by E. Tillery

Created on: July 08, 2009   Last Updated: July 09, 2009

Visually transmitted sign patterns is the most technical way to describe sign language. Sign language is based on the concept that visual communication is the best way for a deaf person to send and receive information. With the use of your hands, arms, body and facial expressions the non-hearing or hard of hearing community are able to communicate. It's also a way that many young children are beginning to speak. Some people think sign language was also used during some of our earliest times of recorded history among groups of people who were from different cultures and spoke different languages.

Sign Language and American Sign Language (ASL) are used all over the world to help people communicate. ASL wasn't found to be a real language until the Dictionary of American Sign Language was written by William Stokoe, Carl Croneberg, and Dorothy Casterline. This language allows people to socialize and carry on with their lives as any hearing person would.

It's thought that some form of sign language has existed since the first deaf or mute person existed. There had to be some way for this community to get their voices heard. However, the first written knowledge of sign language wasn't created until 1620 in Spain by Juan Pablo Bonet. It was used as a basis to understand how you can help mute people speak. It contained the first written alphabet that used your hands to represent letters of the alphabet. There are also actual signs which are used to express words and ideas. This was later used as the archetype for ASL. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet helped to develop the first formal education for deaf people. It happens to also be one of the most commonly used languages in the United States. There has yet to be a universal sign language developed. French Sign Language (FSL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are a couple of forms currently being used in the world.

Beyond the basic use of ASL is a sub form known as finger spelling. This is used to express things when there is no official sign to use in its place. Typically this form describes people and places. If a sign has already been formed to describe something, it's recommended that you use the sign and not resort to finger spelling.

Sign language has a long history and has helped people over time develop a functional way of communicating. It not only allows the mute, non-hearing and hard of hearing to communicate within that community, it also has allowed those who are hearing to communicate with them as well. It's also a language that is beginning to teach our babies about language before they can speak. Sign language as a whole is essential in creating a world that brings people together through communication and understanding.

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