Description
In recent years sign language has shown an amazing growth in popularity. Thousands of individuals of all ages are discovering that the study of sign language can be a fascinating and rewarding adventure. Signing: How to Speak With Your Hands is designed to assist you in learning this vibrant, expressive language that is used by Deaf people throughout North America.
This book makes sign language study easier in many ways. It presents manageable amounts of new sign vocabulary within logical topical groupings. The illustrations are large and clear, presenting the full upper torso of the body so that the new signer can accurately duplicate the sign. Even though it is difficult to isolate any sign from its context, Lois Lehman has achieved a rare degree of accuracy in rendering each sign the way it is most commonly performed.
At the beginning of each chapter, linguistic principles are described which will broaden the use of the sign vocabulary presented in the book. This information about the structure of sign language comes from recent research into its grammatical features. Incorporating these principles into your signing will help you master the language as it is used by Deaf people.
This book does not contain all of the signs available in sign language. These 1,300 basic signs will provide enough vocabulary to express a vast number of ideas when coupled with the linguistic principles that are included. To use sign language fluently, you will find it necessary to practice your new skills with other signers. The more you associate with Deaf people, the easier it will become for you to send and receive information through sign language.
Introduction to Deafness
In the United States it is estimated that 32 million people have hearing losses of varying degrees of severity. Of this number, approximately two million individuals have hearing losses severe enough to be considered deaf. That is, they cannot hear or understand either speech or most of the sounds in the everyday environment, even with the help of a hearing aid. This population is comprised both of persons who have been deaf since infancy and persons who lost their hearing later in life.
Some of the causes of deafness are heredity, illness, physical abnormalities, trauma to the skull or ear, certain heavy medications, and, most common, loss of hearing acuity due to age. Hearing losses that are caused by diseases or obstructions in the outer ear can sometimes be corrected by surgery or a hearing aid. Hearing losses that result from damage to the auditory nerve to the brain are usually not candidates for surgery, and hearing aids cannot repair the damage.
Problems in the use of the English language typically persist throughout a Deaf person’s life. Those who lose their hearing in infancy or at birth usually do not benefit from language stimulation from their parents and siblings during the early years when language is acquired. However, by learning sign language, deaf children can acquire the language base that will assist in the acquisition of English as a second language. People who lose their hearing after acquiring English language skills have less of an academic handicap than those who are born deaf.
Deaf people are employed in almost every occupational field. They drive cars, get married, buy homes, and have children, much like everyone else. Because of communication factors, many Deaf people are more comfortable in association with other Deaf people. They tend to marry other Deaf people whom they have met at schools for the deaf or at Deaf clubs. Most Deaf couples have hearing children who learn sign language early in life to communicate with their parents. Deaf people often have special electronics and telecommunication equipment in their homes. They may rely on Closed Captioning to watch television either by having a decoder or a television with a built-in decoder chip to reveal the captions. Electrical hook-ups may flash lights to indicate when the baby is crying, the doorbell is ringing, or the alarm clock is going off. Telecommunication devices that are modern versions of teletype equipment permit Deaf people to be in contact with other Deaf people through the telephone system. And every state now has relay systems whereby relay operators can bridge telephone gaps between Deaf people with telecommunication devices wishing to communicate with hearing people who do not have such devices.
When Deaf people have difficulty communicating with hearing people, they will often write notes to them. Some Deaf people are able to speechread, that is, to understand the mouth movements and facial expressions of a hearing person to comprehend what is said; but most Deaf people have limited speechreading skill, which is said to convey at best only about 50 percent of the communicated information. In education, medical, religious, or legal situations, when detailed information must be understood, Deaf people will often enlist the assistance of a certified sign language interpreter who will translate the spoken English information into sign language and then vocalize in English what the Deaf person signs.