1. American Sign Language Kacie Huber

2. A Brief Description of ASL Expressed through the hands and face ASL has been used in America since the early 1800’s but has only been recognized as a language since 1960 A visual gesture can change the meaning of what you’re trying to communicate

3. Types of Signed Language There are three different types of signed communication ASL is American Sign, PSE is Pidgin Signed English, and SEE which is Signed Exact English ASL Visual language (speech, reading, or listening skills not needed) Translated (not written or spoken) PSE Follows English word order some vocabulary as ASL Simpler to learn than ASL and SEE because you don’t have to add all of the English endings SEE Signs from ASL but expanded with words, prefixes, and tenses For a child it gives them an opportunity to expand and develop vocabulary

4. Deaf Culture and History In 1815 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet went to Europe to find someone who could teach the deaf to communicate Sicard Clerc was a director of a school in Paris but was in England at the time teaching people on how you can teach the deaf by using sign language Gallaudet persuaded Clerc to go back to America with him and in 1817 the first American school for the deaf opened