Sign Language Facilitation of Reading With Students Classified As Trainable Mentally-Handicapped

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using sign language (Signing Exact English) to facilitate reading in students classified as trainable mentally-handicapped (TMH). Fifteen hearing TMH students (8 males, 7 females) 15 to 19 years of age ranging in IQ from 30 to 50 participated. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two across-subjects counter-balanced groups (Sign or Nonsign). The Sign group was presented with words on individually printed flash cards and asked to read the word. Whether correct or not, the word was pronounced, spelled and signed by the experimenter. The same procedure was employed with the Nonsign group with the exception that the word was not signed. Results revealed that subjects learning to read words with an accompanying sign identified and retained significantly more vocabulary than did students learning to read in a traditional manner. The results of this study argue for the utilization of sign language to teach reading to persons classified as language-handicapped.