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To study the development of syntax in the language of deaf students, the Test of Syntactic Ability was constructed and administered to approximately 450 deaf students (10-18 years old) and 60 normal children (8-10 years old). The test contained 22 subtests covering seven major syntactic structures: relativization, conjunction, complementation, pronominalization, question, formation, negation, and the verb system. Although results showed gradual improvement of deaf Ss' performance, the improvement was slight and the retardation in comparison to hearing Ss was large. Developmental stages for deaf Ss on the structures tended to parallel the stages reported for hearing children. Certain distinct structures, apparently rule ordered, were found to appear consistently in the language of the deaf Ss but rarely or never in the hearing Ss. Comparison of the deaf Ss' knowledge of the various structures with the appearance of those structures in a series of reading texts analyzed during the project revealed differences so large as to make it unlikely the deaf subjects could read the texts. It was concluded that instruments for the assessment of syntactic structure, and curriculum materials tailored to the language of deaf children, need to be developed. (Author/LS)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert