American Sign Language – How It Began
Said to come in fourth as one of the most used languages in the US, American Sign Language allows the hearing impaired to communicate. Composed of hand signs, body postures, gestures and facial expressions, American Sign Language is specific to North America. Other regions of the world have their own form of sign language, but in the United States, American Sign Language is often a deaf person’s first language.
In ancient times, it was believed that people who could not speak were also unable to reason, but by the 16th century, it was well known that the deaf could communicate with others through signing and writing.Want more? Click here/tag In the 17th century, Spanish author, Juan Pablo de Bonet published the first book about instinctive use of signing by the deaf. The first public school for the deaf, that employed communication through gestures, was opened in Paris France in 1759, by Abbe Charles Michel de L’Eppe.
The origin of American Sign Language is unclear, but it is widely believed that it either sprang from French Sign Language, or preceded it in the year 1817. In that year, Hartford, Connecticut became the site of the first North American school for the deaf. The school was founded by Laurent Clerc, a French educator who taught French Sign Language to his American students. French minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, brought Clerc to the US after studying European educational methods for the deaf in 1815.
Many claim that the signing which formed the foundation for ASL already existed in North America at the time. This is because hearing impaired people in the US had already developed their own forms of local sign language in order to communicate. Development of natural signing is a normal process in the formation of communication skills when one is unable to adequately hear or speak.