Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 256-273).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / For children who are deaf, one aspect of early English literacy instruction has always been problematic. Deaf children have great difficulty in learning to employ a sound-based phonetic to alphabetic mapping process such as required in reading and writing without natural linguistic access to English. This dissertation presents two studies. In Study #1 subjects are given the American Sign Language Phonemic Awareness Inventory (ASLP AI). In Study #2 the phonological aspect ofhandshape and its relationship to the Manual Alphabet is investigated. Twenty-nine deaf children, between the ages of 4-8, who used sign language, were tested on 7 major ASL Phonological tasks. 175 questions were posed. Of the total group, eight children had deaf parents (DCDP) and twenty-one children had hearing parents (DCHP). Seventeen deaf adults (1 0 DADP) and 7 (DAHP) took a portion or all of the tests. In addition the child subjects, depending on reading ability, were also given either the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-Revised (PIAT-R) (spelling and reading comprehension subtests) or all sections ofthe Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA-3). Results showed that all subjects were able to process the questions according to the phonological parameters of ASL. That is, subjects appear to have internalized the visual structural components of ASL and were able to work with ASL phonemes as hearing children do with spoken language. In the second study, the handshape task indicated that the subjects associated prompts (the 20 Manual Alphabet handshapes in particular) with a phonological component of ASL rather than as a letter of English. A factorial ANOVA showed that parent's audiological status did not influence the subject's phonemic awareness of ASL. In Study #2, a paired comparisons t-tests showed that overall response rates for handshape prompts resulted in significant differences: favoring ASL responses in comparison with English responses. Correlation matrices indicated that the stronger the subjects phonemic awareness of ASL and the ability to recall lexical items when given a prompt the stronger the scores on a beginning test of English literacy (TERA).

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Linguistics, Dec. 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

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A case study of American Sign Language (ASL) acquisition revealed an emerging phonological system influenced by biological, cognitive, and linguistic factors. A hearing child (SJ), acquiring ASL from her Deaf parents, was videotaped over seven sessions between the ages of 1:0 and 2:1. Of the 1,699 manual behaviors observed, 804 were lexical items, or signs. All signs were phonetically coded. Detailed analyses were undertaken to discover acquisition patterns for the three major parameters of ASL signs (handshape, hand location and movement). / Overall, SJ's signs were well-formed and adhered to ASL phonological constraints. Location primes were produced accurately, due to SJ's knowledge of the structure of her body. Errors occurred with body parts that were not perceptually salient. Movement parameters were not mastered by SJ during the period of study; no systematic set of substitutions was observed. Handshapes were produced with low accuracy. SJ relied on a small set of maximally contrastive handshapes (i.e., (5,1,A)). These handshapes represent the convergence of ease of production, distribution in the target language phonology, and perceptual salience. SJ used three processes to fit target handshapes to her emerging phonological system: spreading of selected fingers, changing of selected fingers from a marked to an unmarked set, and changing to an open position. These processes reflect anatomical and perceptual preferences as well as linguistic influences. / SJ's sign production showed a small improvement in accuracy and a marked reduction in variability between the ages of 1:0 AND 2:1. Visual feedback did not affect the sign accuracy. A passive hand was more likely to be added to one-handed signs produced outside the visual field, possibly increasing tactile feedback. Path movement and horizontal-place primes were more accurate when tactile feedback was present. There was no evidence that SJ used lexical selection or imitation as strategies for phonological acquisition. / Finally, many of the same factors that influence phonological acquisition in speech guided SJ's acquisition of handshape primes. Her acquisition of location primes, by contrast, did not resemble processes observed in phonological acquisition in speech.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-228). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.