Communication Methods

American Sign Language (ASL)  ASL is used by many deaf in the United States, thus its use promotes assimilation into the Deaf Community. ASL is a visual language, and speech-reading or listening skills are not needed to learn ASL fluently. Because of its visual nature, ASL is very graphic, and understanding of concepts can be promoted more easily. It has developed over time through usage by deaf individuals and is a free-flowing, natural language. ASL is a language complete in itself. It is not usually written or spoken, but can be translated, just like French or German, to English and vice versa. It does count as a language credit at University level, because it is a separate language. ASL usually follows the TIME + TOPIC + COMMENT structure.

Pidgin Signed English (PSE)/ Signed English PSE is probably the most widely used communication mode in the United States among deaf and hearing persons who work with them. The vocabulary is drawn from ASL but follows English word order. Words that do not carry information (e.g. to, the, am, etc.) are often dropped, as are the word endings of English (e.g. -ed, -s, -ment, etc.). This means that the signer can easily speak while signing, since it is possible to keep pace with spoken English. It is simpler to learn than ASL or SEE, since one does not need to include all English endings, nor does one to master the structure or idioms of ASL. (Many ASL Students sign this way)

Signing Exact English (SEE II) SEE is based upon signs drawn from ASL and expanded with words, prefixes, tenses, and endings to give a clear and complete visual presentation of English. The ASL sign for the concept of “pretty, lovely, beauty, beautiful” and other such synonyms is retained for beauty, initialized with P for pretty, L for lovely, and the suffix -ful is added for beautiful. The child thus has an opportunity to develop an expanded vocabulary. SEE encourages the incorporation of ASL features to show intonation visually. SEE does require more signing time that PSE, because of the word endings and prefixes, etc. Over-concentration on signing every word may lead to “colorless” signing.

Seeing Essential English (SEE I) Developed in the US in 1966 by a deaf teacher named David Anthony, seeing essential English (SEE I) was intended to teach proper grammatical construction by using gestures borrowed from ASL but it implements English word order In SEE1, all compound words are formed as separate signs - instead of using the ASL sign for butterfly, SEE1 places the signs for butter and fly in sequential order. Many gestures from ASL are initialized in SEE1 – the ASL sign for “have” is signed with the H handshape in SEE1. Grammatical markers also have signs of their own, including the -ing ending and articles such as the, which are not typically included in ASL.

Sign supported speech, or simultaneous communication Sign supported speech (SSS) involves voicing everything as in spoken English, while simultaneously signing a form of PSE. The vocabulary, syntax and pragmatics of English are used, with the PSE serving as a support for the reception of speech. Signs are borrowed from the local deaf sign language and/or are artificial signs invented by educators of the deaf. The terms SSS and SimCom are now often used synonymously with total communication (TC), though the original philosophy of TC is quite different.

Cued speech Instead, Cued Speech uses eight handshapes - none of which are derived from sign languages - to represent consonant phonemes, and four hand placements around the face to represent vowel phonemes.  Cued Speech must be combined with mouthing (associated with the speaking of a language), as the hand shape, hand placement, and information on the mouth combine as unique feature bundles to represent phonemic values. Cued Speech has been adapted for languages and dialects around the world.

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Rochester method The Rochester method involves  fingerspelling every word. It was originated by Zenas Westervelt in 1878, shortly after he opened the Western New York Institute for Deaf-Mutes (presently known as the Rochester School for the Deaf). Use of the Rochester method continued until approximately the 1940s, and there are still deaf adults from the Rochester area who were taught with the Rochester method. It has fallen out of favor because it is a tedious and time-consuming process to spell everything manually (YES!!)