
Sign Language is an important discovery in the aide of helping
many different cultures who cannot hear or speak
or those who can barely speak or hear.
It was in the 16th. century that Geronimo Cardano, a physician, of Padua, in Northern Italy,
proclaimed that the deaf could be taught to understand written combinations
of symbols by associating them with the thing they represented.
The first book on teaching sign language to the deaf that contained the manual alphabet
was published in 1620 by Juan Pablo de Bonet.
In 1755 Abbe' Charles Michel de L'Epe'e of Paris founded the first
free school for the deaf.
In America the Great Plains Indians had developed
a fairly extensive system of signing,
but this was more for intertribal communication than for the deaf,
and only vestiges of it remain today.
America owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, an energetic Congregational minister
who became interested in helping the deaf.
In 1820 a school was opened in Pennsylvania,
and a total of 22 schools had been established throughout the United States by the year 1863.
Today we are fortunate to have one of the most complete
and expressive sign language systems of any country in the world.
Sign language is a method of communication
which uses hand movements and other gestures.
Sign languages are rich, complex languages capable of expressing
the same scope of thoughts, feelings, intentions and complexities as spoken languages.
Today, there are more than 100 sign languages in the world.
The language of the majority of North American culturally
Deaf people is American Sign Language (ASL).
ASL uses signs composed of specific movements and shapes
of the hand and arms, eyes, face, head and body posture.
Current estimates are that between 100,000 and 500,000
people use ASL (Padden, 1987).
This includes native signers who have learned ASL as their first language
from deaf parents, hearing children of deaf parents who also learned ASL as their native language,
and fluent signers who have learned ASL from deaf people (Padden, 1987).
William "Dummy" Hoy (1862-1961), the first deaf Major League baseball player,
was the reason umpires adopted hand signals: "out", "safe", and "strike".
Interest continues to grow in sign language,
and it is now the 4th. most used language in the United States.
REMEMBER, ANY AGE CAN BE OR BECOME DEAF!

Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is typically described as
being conductive, sensorineural, or mixed.
Conductive hearing loss refers to an impairment of one's ability
to conduct airborne sound through the middle ear to the inner ear.
Scar tissue or otosclerosis, the abnormal growth of bone within the middle ear,
can lead to restricted movement of the ossicles.
Recently it has been shown that there can also be conductive problems with the basilar membrane
of the inner ear that reduce the efficiency of energy transfer to the hair cells (Holt).
Sensorineural hearing loss refers to impairment of the sensory unit
consisting of the auditory nerve and the hair cells that excite it.
Sometimes the distinction between these two types of hearing loss
can be made with a simple tuning fork test.
If the tuning fork cannot be heard when sounded in air,
then the base of the tuning fork is placed against the hard bone behind the ear.
If the person can now hear it by conduction through the bone,
then conductive hearing loss is indicated.
It in cannot be heard by either air or bone conduction,
then sensorineural loss is indicated.
Hearing Loss
0 to -15 dB Normal range
-16 to -40 dB Minimal loss
-26 to -15 dB Mild loss
-41 to -55 dB Moderate loss
-56 to -70 dB Moderate/severe loss
-71 to -90 dB Severe loss
-91 dB Profound loss
American Speech and Hearing Association
The "power of ten" or logarithmic nature of hearing response is evident in the fact
that a loss in sensitivity by a factor of 10,000, or -40 decibels,
is still at the edge of "minimal loss".
By the admittedly simplistic "rule of thumb" for loudness,
this -40dB sound would still be 1/16 as loud as the 0 dB reference.
0 dB in this table represents the normal hearing threshold,
or 0 dB Hearing Level.
The categories of hearing loss are based on
measurements at 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz.
In Sign Language,
facial expression including the raising or lowering of the eyebrows while signing,
and body language are integral parts of communicating.
Raising your eyebrows is very important.
It is the 'question mark' of a sentence.
Without it you are making a statement.
This technique is also helped by always considering
the context in which a word is spelled.
These actions help give meaning to what is being signed,
much like vocal tones and inflections give meaning to spoken words.
Focus on your conversation partner's face when signing.
Finger spelling is a system of representing each letter of words
with a hand shape that stands for that letter.
Two components (skills) must be mastered.
(1.) Receptive - understanding
(2.) Expressive - communicating
The dominant hand is used to fingerspell.
The hand is raised in a comfortable position
bent at the elbow
hand near chin level.
The palm faces out.
Move only the hand and not the arm when fingerspelling.
Include a slight pause between words.
When fingerspelling words with double letters
the second of the double letters is indicated
by moving the letter shape a little to the side.
Quality comprehension is the true measure
not speed necessarily.
Fingerspelling can also be used
when you do not know the sign for a word.


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