Why Sign Language Was Banned in America | Otherwords 

When I was in my early twenties my first job out of college was working with children with special needs. I worked with a little girl who had autism and could not speak, so her mom wanted to try sign language. I learned sign language so I could teach her, and I can't tell you what a beautiful experience that was. She absolutely blossomed. She could finally communicate her wants, needs, emotions, and thoughts. I loved learning sign language and was able to work with some deaf children as well. I really do think the hearing miss out on a level of communication that could help all of us communicate better. I was able to communicate with the children in situations when speaking wasn't appropriate or in very loud environments. I would love to see ASL taught to all children.

I know in Ireland, there was a gender split in Sign Language. There were two schools for the deaf in Dublin, one all-boys school and one all-girls school. This resulted in a communication divide between deaf men and deaf women that has only began to be amended in the last few decades. There is a essay on the topic called Sex differences in Irish Sign Language by Barbara LeMaster, and it is available online

I’m autistic and learning a handful of signs was such a helpful way to allow myself to communicate when I had non-verbal episodes! Gestural languages deserve so much respect

My daughter is so adhd that she was language delayed. We were lucky to get her into a developmental preschool with a speech pathologist when she was 2. The pathologist made us learn some ASL to help move her past her frustration at communicating. It worked so quickly we were floored. It had the added benefit of letting my newborn tell us what they needed before they were verbal. Shocked my aunt in law when my husband was able to see our baby ask for milk from across the room and tell me. She stood there saying "but how could you tell? They never made a sound"

Nicaraguan sign language is super interesting in that it was developed completely independently and spontaneously by children themselves without any adult intervention. It even went through a generational evolution with more complex syntax being formulated over time by the children of the original kids who created it. Probably deserves its own video about the phenomenon of emergence in communication.

There was a deaf kid in my class at school. He only knew a few words and phrases in sign language, and had to mostly rely on lip-reading. And yeah, he missed out on big chunks of conversations because of it, always asking us to slow down or repeat ourselves. We also had to become far more consciously aware of which direction we were facing, and what we were doing with our hands during conversations because if we turned our heads too much (which people who rely on audible speech only do _all_ the time) he could no longer track our lips nearly as accurately - same thing with our tendency to cover our mouths for various reasons. Even using gestures that were natural to us just talking where difficult because his focus would then be distracted by our hand movements and he stopped tracking our lips. When asked why he never learned sign language, he explained that he actually _did_ - at first. His parents took him to a special school where they teach BSL - and his parents even took the same lessons because they wanted to learn the language too. Unfortunately they discovered that it was _far_ harder to learn as an adult, and they struggled massively. All the while their kid was picking it up at an amazing rate, being able to better _understand_ all the nuances of the language, like subtext and grammar. The gap between him and his parents was obviously getting bigger, and they decided to pull him out of the school and made him learn lip-reading instead, which then meant he ended up going to a regular "hearing" school instead. All because his parents didn't want him learning a language they couldn't understand or use, they felt it was hard enough trying to keep up with kids of today with their technology and apps etc - without adding a language to that barrier too. Plus they didn't like the idea he could say things, even right in front of them, that they would then miss - they thought it would promote him keeping secrets, or lying more, or being "naughty" right in front of them with them unable to discipline him because they would obviously not understand what he was saying. Kind of sad really, because I always felt having to rely on lip-reading was just holding him back from _really_ succeeding, both at school and his later life. I wonder how many other kids had/have parents that feel the same way? That same reluctance to let their kid learn sign-language out of fears of being "left out" or "left behind" in some way??

This was my mom's experience. She went to the school of deaf and was not allowed to sign. The intention was she could speak with hearing people. My mother and her friends covertly learned sign language behind the teacher's back. It's a crazy history.

My baby niece is learning some sign alongside verbal English. I can't understate how much easier it is to communicate with her. Even though she can't form sentences verbally she uses sign to communicate more fully. Having a 1 year old tell you exactly what they need is amazing.

Sign languages are just as important as other languages and it's a shame that people will go as far as to denigrate sign languages as being "less complex" or having "less vocabulary" compared to spoken languages. And we can't ever equate language with speech.

The one foreign language class offered at my high school was … ASL! And I still use it. I completely forgot words at a bookstore. Like, totally forgot for a moment just how to even talk (severe stress and sleep-deprivation does that!) And the one guy trying to help was the deaf employee… I started signing, and the way he just lit up! It was beautiful. I get a few deaf customers in my store, and they (and their interpreter) have admitted they love visiting, because I am able to sign, albeit slowly and awkwardly, but I can do it. They always teach me new words, and I’m careful to keep my hands fully in view and face them when speak/signing. (My store sells board games and toys)

I’m hearing but I grew up in the Australian Deaf community and was accepted as culturally Deaf due to signing natively from birth to communicate with my brother. Since then I’ve expanded past Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and have learnt ISL, BSL, IS, Tactile Auslan, ASL, and CSL. It’s incredible what bridging the gap between languages can do. Sign languages are incredible languages and should be recognised for how important and valuable they are. They are ever evolving and hold so much history between the various accents per language.

A little late to the party here, but I wanted to share my story. I was born practically deaf in my right ear. Growing up hard of hearing was tough enough, but ASL wasn't available in my town. I was the only kid that was hearing impaired. I was mute up until 6 years old, when I started putting the sounds together to form words. I taught myself to read lips watching documentaries and live-action stuff with closed captions. In school, I had to read my teachers' lips and learned to write really fast, then go home to figure out what everything meant. Sometimes, I was able to get every other word in class but it corrupted the message for sure. It wasn't until I got a doctor's note saying I need to sit at the front right desk in every classroom or I'd hear nothing. I was bullied pretty bad because other kids thought I was slow or weird for not talking for a while. But through hard work and determination, I overcame my obstacles and live a normal life. I use hearing aids now, but the old techniques still linger. This episode really resonated with me and I appreciate the look into the deaf culture and deaf history! Thank you :)!

Our daughter has Down Syndrome and was always in a self-contained classroom. I feel that early in her school career, she could have been in some inclusive classes and gone much further academically. One of the main reasons she was held back was her lack of language skills. She was denied speech therapy at 6 years old knowing only one verbal word and no sign. None of the special education teachers in South Carolina are required to know any sign language. Our daughter did not get an adequate speech therapist, who was fluent in sign, until she was in high school.

Growing up, my best friend's parents were severely hard of hearing and used English sign language. Having his mother explain to me how stupid it made her feel compared to ESL helped me understand that the hearing community really only understands what's easiest for them, with little ability to comprehend what would be best for the hard-of-hearing community or a willingness to learn from them directly.

We had some kids with down syndrome in my school when I was a kid. Many of them had trouble talking and used sign language. All us kids learned basic signs to be able to talk to them. (They were hearing just fine, they just struggled with speech.). It made us grow closer to, and understanding those kids. Typically abled people could gain so much by being interested in how the rest function and communicate.

This ep brought tears to my eyes. I’m not deaf or know sign language but I am well aware of trying to fit uncomfortable or inconvenient truths within the paradigm of the dominant culture. Someone that operates or behaves differently than the dominant culture doesn’t automatically make what they are doing incorrect. We shouldn’t try to force people different than us to conform either.

Thank you for this show. My daughter was born with a medical issue that would delay her ability to walk, if she could walk at all. I knew that delayed walking often led to delayed talking. I had to do something about that. We learned sign language together (basic signs). By the time she started school, she could walk (slowly), and talk (still needed speach theropy), but her language skils were at grade level -- actually a little higher. Yes, Sign Language is good for a lot of reasons.

I’m watching this video whilst I take a break from setting up for my ASL club’s Halloween silent dinner. “Deaf people can do everything but hear.” And they are some of the nicest most patient people I’ve ever met because they are often not given that same patience from hearing people. Thank you for bringing awareness to the language and people I love. I’m taking my interpreting evaluation in a month.

Throughout my life, I have little to no exposure to deaf or hard of hearing people until I met one a few months ago. I went to a local cafe to do work and found out the cashier was deaf. I was delighted to see a deaf person working a front-facing job but quickly realized that I didn't even know how to say thank you in sign language after I ordered my coffee. Truly, it was a learning moment for me. Sign language is really cool and I plan to learn Malaysian Sign Language next year!

My high school offered sign language as a second language credit.. and it was very popular. And sure For some it was just a place to slack off and talk since the teacher was deaf but for most it was an amazing learning experience.. I know my friends really liked learning how to sign and kept trying to practice even after high school so I they wouldn't forget this valuable skill Though I think my community use to be very welcoming for those with hearing problems as my church for yrs had a mass with a sign language interpreter, they even signed the songs so the deaf could sing with the chorus

I really love this video. I'm not deaf, but this video reminded me of a classmate who had a younger sister who was deaf. Helen, not real name, wasn't happy with her parents only wanting to do oralism and not learn sign language. My advice was for her and her sister learn sign language secretly on every chance they could. I found out years later that Helen and her sister followed that advice. I'm for learning both oralism and sign language

When I was a kid I took up learning to sign, it was a new way of learning and speaking. My sister and I sometimes talk in sign especially when we are far away or across from somewhere without needing to text or something. None of us are hearing nor speech impaired but it is useful especially when either of us are to sick to speak, especially back when we were younger. We prefer to spell out words however...

I have worked with Deafblind students for six years. My ASL is, honestly, only good enough for me to carry on a conversation with a kindergartner. 😅 But it was initiated by members of my local Deaf community reaching out to me in friendship and kindness. Everything I know is because of them, and later because I started being assigned to students who used ASL for communication. The Deaf community is warm and open and welcoming to those interested in learning. And the language is gorgeous and (as an artist) so beautifully emotive and illustrative. Thank you so much for highlighting it, and its history and community, in this video. ☺️

As someone who studied South African Sign Language at university, I'm so glad you made this video. There are so many misconceptions around this topic and the more awareness we can create about the harm that's been done to so many people and the rich cultures Deaf communities have developed around the world, the better the world will be.

When I started learning ASL in college, it was so immersive that it temporarily reprogrammed my mind and I started thinking and speaking in Subject Objective Verb. I sill do when I get tired. It seems so much more natural. I still give directions in sign even when I'm talking on the phone.

Sign language is certainly a useful form of communication, not just for the deaf who likely can't communicate without it, but just in general for when you don't want to make a sound. That said, if we can give people back their senses that they either lost or never had, should we not try/give them that option?

Picking up beginner ASL is one of the best things I've ever done. Not only is it fun, fascinating and extremely useful, it also unlocked a whole part of myself that couldn't come out through language, a more open, spontaneous and free self. It does that for a lot of people, when I watch content by people who both speak and sign, I find their ASL personas tend to be way more open, less judgemental, more expressive, kinder.

I think that the implants can be useful for deaf people, not necessarily just to communicate, but to have a better situational awareness. By that I mean earing fire alarm, trains, cars or someone coming behind you. Since we use mainly sound in our alarm, maybe it could help keeping deaf people safe

This made me think about how here in Italy we have so many signs that we often communicate with both spoken word and hand gestures. I saw a video of a girl "singing" a song by just making hand gestures and mouthing the words and all of the Italians commented "i can undestand it even without even hearing the song". And since elementary school, as children we invented a signed alphabet, that although very simple and primitive, we could use if we were far away in class and couldn't talk to each other, kids still use it. Perhaps that's why it was easier to understand the deaf people we interacted with: shared visual vocabulary. I wonder why gestures are so ingrained in our culture. I think it's very cool.

As s Sign language interpreter I have never enjoyed one of your videos more. You hit the nail on the head, names like Clerc and Gallaudet are household names in the Deaf community. Thank you so much for this video, it meant the world to me.

My brother had a number of health issues & developmental delays as a baby, and so my mom learned some basic ASL and taught it to him so that he learned to sign before he could speak. We even went to a sign language school (regular public school, just with interpreters in every class & an emphasis on helping deaf & hh kids in particular) for the fist few years of elementary school. I remember getting in trouble for not paying attention in class because I was mesmerized by the interpreters. The thing about me, though, is that I have a genetic disability that means I can't rotate my hands palm-up. Signing obviously requires you to use your hands palm-up quite a bit; thus I was told that I basically "sign with an accent" which required others to pay a bit more attention to my hands to figure out what I was saying. Sadly, I've lost most of my ASL except for the alphabet & a handful of random words, but I still love watching people use it and absolutely advocate for it being taught to everyone for the sake of accessibility, if nothing else.

I lived in a town with a school for the deaf and a lot of deaf people in my community. I took 3 years of sign language in high school. I have met so many deaf people and helped in situations.

Sign language should be encouraged as a form of learning. It's as vibrant and as expressive as spoken language. Just think about someone you know who always makes a ton of hand gestures when speaking. It can elevate someone to be charismatic or even just fun to be around because you can see their excitement! Sign language users are just a master of their craft

My late mom taught preschool before she had me and had two girls in her class that were on the spectrum, non-verbal. Sign language was literally the only way my mom and her co-teacher could communicate with them. And she taught some of it to me as I grew up, then I learned more of it on my own. I'm no expert, but I definitely could communicate in broken sign or spelling something out if need be. I think the most frustrating thing I've ever heard about sign language is I was trying to flash gang signs. No, I was practicing the ABCs in sign language, and that ignorance hurt my brain. Also, I cannot stand ableism. Deaf people cannot just 'learn' to hear, mute people cannot just 'learn' to speak, people unable to walk or move cannot just 'learn' to walk or move. People need to understand we need to help those who are different, and not force them to conform to the 'norm.'

I agree with the video that sign language is great. However. I think it's weird at 3:03 when she says only deaf people are making new languages. There are plenty of new languages being developed. Some are developed for entertainment, like Quenya and Klingon. Many others are developed as international languages, like Esperanto, Interlingua, and Toki Pona. There have even been people who grew up with Esperanto as their first language. They may not have as many users as, say, ASL, but they certainly have their own communities and cultures.

Watching this after earning a BA in ASL and Deaf Studies makes me so happy. I'm hearing but I majored in ASL and I fell in love with Deaf culture. And since realizing I'm autistic I'm realizing just how much ASL and the Deaf community might have helped me without me realizing it. For example, I found that when I go non-verbal I instinctually start to sign (much to my partner's dismay as she can't understand me yet). During my years in college I finally felt safe to express myself and be more "animated" because that's just how ASL is. And I appreciate the bluntness many of my Deaf professors has, as clear communication is highly valued. Whereas a hearing person might dance around the subject and use euphemisms, a Deaf person would probably just say it outright. "Oh you know it's that time of the month" vs "I started my period". This video for me is basically a review of everything I had learned in college, so it's really exciting seeing it all explained in a single video that hopefully many people will see. And seeing the interpreter in the video made me super happy. I really wish there were more Deaf spaces. I remember going to Mozzeria in SanFrancisco before covid hit, unfortunately it closed (they have a food truck now though) so the only restaurant location is in DC near Gallaudet. I really hope that Deaf culture and signed languages continue to be more embraced by society. I'd do my BA all over again in a heart beat just to interact with my professors and with the culture again. I hope hearing people and Deaf people can work together to create more universally designed spaces, I hope ASL is taught in schools more, I hope that people can learn to embrace differences instead of forcing people to conform to what they think is "normal". Honestly, seeing this video kinda gives me some hope that things will get better.

YES YES YES! My family is french canadian and have had to fight the health care system and educational system, as well as extended family, who don't understand why we want our HOH daughter to learn LSQ (a cousin of ASL, also descended from LSF), and have taken classes to keep up and are sending her to a french-LSQ-bilingual school. It's a struggle still, and every time my daughter takes off her hearing aids when it's too noisy and they're not helping, someone has to make a comment about us "ruining her chance at learning to be normal". I've seen the anger and pain of the older Deaf community members who didn't learn to sign until they were in high school or older, and missed out on decades of community and family and understanding and being understood. I will never understand how anyone can say a signed language is inferior, except if they've never once met or spoken to or read about a signing person in their own words.

In Japanese documentaries following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, it was pointed out that the deaf died at a disproportionately high rate. They couldn't hear the sirens or directions and had less preparations/training for disaster. The survivors had greater difficulty at retreat points, often because they didn't want to admit they are deaf.

As a parent, I could see how frustrated my children were as toddlers because they didn't yet have the words they needed! It's wonderful to see parents today teaching basic signs to hearing infants and finding that the child is calmer, happier, and more attentive. I can't help wondering if the difficulty of "the terrible twos" is simply the frustration and anxiety of a person having a complex interior life without being able to fully express what they need and feel! My daughter is a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing students and so, an active part of the deaf community. When I attend church with her, *I* am the one whose ability to communicate is limited. Even with a very welcoming group and an interpreter beside me, I found myself contributing far less to the discussion; abbreviating what I shared to shorten the delay between responses. I didn't realize how challenging it was--and how frustrating!--until we were leaving and I found myself feeling unfulfilled and exhausted. It was eye-opening for me. How wonderful it would be for everyone to be bilingual! And the unique dimensions of visual language put it at the top of the list. 😀

Getting an implant shouldn't be shamed or a bad thing. Getting one would allow access for many languages.

I think Sign Language should be a requirement in schools. Not only are there cognitive advantages, it's also helps with hearing people who have speech delays and disorders. I want a world where a deaf person can go into a restaurant and sign what they want and have all the staff to be able to respond with sign.

I think of oralism and sign language as being tools in a box. Pull out the tool that works best in the given situation. You can add to that writing things down or any other idea relative to getting an idea across. You may need to use multiple tools at once. A cochlear implant is not the devil. Even if you don't end up understanding speech with it, if it just gives you the awareness of sound that's a huge benefit. Sound as a warning or for getting one's attention is something neither oralism nor sign language can offer.

I don't know a single deaf person in real life but sign language seems like a lot of fun actually and have practical applications too, for example in loud environments.

I really wish more schools offer ASL here in the US. I never knew such a language existed until I met some of my cousins who were deaf (I was 11 or 12). I was astonished by they communicated with each other and their parents. A year ago, at my job I used to work at I had another accounted with a family who used sign languages and it was pretty difficult to communicate and so they had to point at which meal and drinks they wanted. No one at my job knew ASL either. Looking back now, I feel really bad that I was never able to communicate with any of them.

Wait. There have been multiple videos on this channel and other PBS channels telling us about the development of new languages, words, creoles, etc. There absolutely have been new spoken languages in the last 500 years.

Friend of mine is home schooling and from the get go she has been teaching her daughter ASL. Neither of them have hearing issues; but my friend has always been VERY adamant that learning ASL is of huge importance, for her and for her daughter both. It's not just because they have friends who are hard of hearing either. I've always been super impressed with them for doing it. I have never tried to learn - to be honest I rarely even see anyone providing ASL "captions" at performances locally. It's becoming more and more common, and I'm seeing ASL in a lot of kids' educational programming right alongside Spanish, which I think is completely brilliant. (I live in the southeast USA, this IS a big deal for this place.) I just wish I'd been granted the chance to learn such things back when I was a kid myself. I'll never be comfortable in ASL even if I try my hardest, I'm over 40 and frankly I'm probably losing brain cells faster than ever, hah! But I'm newly encouraged to give it a try and learn whatever I can!

As a semi-verbal Autistic person, I wish that I had been taught ASL back when I was young enough to effectively learn it. ASL is primarily useful for deaf people - but I hear that there are also semi-verbal Autistic people who find it very useful as well when their power to speak fails them - and being semi-verbal Autistic myself, I wish I had that to fall back on.

One fun thing you can do with ASL - communicate long-distance without yelling. I'm learning it now in my 50s because I'm hard-of-hearing with implant and I've found myself in situations where my implant wasn't working (usually dead battery and spare wasn't available right away) and it would help to use ASL. If more emergency folks knew ASL, it'd help communicate with deaf victims.

The only real exposure to the deaf community I ever had was when I was living in Kansas, especially Olathe, for a couple of years. There was a really good deaf school there but the deaf community hated it because that school was teaching "signed exact English" which is a completely different language to ASL, at least when I was living there that school was still teaching it, though it was almost 20 years ago though.

I learned some sign back in the early 1980s. I learned because I was working with a deaf lady. However, as hard as I tried, and I really did try, I couldn't really become fluent in ASL any more than I had become fluent in any of the other languages I had tried to learn. It is the same problem as I have with grammar in English. Because English is the language I grew up with, I have a sort of 'instinct' of the correct grammar, but I can't say why I know that. Honestly, it is also the same as when they put letters in math that won't be solved into a 'real' number. I call it a language learning disability.

I don’t think it’s about “fixing” anyone. I think it’s about allowing deaf people to be able to have relationships with peers outside of those who are also deaf, hearing-impaired or able to pick up sign-language. Learning another language is not easy and while learning one for you friend is admirable, for most adults and kids it’s hard to make connections and develop friendships in the first place when you can’t communicate. I know this very well, I have a deaf cousin. He’s older than me and because I’ve never been able to communicate with him I’ve never had any relationship with him. I’ve never had a conversation with him, even when we’ve been visiting our grandparents at the same time. He can read lips so he understand me sort of but I can’t understand him. My mother told me she tried to learn sign language when he was little but he was learning it faster than she was and even she just couldn’t keep up anymore. None of the adults ever tried to teach me or translate for me so we just grew up as strangers. These kids won’t be limited to who they can talk to and that’s something to celebrate. That being said, Cochlear implants do not work for all deaf people. There are various causes for deafness and for some people like my cousin, Cochlear implants made no difference. There will always be a need for sign language especially for the mute.

0:28 "...trying to fix something that just isn't broken." They're deaf. Their ears are, in fact, broken.

I really wish we could all be taught signing alongside spoken words as universally as possible, it's super intrinsic to humanity and we have so much to undo the squashing of its general usage.

I wish asl was taught, it honestly seems so fun and useful. Even as a hearing person. There's time when i don't feel like speaking.. AND i have a quiet voice.. so it would be nice to not have to rely only on my voice to be heard. Id like to learn it now tbh.

3:09 please tell her that spoken ConLang exist

There's actually tons of newer spoken languages. Esperanto, Lingala, even Afrikaans is less than 500 years old if you're looking for an official national language

i learned the ASL alphabet when i was a kid bc there was a classmate that was hard of healing and i still try to be cognizant of basic things like finger spelling, singing "hello" and "thank you" and words here and there and it wouldve been so much better if i had a more comprehensive education in it bc its helpful to be inclusive but also it just seems like such a great language to learn.

A few years after my children were born "Baby Sign-language" started to be a popular thing, so we never tried it with them. However, when we started having grand kids I bought "Baby Sign-Language" type products for them. (All about two years apart, so bought different tapes/books.) None of them learned "a-lot" of signs or a full language, but! They all learned some symbols, and watching them communicate before talking was amazing and worth while, I think. ("Potty", "Hungry", "Pain", "Happy", "Sad".) As always thank you so very much for the video. (Now on to the survey.)

Don't tell the conlang community "There have been no new spoken languages"

3:20. I gotta disagree with this. Vocal languages aren't developed out of the either, they grow, change, and separate into different dialects and then eventually different languages. American English is distinctly different than England English, which is distinctly different from Australian English. All three should be considered separate dialects, as while communication between them isn't supremely difficult it does have challenges. As some words hold different meanings, and some words just don't exist one one of the languages while existing in the others. That's not even including the differences in "slang"(where languages start changing as some slang is picked up by the majority of a population), or in idioms or phatic language. Languages have clearly changed and become different, all over the world, in the past 500 years.

I just started learning ASL 10 weeks ago and I already prefer it to speaking. I find it easier as a more visual person to translate my thoughts into signs rather than spoken words. I also love learning about Deaf culture. It's definitely something I think more people should learn!

As a dyslixic person I feel this. Rather then just spell a word teachers would sound out a word to "aid" my learning as that is the "proper" means of learning to spell. My brain is not wired for that I will never learn that way. So the history of forcing kids to copy sounds they can't hear feels like someone went into my nightmares and forced them on others. I have never met a deaf person and no idea if my learnig disablity would make sign language harder but now I just want to try and learn.

My daughter taught my granddaughter what was called Baby sign when she was just a baby, even though she could hear all right. I was amazed that my granddaughter was able to communicate her thoughts before she learned how to talk.

"Theres no new spoken languages being created" I'm sorry but I really have to point out that that's not correct.

I really wish this video also included the variety of *American Indian Sign Languages (AISL)* that are already present and common in the Americas long before colonization, as well as *Black American Sign Language (BASL)* that exist alongside American Sign Language (ASL) in later years.

Three tragic situations come to mind. 1. A family who rented my grandfather's property had a son whom they claimed was mentally slow and couldn't speak well. He had gone through oralism school and because he couldn't always see the conversations being spoken, he had been left behind. 2. The second, a medical doctor's son, was forbidden by his father to use sign language up until high school when he realized it actually might have been helpful to his son. Once involved in Deaf camp the son didn't feel he was as fluent as some of his friends but he finally found a space where he felt he could blossom. One of his hearing brothers also learned enough sign they could family sign and communicate beside simply giving directions. 3. The last one was while I was trying to learn asl from a friend, I met a deaf young adult who had never been exposed to language until an adult much like the first man mentioned. Most importantly, his hearing wife who signed said his emotional fluency was diagonosed as very poor and not likely to progress much because during his first 5 years he had largely been warehoused. To me it seemed like his parents thought it better he learn no language if he couldn't learn to speak english. What a permanent mistake that not even learning general signing or getting an implant could compensate for. The biggest take away I get is... too many hearing people decide "they" are the normal ones, without question, repeat, without question. It is to the loss of all of us.

I work with a deaf kid, and he busts his rear and kills it! It’s so cool to see his ways of expressing himself, and most of my location are trying to learn some ASL to help cater to him a bit more. It’s amazing🙏🏻❤️

Mostly about the beginning of the video but having the ability to hear is better than being deaf. Sign language is awesome, it is great if you know it even when able to hear, but the more senses you have the better. If hearing can be recreated or repaired that is an objectively good thing

Definitely on board with the idea that signed languages are just as valid, and that it would be great if more people learned and used them. On the other hand, this video seems to imply the only advantage of hearing is communicating with other people. Let's keep researching the heck out of those implants I say, why deprive future kids of hearing a mourning dove's call, a singer's voice, the sound of rain, a shout of warning as a speeding vehicle approaches...

ASL is awesome! But also- if I moved to France and could get a device put in my ear that would allow me to perfectly understand French, that wouldn’t be ‘fixing something that isn’t broken’ or ‘erasing my English-speaking identity’, it would just be giving me the option to understand the world around me?

Thank you so much for covering sign language, its history in America, and Deaf culture! I am a Deaf Education graduate student at Gallaudet and am deeply passionate about language access for deaf children. This video covers so many topics that I have tried to explain to family, friends, and even strangers on airplanes. Most folks seem interested in learning about sign language and deaf children's rights when they start to hear about it. This video is going at the top of my resources to pass along to folks who want more information.

Auslan is the Australian sign language. I'm a hearing person who has an acquired brain injury that is starting to interfere with my ability to understand speech and to generate spontaneous speech. BUT I am still able to gesture, and understand gestures. So, off to learn more Auslan

There is a 'Cold Case' (TV show) episode about this. It was about boy at a school of Deaf teenagers. It was really beautiful, him sharing the way he perceived the world. Our culture has done some horrible things based on the idea of helping others 'fit in' :(

I think everyone should be taught sign language in kindergarten. It would be incredibly useful beyond speaking to deaf people. How many times I wish I could have used it in a noisy sports stadium, or a noisy bar, or a noisy workplace, but that will only work if everyone knows it. I also think the hearing impaired should consider cochlear implants if they can have them. There is so much more to the hearing world than language. I wish they could all hear birdsong, and the roar of ocean waves, and frogs on the pond at night.❤️

ASL should be taught alongside spoken English at the earliest possible age to all American children, both deaf and hearing. Not only is sign language very useful to hearing people when in loud environments or across distances too far for hearing but not seeing, but it also has the cognitive bonuses mentioned, and such an education would probably lead to regular usage among hearing people, which would shrink the social gap between the deaf and the hearing.

I always believed in sign language but when I found out that babies can learn sign language before they can talk. WOW! It could avoid frustration for babies.

All languages, be they audible or visual, strengthen each other, undoubtedly a lot more when tought in combination.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! More channels need interpreters!

Being deaf or hard of hearing is a disability by definition. Though we should all endeavor to learn sign language and teach it to kids as a supportive second language, we should remember that "fixing" it with implants is something we also should aim to make available to as many as possible. Banning the use of sign language is also tantamount to banning the use of glasses or canes for the blind, or wheelchairs for the crippled.

When she said that insurance doesn't provide language support that is when it really clicked for me. It blows my mind that you would have to find ways to learn an entire new language to support your child without support from doctors or insurance. But it's true also for Dyslexia. Our insurance paid to diagnose my son, but any methods of giving him better language tools are entirely private and inaccessible to us. And the public school gives him support but only as a child who struggles with reading, not as a child with dyslexia.

It would have been neat to include some history of sign language in Native American communities. Sign Language was heavily integrated into many Native languages for a number of reasons some being the higher rates of Deafness/HOH in Native peoples and it made cross-tribal communication easier as the sign were more universal. Colonization took a lot of that away from us, in many way we lost out spoken and gestural language in the name of becoming "civilized." I am not shocked that much what is spoken about in Deaf/HOH communities is about a desire for more community with hearing folks where they aren't the ones putting in all the effort and still being treated as a burden in hearing spaces.

My older sister was deafened due to being a rubella baby. She had hearing aids in grade school, but hated them. The old clunky hearing aids had a large box for the electronics and other kids would hit the box to hurt her. She did learn sign and lip reading as an adult, but it was more difficult.

I am currently learning ASL with a workshop group on Facebook. I’ve been interested since I was 12, but I’ve never been able to take classes. I am thankful for my workshop group. I’m learning so many new signs and gaining confidence.

I'm only deaf in one ear, and yeah, no hearing aid and no cochlear implant has ever, is ever gonna help that side. It'd be nice to tell where sounds are coming from, though. And I do miss stuff, especially in noisy environments. Extremely frustrating. Maybe DH & I will learn asl (more than the handful of words I know now), though I'm not sure how we'd arrange that for DH. I'll see better if he's signing the ordinary way and he can certainly hear my voice better than I hear his in those places. He's blind, though, and the deaf-blind version would be a lot easier for him to learn

It makes you wonder, too, how oralism impacted Deaf people's ability to interact with other Deaf people. If someone lip-reading only gets 1/3 of the information, how much less effective must it be trying to lip-read someone who wouldn't be speaking naturally? It must have been so isolating. Also, my high school didn't have and ASL class until the year after I graduated. I'm still a little salty about it.

I'm profoundly hearing challenged (I prefer not to used impaired) and I'm grateful for relatives encouraging me to read as it opened a world of curiosity. Where my great-aunt and paternal grandparents succeeded in teaching me life skills, the world and humanity, that is where the public school I went to failed. I was not allowed to use ASL and when I did, I was beaten by the teacher and the principal. Sadly, it was a common practice in some rural schools in the 70s and 80s. I secretly continued to learn what I could of ASL but I lacked any peers who would do it with me. To this day it is lacking but I can understand some of the slang. I wish more educators, vloggers, and documentarians would use CC in their presentations. A few educators I've encountered in recent years said CC would damage the other kids. One thing I learned from a research project and it was unrelated to the research question was the number of people in my focus group who learned English through CC. CC does not damage but it enhances. Its not perfect but it is a good tool. ASL, I wish I knew more and was more competent but I live in area of the country that punishes and isolates those with disabilities. I'm hopeful that someday it will be a more welcoming and better world.

I learned signs as a kid, but I didn't learn ASL grammar, so I use 'sign supported English' instead. To me, it's a kinesthetic language. I don't visualize things without a great deal of difficulty, but I'm very kinesthetically oriented (how things feel, how they move, etc). It'd be interesting to know if there are any studies on that aspect of the language :)

let's not forget the hidden racism of forcing indigenous tribes to lose their various forms of hand language as well

I absolutely love the fact that this is the first video RU-vid gave me form this channel, this s a very eye opening video to me. I had no idea about any of this at all. Also I'm really surprised this is a PBS channel, cuz I grew up watching PBS Kids on TV so it's absolutely awesome getting recommended a PBS channel!! 💖😁💕

I dont know much about the history of the deaf in England, but my Great Uncle was deaf. He died a bit early, but not really young about 5 years ago. I wasnt close to him, but both of my parents have 3 siblings who all married and have children and lived in different places so it just we had so many other family to visit. My Mum told me about her Grandmother and how she looked after him. He was ill, that was the cause in his case, and she made sure he went to a deaf school, and taught him to talk, and his girlfriend who became his wife from the school. She was deaf from birth and couldn't speak. So my Great Grandmother did focus on helping them to talk, but she did also send him to school for the parts she couldn't, and I dont know when that was, but it wasnt recent. To end, they both lived a happy life together, as far as I know, and had 2 boys who arent deaf, but grew up with both languages.

As an auditory learner I took on the challenge of learning sign language.... some have been successful and some haven't, lol. There aren't really any spoken teaching methods so in class my classmates seriously helped me out by speaking even though they weren't supposed to. Online I'd find vids like this one and watch the signer over and over and over again trying and then mute it to see how much I really understood. I have issues mimicking some of the gestures too as my brain seem to be hard wired in reverse. Another issue I came across is they show the movements from the front but your seeing your hands from behind so it can be difficult trying to remember if your doing it right by feeling alone. Those are the issues I ran into, and I'm far from surprised but I wanted the challenge and at the time where i was working I had 2 deaf regulars and while we worked out a method of communication I did want to try and communicate with them on their level.

I think that the authors forgot about Esperanto. That is a new language meant to become a universal language for Europe, to be understood everywhere on the continent and more, but since language is married to culture, Esperanto doesn't have the pull that French or Italian does. But while they are "just for laughs" the various "conlangs" are new and have gained small but devoted followings. You can have an intelligent conversation in Klingon and there is a culture attached to it, and while it will never be spoken as a daily language, it has enriched our world.

I took classes in American Sign Language in college. It was wonderful! It's my understanding that children who are taught ASL as infants learn to communicate much earlier. Even a gorilla, named Koko, learned some ASL, and that proves how valuable ASL is! I just wish I could've learned it as a child.

3:06 In the time Cordano claims no new spoken languages where created there are several dozen "creole" languages (Haitian, Jamaican, etc.) that where created. The first building blocks of standardized German where laid by the Luther Bible in 1522, the languages of the Balkan have been and are going through enormous changes, with conlangs new languages were created, without linguistic relatives. So claiming that spoken languages are static merely points to her being more uninterested in them than any person with hearing is in sign language.

Language is not the only problem with being deaf. There are so many auditory ques that are very useful in everyday life. So even with the richness of sign languages there is still a good reason to try and give people at least some sort of hearing if possible.

Spoken languages are not static. Many new languages have been created the last 500 years. Swedish and Danish were the same language 500 years ago, but now they are barely mutably intelligible. I think it is the same with Russian and Ukrainian. Plus languages not split between countries have drifted far the last 500 years. Not sure many would understand the spoken version of English at Shakespear's time, even if we can read it.

I read about a neighborhood that all learned ASL so they could communicate with a deaf family.

I'm speechless about this, literally as I'm mute. No manner of surgery could fix it as it was during a car accident and they barely saved my trachea. So, I was forced to learn Sign Language (Spanish version) after my teenhood, and it was a nightmare. Not only I could only talk with less than 1% of the population, when I moved from one corner of the country to the other, the deaf/mute people on my college were talking a "variant" of the official one taught in the army, and I was shunned because I was related to the army because of this, was labeled as fascist for using that Sign Language so none of them wanted to even flick a single finger at me but to bird me. I do wish that technology advances so much that I can talk again. I really don't miss the perceived "culture" that is in it, and I use automated speech to the most robotic voice available because I freak out to listen to a natural voice talking in my stead and I grew tired of making video-chats of my signs unless it was a deaf person. Many cultures are phased out but stored in history records. They don't go anywhere and we shouldn't allow our fears to lose something to hinder us from walking forward. It's time to let go and embrace the technology that enables people to hear, see and talk again (if that last one even exists...).

I wouldn't say it's technically true that new languages aren't being developed. I would say that Internet language has been, (and is being) developed.

This series is best on all of youtube. I love this show. Great education, great research, and presented in a wonderful way.