detailed argument for SignWriting to be used in Deaf Education

[Charles Butler]

1) Children who are respected for what they know already will learn other things that parallel them.  One researcher in UK that presented in Brazil noted that Sign Language if matched mode for mode can bridge the communication gap.  Spoken languages have a written component.  If a child starts with writing the language they already use every day, they can make the logical leap to understand that the spoken language, that they cannot hear, can also be written.  
   
  2) Any person who uses multiple languages in everyday commerce (as the Irish do switching back and forth between Gaelic and English), know that if you know two languages, adding a third is easy.  The same with using Sign Writing.  If a person learns to write their own language, they can know that "these marks on paper" record my thoughts.  "Those marks on paper" record someone else's thoughts, in a different language.  Both Gaelic and English use the Roman alphabet, but Chinese or Russian do not.  One would not expect one to write Gaelic using English words, one should not expect signed language to be written in an alphabet meant for recording sound.
  
Hope that helps.
   
  Charles
  
Shane Gilchrist O hEorpa <shane.gilchrist.oheorpa at gmail.com> wrote:
  hi everyone,

sorry for not contributing in the past month - as much as I love you
all, work demands my fullest attention of lately!!!

as some of you know im one of the Trustees for the Deaf School here in
Belfast, im trying to put together a detailed argument why we should
teach sign-writing to deaf children in my School - perhaps you can
tell me why it is important for them to learn this - and for what
purposes?

Shane xx


  

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