The importance of sign language and it's use in the deaf community as well as people who are unaware of the culture.

1. WHY ACCESS TO SIGN
LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT
FOR DEAF INDIVIDUALS
KATRINA CALUZA

2. MISCONCEPTIONS
FALSE
 Same as English
 Only used with hands
 Easy to learn
 Universal
 If taught, child will lack in learning English
TRUE
 Has its own grammar and syntax
 Uses body movement and facial
expressions
 ASL is complex as a spoken language
 Dependent on each country, like any other
foreign language
 If taught, kids will become more ready to
learn English and be ready to go to school

3. LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
 From birth to age 5 is what experts call the “critical” period for children to
absorb language.
 When any child is exposed to a foreign language or two languages,
they are absorbing as much as possible, which is important for brain
development
 When a deaf child, however, isn’t exposed to the correct language, the
brain isn’t developing like it should be. They should be exposed to
sign language as soon as they can

4. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS & BODY LANGUAGE
 FACIAL EXPRESSIONS ARE IMPORTANT
 Body language = understanding context of situation
 No facial expressions = no grammar

5. Reading Lips Is Difficult
 Only a small percentage of deaf people can
read lips effectively ‘
ASL is important in this case so they don’t
have to 100% rely on this skill alone

6. Culture Aspect
 ASL is an important way of communicating in deaf culture
 New words are always being exchanged and developed from old signs
 Without this language, there wouldn’t necessarily be a ‘culture’ and no effective
way to communicate with each other