A World of Language for Deaf Children, Part 1: Basic Principles (review)

Reviews suspicions on the part of the hearing-impaired individual that others are talking about her and dislike her; aggravated instances lead to almost paranoid behavior." The purpose of captioned films may be misunderstood by the author who cautions that "it is also desirable to use uncaptioned films to prevent lip-readers (sic) from becoming 'lazy' in this skill." A chapter on Language-Handicapped Children appears to have a misleading title as the first sentence is: "The language handicapped are more commonly referred to as bilingual." There is little to recommend the work to parents or professional workers dealing with hearing-impaired children. Harry }. Murphy, Ed.D. Administrator, Campus Services for the Deaf California State University, Northridge Northridge, Calif. 91324 A Coarticulation Manual for the Remediation of IsI, Marie A. Naughton, 49 pp., The Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., Danville, Î 1. 61832, 1979. This manual is based on the theory that coarticulation therapy is a necessary aspect of remediation for misarticulated phonemes. Coarticulation recognizes that sounds exist in combination with other sounds and not in isolation. Consequently, it contains lists of 15 "multisyllabic units" (two-word phrases) and 20 short sentences for the IsI sound "in all possible contexts ." The author recommends the manual be used as a supplement to the clinician's regular therapy plans. At first glance the manual seems to supply a great variety of word combinations for the clinician 's use. A closer look, however, reveals some unusual multisyllabic combinations, phrases that are foreign to everyday language and occassionally tongue twisters. The sentences are somewhat better, but nonetheless not something one would say in the course of a daily conversation (e.g., "Yes, Rose, I'll do"). The many abtruse phrases used combined with the innate difficulty of the high frequency IsI sound itself make the manual of little practical use to the hearing impaired. Although reading from a manual such as this is a frequently used therapy technique, there is some question about its therapeutic value and carryover into fluent speech. Many researchers feel there is a relationship between articulation problems and oral reading disabilities (Monroe, M. Children who cannot read. Chicago: University Chicago Press, 1932; and Everhart, R. The relationship between articulation and other developmental factors in children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 18, 1953) in which case reading would not be the therapy of choice. Nevertheless, if an adult or older child does not have an oral reading problem and if it is felt that reading is an appropriate therapeutic tool, this manual provides a reasonable supplement to the more standard remedial techniques. llene Voglestein, M.S. Loyola College Baltimore, Md. 21210 A World of Language for Deaf Children, Part 1: Basic Principles (Rev. 3rd ed.) Dr. A. Van Uden, 345 pp., 62.50 fl. (Dutch), Swets and Zeitlinger, Amsterdam and Lisse, 347B, Heereweg, Lisse, 1660, The Netherlands, 1977. Part 1 is the third edition of this book, first published in 1968 and previously revised in 1970. Parts 2 and 3 are in preparation. A preface by Sir Alexander Ewing suggests that the justification for a new edition is a "comprehensive and fully up-to-date review of publications in the fields of linguistics and psycholinguistics." The author indeed covers a great deal oÃ- material in those areas. Unfortunately, as so often happens when one ventures into a new field, he does not exhibit mastery of these areas. He states many hypotheses as facts, misunderstands many arguments, and ignores both developmental changes in theories and the purposes of theories. For example, he treats Naom Chomsky's theoretical works as one unified theory, when in fact they represent changes in theory, and treats them as a theory of language processing, when in fact they were not intended to be. Although the book is intended to be up to date, its coverage of linguistics and language acquisition theory is both very out of date and replete with inaccuracies. Other impediments to reading the book include the treatment of references. The text is full of long statements followed by lists of names and dates in parentheses. If one does not already know the literature, it is impossible to know what ideas are being attributed to...