The Other Side of Silence: Sign Language and the Deaf Community in America (review)

Reviews ply handicapped children is one that has not previously been addressed as well or as clearly. Linda Taconis, M.S. Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind Talladega, Alabama 35160 The Other Side of Silence: Sign Language and the Deaf Community in America, Arden Neisser, 301 pp., $15.95, Alfred A. Knopf, 201 East 50th Street, New York, NY 10022, 1983. Rarely does a novice to the American deaf community command such insight as Ms. Neisser displays in this work. Attempting to present the deaf community's point of view regarding sign language, she has weaved her story with interviews from a variety of individuals across the country. Her frank analyses of the complexities , contradictions and paradoxes rampant in the use and abuse of American Sign Language are refreshing. However, the book is offset by glib remarks and questionable conclusions: "MSSD is one of the supreme comic-tragedies of deaf education" (p. 136); "NTID ... there was a great discrepancy between the stated aims and the actual accomplishments of the institution, a gap that was filled by indifference and jargon" (p. 192). These are strong words for observations based on oneday visits, especially from someone who admittedly does not sign nor has any affiliation with the deaf community. Yet, the chapters on sign language linguistics (for example, "Signs and Science" and "Apeing Sign Language") are well researched and more than make up for the few weaknesses in the book. For all these reasons, it is necessary reading for deaf studies aficionados. David L. de Lorenzo, M. A. Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Gallaudet College Washington, DC 20002 Great Deaf Americans, Robert Panara and John Panara, 145 pp., $8.95, paperback, TJ. Publishers, 817 Silver Spring Ave., 305-D, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 1983. This book fulfills a long-awaited need for teachers of junior high and high school level students . The book will expose deaf students to an appreciation of their own culture. It also will serve as an invaluable resource for young parents with hearing-impaired children who need to be assured that they are not alone in "overcoming " the communication barrier. Greai Deaf Americans presents success stories of 33 deaf people in the United States who have turned their deafness into a challenge. This book is ideal for classroom teaching because the stories are arranged chronologically from Laurent Clerc, the first deaf teacher, to Lou Ferrigno, the Incredible Hulk, and is designed for deaf students with high reading skills. The unique and challenging feature of the book is that it was almost entirely produced by deaf persons—one of the authors, the illustrator, the typist, and the publisher. The book was also dedicated to and introduced by deaf persons. This book surely will give the deaf community a new self-image and will also provide new hope for parents of young hearing-impaired children. Donna Drake Supervising Teacher Florida School for the Deaf and Blind St. Augustine, Florida 32084 Speech and Language: Principles and Processes of Behavior Change, C. Woodruff Starkweather, 415 pp., $28.95 plus tax, handling and shipping, PrenticeHall , Englewood Cliffs, N] 07632, 1983. In many training programs for the remediation of communicative disorders, three basic areas of study are presented: normal speech and language development, disorders of speech and language, and remediation techniques for speech and language disorders. Frequently, the first area of study is not adequately integrated into the second and third. Therefore, students are often unable to employ remedial procedures within a framework of learning principles associated with normal language development. This book attempts to improve that situation by presenting behavioral descriptions of both normal and disordered linguistic development and the remediation of disordered development. In the first three chapters , behavioral principles of learning are well elaborated and clearly defined. The remaining chapters integrate these principles into succinct and thorough explanations of voice, articulation, language and fluency disorders, and remedial principles associated with each. 396 A.A.O. I November 1984 ...