Invention/Creation of American Sign Language:

Introduction:

Deaf people have always existed but they have not always had means of communication. Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet travelled to France and investigated French Sign Language in 1755 and brought it back to America and combined the signs that Americans were already used in America to create a formal American Sign Language.


Invention/Creation:


1700’s: Charles-Michel de l’Epee: Published the manual alphabet

1755: Abbe de l’Epee: Founded the first deaf school in Paris.

1817: Clerc (Abbe graduate) and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet: Founded the American School for the Deaf (Connecticut)

1856: Edward Miner Gallaudet: Founded the school for Deaf in Washington DC.

1864: Gallaudet University: The only University for deaf people in the world that is liberal arts


Biography: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet!

Thomas was born in Pennsylvania. He has a bachelors degree from Yale (1805). He graduated at age 17.He then got his masters from Yale also (1808). He was a preacher but was planning on becoming a minister but then he met Alice Cogswell a deaf 9 year old. Thomas managed to communicate with her using a stick and scrapping things in the dirt. Then Dr. Cogswell (the girls father) asked Thomas to join him to Europe to study methods of teaching the deaf. He learned Manual Communication from Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu and brought that back to America with him. Thomas's father was George Washington's personal secretary when the office of the president was in Philadelphia. Thomas's Son Edward Miner founded Gallaudet University in Washington DC.


Impact on the World/Humanity:

Not every deaf person knows sign language. But sign language has impacted the deaf culture and the hearing culture so much that when we now say "that person is deaf" we assume that they know sign language. Sign Language gave deaf people the ability to communicate.

Journal Article:

My journal Article was on the possibility of deafness being inherited. It explained that there is a gene that regulates the production of proteins in the fetus to form channels between adjacent cells. The mutations that occur in the Cochlea will most likely result in deafness.

VIDEO ON THE ABC'S

Work Sited:

Butterworth, R. R., & Flodin, M. (n.d.). American Sign Language History. University of Illinois at Chicago - UIC. Retrieved February 17, 2011, from http://www2.uic.edu/stud_orgs/cultures/daa/ASLHistory.html

Hearing loss - MayoClinic.com. (n.d.). Mayo Clinic. Retrieved February 14, 2011, from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hearing-loss/DS00172

History of American Sign Language . (n.d.). Start American Sign Language (ASL) . Retrieved February 16, 2011, from http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/history-of-american-sign-language.html

The Ideology of Normalcy: The Ethics of Difference by Tom Koch. (n.d.). Questia School - The Online Library for Students and Educators. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5011971465