A history of seeing essential English (SEE I).

Over the past 30 years, several Manual Codes on English have been developed in the United States. Unlike American Sign Language, which is a language independent of English, manual codes of English were designed to specifically reflect English and are signed in English word order. The first such system to appear during this time frame was Seeing Essential English (SEE I), developed by David Anthony, a deaf educator of the deaf. Today most educational programs for the deaf use Signing Exact English (SEE II) or Signed English and there is confusion about the nature and role of SEE I. This paper is designed to clear up some of the misconceptions that have grown up around SEE I, to provide some historical background about its development, and to review some research findings concerning its effectiveness.

Ear-eye reflexes while riding in a car.

Persons with diminished or absent vestibulo-ocular reflexes (VORs) are thought to have difficulty with ocular stabilization during sufficiently rapid head movements. This suggests the hypothesis that labyrinthine defective individuals might have impaired visual abilities when in a moving motor vehicle. Ten licensed drivers likely to have abnormal VORs were recruited to assess this possibility. Their labyrinthine function was indexed by measurements of ocular counterroll responses to static head tilt and the nystagmus induced with caloric stimulations. Each person was evaluated on a visual task, i.e., answers to questions about alphanumeric information read from a stationary sign while sitting still and while riding in a car. Comparisons of vision scores tend to be lower in the moving than in the still condition. Furthermore, these decrements appear more closely related to the magnitudes of ocular counterroll than to the caloric reflexes. These results have implications concerning otolithic vs. semicircular canal function, vehicle operations by vestibular-impaired individuals, and evaluations of clinical treatments which employ vestibulotoxic drugs.

Afterimage versus photographic ocular torsionometry.

Rotation of the eyeballs about the visual axis due to head tilt, counterocular torsion, can provide information relevant to the neuro-otologic status. Measurement of these reflexive movements, however, involves several difficulties. Two methods are examined: determinations by a behavioral afterimage technique are compared with those of a photographic method in the same subjects using a test-retest format. Results indicate that both procedures yield reliable measurements, and any differences tend to be inconsistent. Thus, the faster and less expensive afterimage technique appears suitable for many clinical purposes in assessing vestibulo-ocular function.