Cover next page > title: Seeing Language in Sign : The Work of William C. Stokoe author

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Page deaf children in day schools that male deaf children drew more teeth than female deaf children and that deaf female children drew hair "more frequently than males" And since deaf children drew ears "proportionately too large as compared to the 'normal' children, Myklebust could only conclude that "developmentally, psychodynamically, and in terms of body image these children were more perceptually aware of the ear" Because the deaf children in residential schools didn't learn speech and lipreading but, rather, employed "the manual sign language" which Myklebust believed could not "be considered comparable to a verbal symbol system" those children "portrayed hands as being too large in comparison with the deaf day school subjects" Myklebust also observed that deaf children drew their figures with clubbed feet and, as if that weren't bad enough, the residential children made the feet too big.
In the area of motor functioning, Myklebust noted that "deaf children are inferior to the hearing on locomotor coordination as measured by the Railwalking test" His conclusion "An intensive program of remedial physical education seems not only warranted but urgently indicated" One study indicated that the deaf were equal to or superior to their hearing counterparts in social maturity Myklebust advised that the study be viewed "with caution, because of the small sample involved."32
Myklebust found many "implications" in his studies "for training and adjustment" He was convinced that the deaf must learn to "accept dependency that the success of their training programs depends on the "extent to which the programs are focused on the specifics of the psychology of deafness" given 'basic factors such as altered perceptual processes, altered memory, and disturbances of ego development."33
Myklebust insisted that "it is principally through words that we manipulate experience and are able to communicate with others" Given this, his conclusion is no surprise "The child with deafness from infancy has a marked retardation in all aspects of language. Furthermore, no educational methodology known has been highly successful in overcoming this limitation. We must infer that when auditory language is lacking or seriously impeded, read and written language are restricted on a reciprocal basis."34

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