Recent interest in the use of manual sign intervention for language-impaired, severely mentally retarded individuals has led to creation of initial sign lexicons for such clients. However, the overriding basis for inclusion of sign/concepts in initial lexicons has been concept functionality. The present investigates the studies inclusion of sign/concepts in two initial sign lexicons as a function of eight sign learnability variables. For an adolescent/adult sign lexicon, the referent variables of concept concreteness and word frequency were significantly represented while the learnability variables of sign translucency and other production variables were only marginally represented. For the elementary-aged lexicon, none of the eight variables were significantly represented. The results are discussed in terms of learning ease of the lexicons and possible curricular language intervention implications.
BarreraR. D.Lobato-BarreraD.Sulzer-AzaroffB. (1980). A simultaneous treatment comparison of three expressive language training programs with a mute autistic child. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder, 10, 21–37.
2.
BeggI.RobertsonR. (1973). Imagery and long-term retention. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 12, 689–700.
3.
BellugiU.KlimaE. (1976). Two faces of sign: Iconic and abstract. In HarmadS.SteklisH.LancasterJ. (Eds.), The origins and evaluation of language and speech (pp. 514–538). New York: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
4.
BergerS. L. (1972). A clinical program for developing multimodal language responses with atypical deaf children. In McCleanJ. E.YoderD. E.SchiefelbuschR. L. (Eds.), Language intervention with the retarded (pp. 212–235). Baltimore: University Park Pres.
5.
BonvillianF. D.NelsonE. K. (1976). Development of sign language in autistic children and other handicapped individuals. In SipleP. (Ed.), Understanding language through sign language research (pp. 187–212). New York: Academic Press.
6.
BrickerD. D. (1972). Imitative sign training as a facilitator of word object associations with low functioning children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 76, 509–516.
7.
BrownR. (1977). Why are signed languages easier to learn than spoken languages? Keynote Address, National Association of the Deaf Symposium on Sign Language Research and Teaching, Chicago.
8.
BullB.WittrockM. C. (1973). Imagery in the language of verbal definitions. British Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43, 289–293.
9.
CarrE. G.BinkoffJ. A.KologinskyE.EddyM. (1978). Acquisition of sign language by autistic children. I: Expressive labeling. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 11, 489–501.
10.
CaseyL. O. (1978). Development of communicative behavior in autistic children: A parent program using manual signs. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 8, 45–59.
11.
ConlinD.PaivioA. (1975). The associate learning of the deaf: The effects of word imagery and signability. Memory and Cognition, 3, 335–340.
12.
DaniloffJ. K.LloydL. L.FristoeM. (in press). Amer-Ind Transparency. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders.
13.
FristoeM.LloydL. L. (1977). Manual communication for the retarded and others with severe communication impairment: A resource list. Mental Retardation, 15, 18–21.
14.
FristoeM.LloydL. L. (1978). A survey of the use of non-speech systems with the severely communication impaired. Mental Retardation, 16, 99–103.
15.
FristoeM.LloydL. L. (1979). Signs used in manual communication training with persons having severe communication impairment. AAESPH Review, 4, 364–373.
16.
FristoeM.LloydL. L. (1980). Planning an initial expressive sign lexicon for persons with severe communication impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 45, 170–180.
Hamre-NietupskiS.FullertonP.HoltzK.Ryan-FlottumM.StollA.BrownL. (1977). Curricular strategies for teaching selected nonverbal communication skills to nonverbal and severely handicapped students. In BrownL.NietupskiJ.LyonS.Hamre-NietupskiS.BrownerT.GruenewaldL. (Eds.), Curricular strategies for teaching functional object use, non-verbal communication, problem solving, and mealtime skills to severely handicapped students (Vol. VII, Part 1) (pp. 94–250). Madison, Wisconsin: Madison Metropolitan School District.
19.
HaysW. L. (1973) Statistics for the social sciences. NY: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
20.
HoemannH. W. (1975). The transparency of meaning of sign language gestures. Sign Language Studies, 7, 151–161.
21.
JohnsonR. E. (1970). Recall of prose as a function of the structural importance of the linguistic units. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 9, 12–20.
22.
KahnJ. V. (1977). A comparison of oral and language training with mute retarded children. Mental Retardation, 15, 21–23.
23.
KahnJ. V. (1981). A comparison of sign and verbal language training with nonverbal retarded children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 24, 113–119.
24.
KarlanG. R.LloydL. L. (1983). Considerations in the planning of communication intervention: Selecting a lexicon. Journal of the Association for the Severely Handicapped, 8(2), 13–25.
25.
KohlF. L. (1981). Effects of motoric requirements on the acquisition of manual sign responses by severely handicapped students. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 85, 396–403.
26.
KopchickG. A.LloydL. L. (1976). Total communication for the severely language impaired: A 24–hour approach. In LloydL. L. (Ed.), Communication assessment and intervention strategies. (pp.501–522). Baltimore: University Park Press.
27.
LaheyM.BloomL. (1977). Planning a first lexicon: Which words to teach first. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 42, 340–349.
28.
LippmanM. A. (1974). Enactive imagery in paired-associate learning. Memory and Cognition, 2, 385–390.
29.
LloydL. L.DaniloffJ. K. (in press). Issues in using Amer Ind with retarded individuals. In DaniloffR. G.BeasleyD.GallagherT.PruttingC. (Eds.), Position papers in language, speech, and hearing. San Diego, CA: College Hill Press.
30.
LuftigR. L. (1982a). Increasing probability of sign language learning by severely mentally retarded individuals: A discussion of learner, sign production, and linguistic variables. Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 3, 81–97.
31.
LuftigR. L. (1982b). Translucency of sign and concreteness of gloss in the sign learning of severely mentally retarded individuals. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 88, 279–286.
32.
LuftigR. L. (1983). Variables influencing the learnability of sign: A review. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 12, 361–376.
33.
LuftigR. L. (1984) Cheremic similarity and sign translucency in sign language learning. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans.
34.
LuftigR. L.BersaniH. (1984). A comparison of the learnability of Bliss symbols and traditional orthography by normal and handicapped children. Manuscript submitted for publication.
35.
LuftigR. L.JohnsonR. E. (1983). Recall of prose unit as a function of textual importance by retarded students. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 86, 495–502.
36.
LuftigR. L.LloydL. L. (1981). Manual sign translucency and referential concreteness in the learning of sign. Sign Language Studies, 30, 49–60.
37.
LuftigR. L.LloydL. L.PageJ. L. (1982). Ratings of sign translucency and gloss concreteness of two grammatical classes of manual sign. Sign Language Studies, 37, 345–386.
38.
LuftigR. L.PageJ. L.LloydL. L. (1983). Ratings of 854 ASL signs for perceived translucency. Journal of Children with Communication Disorders, 5, 50–70.
39.
LuftigR. L.PageJ. L.LloydL. L. (In press). The rated translucency of manual sign. Journal of Childhood Communication Disorders.
40.
PageJ. L. (1981). A comparison of translucency ratings for signs obtained from normal, preschool children, school-age children, and adults. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Purdue University.
41.
PaivioA. (1980). Imagery and verbal processes (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
42.
PaivioA.YuilleJ. C.MadiganS. (1968). Concreteness, imagery, and meaningfulness values for 925 nouns. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology Monographs, 76, 1 (pt. 2).
43.
ReichleJ.WilliamsW.RyanS. (1981). Selecting signs for the formulation of an argumentative communicative modality. Journal of the Association for the Severely Handicapped, 6(1), 48–56.
44.
ShafferT. R.GoehlH. (1974). The alinguistic child. Mental Retardation, 12, 3–6.
45.
SipleP.FisherS. D.BellugiU. (1977). Memory for nonsemantic attributes of American Sign Language and English words. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 16, 561–574.
46.
Stremel-CampbellK.CantrellD.HalleJ. (1977). Manual signing as a language system and as a speech initiator for the nonverbal severely handicapped student. In SontagE.SmithJ.CertoN. (Eds.), Educational programming for the severely and profoundly handicapped (pp. 335–347). Reston, VA: Division on Mental Retardation, Council for Exceptional Children.
47.
ThorndikeE. L.LorgeI. (1944). The teacher's word book of 30,000 words. New York: Columbia University Teachers College.
48.
TopperS. T. (1975). Gesture language for nonverbal severely retarded males. Mental Retardation, 13, 30–31.
49.
UnderwoodB. J. (1965). False recognition produced by implicit verbal responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 122–129.
50.
UnderwoodB. J. (1971). Recognition memory. In KendlerH. H.SpenceJ. T. (Eds.), Essays in neobehavioralism: A memorial volume to K. W. Spence (pp. 313–335). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
51.
UnderwoodB.FreundJ. S. (1970). Word frequency and short-term recognition memory. American Journal of Psychology, 83, 343–351.
52.
WatsonD. O. (1964). Talk with your hands. Winneconne, WI: George Banta, Inc.
53.
WinerB. J. (1971). Statistical principles in experimental design (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
