The Incorporation of Nigerian Signs in Deaf Education in Nigeria

The Author: Paulina Ada Ajavon holds a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Special Education from the University of Jos, Nigeria. She also holds a Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her many years of working directly with deaf children in schools for the Deaf, gave her insight into the problems of deaf education in Nigeria. As a lecturer and researcher in the University of Calabar, since 1988, she is involved in teaching and training both teachers of the deaf and the handicapped in general. She is also involved in researches in special education, with methods of educating the deaf as her main point of focus. Her years of experience from working with the deaf have led her to publishing in books and in reputable journals in Nigeria.

In a country like Nigeria with over 200 spoken languages and hundreds of dialects, many consider the talk of a Nigerian sign language emerging, an impossibility. The research and results documented in The Incorporation of Nigerian Signs in Deaf Education in Nigeria, A pilot Study, and A Dictionary of Nigerian Signs, Volumes I and II respectively, offers this possibility. This dictionary, the first of its kind, constitutes a good reference book in the implementation of the Nigerio/Americo Communication System for the Deaf, recommended for classroom instruction. This method, which promotes the use of Nigerian signs with supplements from the American Sign Language in classroom instruction, lays a foundation for the growth of a Nigerian sign language over time. The provison of this dictionary, which is subject to expansion, would most likely speed up this growth. These books provide the deaf, educators of the deaf, administrators and all those interested in the education of the deaf in Nigeria and indeed in the whole of Africa, with a new insight into deaf education.

Contents: Causes of Deaf Education in Nigeria - Deafness in Nigeria: An Overview - General Problems of Deaf Education in Nigeria - Teaching Methods and Related Problems - Approaches to Deaf Education - The American Sign Language - Sign Language and Related Studies in Nigeria - The Dictionary of Nigerian Signs - An Elementary Alphabet for Deaf School Beginners - The Nigerio/Americo Communication System for the Deaf - A Model Programme for the Education of the Deaf in Nigeria.