the second chapter of his book Simplified Signs, Volume 1). He also researched and published work on the voyages of Martin Frobisher to Baffin Island and the Englishman's resulting interactions with the Inuit. Of special interest to Bonvillian was the pre-existing use of various manual sign-communication systems in and among the various Indigenous nations of North America before the arrival of Europeans (in particular, the use of Plains Indian Sign Language as a lingua franca between Indigenous nations whose spoken languages were mutually incomprehensible). Bonvillian also was curious about the origins of language in humans and the possibility that gesture preceded speech as a communication system. Simplified Sign System In 1998, Bonvillian began work on developing a simplified, manual sign-communication system. The initial focus of this project was to develop a sign-communication system for non-speaking or minimally verbal individuals, such as children with autism, Down syndrome, or cerebral palsy. At the time of his death, Bonvillian's research team had developed a Simplified Sign System lexicon consisting of approximately 1850 easily formed, highly iconic signs or gestures. This increase in the size of sign vocabulary was undertaken to meet the needs of students and teachers who wanted to use Simplified Signs to facilitate the acquisition of foreign language vocabulary items. Research suggests that by performing highly iconic Simplified Signs with to-be-learned foreign language vocabulary items, students are able to internalize items into their memories more quickly and effectively. The first 1000 signs of the Simplified Sign System were published on July 30, 2020, by Open Book Publishers in Cambridge, U.K. References External links Simplified Signs: A Manual Sign-Communication System for Special Populations. Volume 1: Principles, Background, and Application Simplified Signs: A Manual Sign-Communication System for Special Populations. Volume 2: Simplified Sign Lexicon, Descriptions, and Memory Aids Young Children’s Acquisition of the Formational Aspects of American Sign Language: Parental Report Findings 20th-century American psychologists Johns Hopkins University alumni Stanford University alumni University of Virginia faculty 1948 births 2018 deaths