Sign Language and Hand Talk

Sign Language and Hand Talk

Introduction People have always used their hands to communicate. Today, people still communicate with their hands. A police officer holds up a hand to stop a car. A dad waves his hand to say “ hello" and “ goodbye. " A mom uses her hand to “ blow" her son a kiss.

People who are deaf or hard of hearing use their hands to make letters and words. This kind of communication is called sign language. An American named Thomas Gallaudet helped start a school for deaf students in the United States in 1817. The school used French Sign Language, Native American Sign Language, and other hand signs to create American Sign Language.

Learning Sign Language Today, sign language is taught to deaf people from when they are very young. When a deaf child is playing with a ball, a parent uses two hands to make a sign for ball. Then, the parent points to the ball. The sign for ball is called a whole word sign. Deaf children also learn to use their fingers to make letters. They learn each letter of the alphabet. Making these different types of signs is called signing.

Deaf children make up ABC stories to practice signing letters. For example, the sign for the letter A looks like an apple. The letter B is flat like a table. The letter C is like an open mouth. This ABC story might be an apple sitting on a table waiting for a mouth to eat it. As each new letter of the alphabet is learned, a new part of the story is added.

Whole word signs are used to make sentences. Whole word signs are made using hand movements. Body movements and changes in the face also are used. Signers watch people's hands, bodies, and faces. This helps them know what is being communicated.