivating , which involves the child motorically, and which uses iconic symbols. In languages where reading symbols are iconic, reading problems are reduced. For deaf children and their families this trend is a major blessing, especially for those being mainstreamed. It means that many of the hearing children with whom they interact will know how to fingerspell and do some basic signing. Communication will be tremendously facilitated resulting in language growth and an increase in hearing-deaf peer interaction. The spread of Total Communication as part of a comprehensive reading program for hearing children, regular and exceptional, has shown such promise that a book is now being published for public school teachers wanting information on how to implement the technique (Reading and Language Arts Success Through Total Communication available from University Park Press). On television, Sesame Street and the Electric Company are featuring the National Theater of the Deaf, especially actress Linda Bove, to communicate the technique . Overall it is an exciting development for all deaf and hearing people. NTID-ANNALS TO PUBLISH SPECIAL ISSUE ON ORAL-AURAL COMMUNICATION The Annals is proud to announce an upcoming (May 1980) special Annals issue devoted exclusively to aural/oral communication. Sponsored by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, this long awaited publication will help bring Annals readers up to date on important developments in this field as they relate to deaf and hard-of-hearing people. In anticipation of strong reader interest extra copies will be printed for those wishing to order them. McCay Vernon Editor A.A.O. !February 1980 11 ...