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This article explores previously undocumented connections between a group of New Zealand landscape paintings and the resulting poems, music and performance. This unplanned creative sequence, spanning 1964-2008, is the work of significant national cultural figures: Doris Lusk, Charles Brasch, W.A. Sutton, David Griffiths with The Ogen Trio, and Lyell Cresswell with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Questions arise around the meaning of creative interpretations of nature and landscape, the interface between different formats, and challenges in confirming the identity of artworks. The watercolours (several held in major institutions) and poems are reproduced, together with other supporting images and documentation.

Two fourth-grade spelling classes, one for hearing-impaired students and one general education class being considered as a mainstream placement, were investigated to determine similarities and differences in the interactional behaviors of the students and teachers. Video recordings and written transcriptions were analyzed to obtain measures of both verbal and nonverbal interactions. Interactional behaviors in the two settings were found to be very different. Differences were found across physical, instructional, and social contexts. Interactions in the general education class were characterized by rapid conversational shifts and complex academic task structures, as well as complex language usage. Interactions in the hearing-impaired class were characterized by routinized academic tasks and simple language structures.

This study examined the ability of hearing-impaired students to make use of story grammars in organizing self-generated and retold stories. Eleven primary (n = 5) and intermediate (n = 6) level students enrolled in total communication public day classes participated. Children were presented with four stories, with and without pictures, and were asked to make up a story or to listen to and retell a story to friends. Story transcripts were analyzed for correct descriptions of events and for correct story structures. Results indicated that hearing-impaired students do make use of story grammars in organizing retellings and in constructing stories. Pictures enhanced recall. Students with deaf parents performed as well as did nondisabled children in previous studies. Retelling abilities were linked to both chronological age and linguistic abilities.

Signs selected from lists used in studies with mentally retarded and autistic children and previously rated for visual iconicity were presented tactilely to 13 blind persons. Visual and tactile ratings were found to be very similar across blind and sighted groups. Statements of relationship between signs and their meanings were also found to be very similar for blind and sighted groups, suggesting that signs easily learned through the visual channel will be the most easily learned through the tactile channel. Teaching strategies were suggested by blind participants for use with deaf-blind children. Sign rankings for iconicity and relationships between signs and their meanings are provided.

One hundred American Sign Language signs selected from sign vocabularies used with mentally retarded persons were rated for iconicity by 20 college students, 12 deaf adults, and 20 first-graders. A Pearson Product-Moment correlation showed that ratings tended to be highly similar for the three groups. Classification of signs based on ratings by each group, however, showed that perceptions of iconicity were not identical across the groups. Deaf subjects rated more items as iconic than did hearing groups. Hearing subjects rated about one-half of the signs as noniconic. Results suggest that sign ratings for iconicity will be helpful for teachers in determining which signs will be most easily acquired by retarded learners. Findings also suggest that factors other than iconicity contribute to the ease of sign acquisition in nonverbal retarded learners.

Two linguistic microstructures, propositions and cohesive devices, were analyzed in story recalls by 11 primary and intermediate level hearing-impaired students. The students were enrolled in total communication, public day classes, and had severe-to-profound hearing losses. Four story conditions were presented: (1) easy structure-T.C.; (2) complex structure-T.C.; (3) complex structure with pictures-T.C.; and (4) create-a-story-pictures. Students watched and then retold or made up a story to a friend. Recalls were videotaped and transcribed by a deaf adult and the first investigator. Recalls of hearing-impaired students were significantly shorter than those found earlier for hearing students. When stories are very simple, hearing-impaired students generate mostly complete propositions, however as complexity increases, semantic errors result in fewer complete propositions.