A Sensory Motor Program For Language Delayed Children (review)

Reviews Adult Basic Education for the Deaf, Janice Honig and Judy Jonas, 186 pp., $5.00, Fair Lawn Community School, P.O. Box 8, Fair Lawn, N.J. 07410. This spiral-bound document, developed through a grant from the New Jersey Bureau of Adult Continuing and Community Education, not only describes a very commendable local level adult basic education program for deaf adults and out-of-school youth, it also provides guidelines and helpful hints for implementation of such programs elsewhere. The program described has been conducted in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, since 1978 under the auspices of the Fair Lawn Community School. Both the authors have deaf family members, and both have advanced degrees in professional areas relating to deafness. This combination of life experience and training is reflected in two well-written introductory chapters, one giving information on the effect of deafness, the other providing a suitable overview of adult basic education methods. The book generously shares materials used by the Fair Lawn Community School in program promotion, student recruitment, and diagnostic testing. The appendices include sample materials used in ABE classes. An analysis is made of various texts and teaching materials in general use, with an eye to their appropriateness for hearing-impaired adults with minimal language skills. Thomas A. Mayes, Ph.D. Vice President Division of Public Services Gallaudet College Washington, D.C. 20002 son, Heather Hewitt, and Robert James Last (Eds.), 126 pp., $12.00, Burwood State College, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, 3125, Victoria, Australia, 1980. This monograph consists primarily of a program of activities or tasks designed to improve children's motor and perceptual-motor skills. The program's theoretical base is Newell Kephart's notion that certain motor and perceptual -motor skills underlie many of the readiness skills that the preschool child should acquire. The activities or tasks presented are largely the product of the efforts by the teachers and staff at a center for hearing-impaired preschoolers. One resulting advantage here is that the space and equipment needs for the proposed activities are relatively minimal and would likely be found in other preschool program centers. At the same time, it should be pointed out that the book is written from the perspective that spoken language, rather than a sign language, will be the child's principal means of communication. The book is divided into six chapters: body image, space and direction, basic body movement , balance, eye-hand coordination, and rhythm. Each of the chapters contains a program of activities designed to foster improved motor or perceptual-motor skills in the specific area. In most cases, the order of activities within a chapter are arranged in order of the increasing complexity of the task and the language used. Overall, the activities presented appeared that they would be both challenging and enjoyable for most preschoolers. The book will be of interest principally to teachers and staff members of preschool programs, especially to those individuals affiliated with speech-oriented preschool programs for the hearing impaired. A Sensory Motor Program For Language Delayed Children, The Staff of Monnington Special Education Centre (Contributing Authors) and Pamela L. IverJohn D. Bonviltian, Ph.D. University of Virginia Charlottesville, Va. 22901 738 A.A.D. I October 1982 ...