Notable Deaf Persons (review)

Reviews Larynx by Malcolm Hast presents the author's experimental work, but contains a good review of the history of the study of phonation. The Measurement of Middle Ear Function by Jon Shallop contains a complete discussion of middle ear functioning, the current methods employed in evaluation, and explanation of the procedures and how they are interpreted. Measurement of Hearing by Tests of Speech and Language by John O'Neill deliniates the parameters involved in listening to and processing speech, and how these affect test performance . He explains the rationale for speech tests and their educational and clinical implications. The Study of Linguistically Deficient Children by Donald Morehead reviews numerous studies of language acquisition in both "normal" and "deficient " children. It contains references to studies conducted of sign language acquisition in deaf children, and considers the deaf child separately from the "language-deficient" child. Esther F. Miller, M.S.A. Chief of Hearing and Speech Services Maryland Rehabilitation Center Baltimore, Maryland 21218 Talk With Me, Communication With The MultiHandicapped Deaf, Jeanne Huffman, Bobbi Hoffman, David Gransee, Anne Fox, Juanita James, and Joseph Schmitz, 296 pp., $14.95, Joyce Motion Picture Co., 18702 Bryant St., Northridge, California 91324, 1975. Talk With Me consists of a specific vocabulary of over 400 signs, games, recipes, activities and practice sentences for meaningful communication experiences with multi-handicapped deaf children. The manual is designed for use with parents and families, teachers and personnel in state hospitals, schools and centers, and all other persons who have direct contact with multi-handicapped deaf children. Several quick flick movie cartridges which show signs and numbers in motion can also be ordered. The manual was developed by the Deaf Task Force composed of deaf and hearing professionals under the California Department of Health. Marcia Kessler, M.A. Hearing Impaired Program Golden West College Huntington Beach, Calif. 92647 Children Out of School in America, Washington Research Project, Inc., 366 pp., $4.00, Children's Defense Fund, 1746 Cambridge St., Cambridge, Mass., 02137, 1974. This book points out that a very large number of children are denied an education in the United States. Some children are put to work when they are very young. Others have physical handicaps, learning disabilities, behavior problems, or language problems. Others may be excluded simply due to poverty, lack of transportation, or outright discrimination. The consequences to the child and to society are clearly explained. The book is written with great clarity and contains many useful tables of information. There are also many striking photographs . It is an excellent analysis of a problem that is often overlooked. As the authors point out: "We owe these children more of an education than nothing at all." Lowell Myers, J.D. Attorney at Law 1060 W. North Shore Chicago, III. 60626 Notable Deaf Persons, Guilbert C. Braddock, 210 pp., $6.00 (paper) and $9.00 (hard), Gallaudet College Alumni Association, Gallaudet College, 'Kendall Green, Washington, D.C. 20002, 1975. The Reverend Guilbert C. Braddock, a deaf pastor, scholar, mentor, and friend undertook, no doubt, considerable research to compile this book of nearly 100 profiles of notable (although not necessarily distinguished) deaf persons. The profiles appeared as a series in the FRAT magazine, the official organ of the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf from January 1937 to June 1946. Rev. Braddock, with literary skill, covers well the early struggles of deaf people in obtaining an education and in securing employment. These profiles point out deaf persons who have left their indentation in the world of art, law, religion, science, literature, and education. The Reverend Roger Pickering provides a profile on the author, Rev. Braddock. This book could be utilized as a text for a course on "deaf studies," although there is a need for a continuance of Rev. Braddock's work from 1946 to the present time. Robert R. Anderson, M.A. Illinois School for the Deaf Jacksonville, III. 62650 522 A.A.D. I August 1980 ...