Sign Language is becoming so popular in our culture that high schools are offering it as a language class alternative to Spanish, French and other foreign languages. It is a beautiful way to communicate; its appearance is a dance with fingers. It is a logical and wonderful way to talk. It can be the preferred way some deaf, hearing impaired or non-verbal people have to communicate.

There are different types of sign language. Two that I am familiar with are American Sign Language (ASL) and Signed English (SE). ASL is a quicker more abbreviated way to communicate. It is a short cut that allows grammatical structures to be eliminated or altered to permit a “short hand” approach to communicating with another person. SE is sign language utilizing the grammar of the spoken and written word more precisely. Total Communication is the pairing of verbal communication and manual communication at the same time. When sign language must be used with the hearing population or in a school or learning environment, signed English is the better option. This will help in an increased understanding and use of reading and writing proper English.

Deafness can be defined as “Denoting one in whom the sense of hearing is nonfunctional, with or without amplification, for the ordinary purposes of life.” People can be born totally deaf which would prevent the typical acquisition of speech and language. They could have become deaf in childhood prior to developing speech and language (prelingual). They could have lost their hearing after having acquired speech and language (postlingual). Further explanation of deafness and hearing loss and its relationship to speech and language will be deferred to another time.

Sign language is also used for people with brain injury or people that are mute for various reasons. There are strategies used with children that are speech delayed utilizing sign language to aid in the establishment of verbal speech. I have even been told of programs encouraging the use of sign language along side or prior to verbal speech for “normal” babies and toddlers.

As a speech language pathologist my bias is going to be toward verbal communication. Unlike the philosophy in the movie Children of a Lesser God, I would like the deaf and hearing impaired community to be able to assimilate into the hearing world, not the other way around. There are times that this is impossible and sign language is the only way for deaf people to communicate. It is also different when deaf people communicate with each other. An educational environment that is specialized for the deaf may also have to modify teaching techniques different than hearing schools.

Sign language is extremely helpful with severely delayed youngsters and can be a very effective way to introduce verbal language. I am not a proponent of sign language being taught from birth to acquire verbal speech in a typical youngster. In my limited experience, it was my observation that it slowed down verbal speech in the typical child.

In conclusion, sign language has its place. It can be an essential tool for promoting communication. For those that can communicate verbally it is not an equal substitute.