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Informationen zum Autor Dr. Elaine Costello has been an educator and author associated with the field of deafness for more than twenty years. For ten years she was a classroom teacher and supervisor in schools for the deaf. She is now the director and editor in chief of the Gallaudet College Press at Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C., the world's only liberal arts college for the deaf. Klappentext American Sign Language is a wonderful silent language of hands, face, and body that is rich with nuance, emotion, and grace. Bantam is proud to present the newly revised Signing : How To Speak With Your Hands, a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide that has long been the invaluable and definitive guide for families, friends, and professionals who need to communicate effectively with deaf children and adults. Now this expanded edition, with redesigned interiors and updated material, includes even more signs; large, upper-torso illustrations clearly show formation and movement of the hands, and their relation to the face and body. All the beautifully illustrated signs are accompanied by precise, easy-to-follow instructions on how to form them. This complete guide includes chapters on common phrases, the alphabet, foods and eating, health, recreation, and the newest chapter covering technology, politics. education, and music.Introduction In recent years sign language has shown an amazing growth in popularity. Thousands of individuals of all ages are discovering that the study of sign language can be a fascinating and rewarding adventure. Signing: How to Speak With Your Hands is designed to assist you in learning this vibrant, expressive language that is used by Deaf people throughout North America. This book makes sign language study easier in many ways. It presents manageable amounts of new sign vocabulary within logical topical groupings. The illustrations are large and clear, presenting the full upper torso of the body so that the new signer can accurately duplicate the sign. Even though it is difficult to isolate any sign from its context, Lois Lehman has achieved a rare degree of accuracy in rendering each sign the way it is most commonly performed. At the beginning of each chapter, linguistic principles are described which will broaden the use of the sign vocabulary presented in the book. This information about the structure of sign language comes from recent research into its grammatical features. Incorporating these principles into your signing will help you master the language as it is used by Deaf people. This book does not contain all of the signs available in sign language. These 1,300 basic signs will provide enough vocabulary to express a vast number of ideas when coupled with the linguistic principles that are included. To use sign language fluently, you will find it necessary to practice your new skills with other signers. The more you associate with Deaf people, the easier it will become for you to send and receive information through sign language. Introduction to Deafness In the United States it is estimated that 32 million people have hearing losses of varying degrees of severity. Of this number, approximately two million individuals have hearing losses severe enough to be considered deaf. That is, they cannot hear or understand either speech or most of the sounds in the everyday environment, even with the help of a hearing aid. This population is comprised both of persons who have been deaf since infancy and persons who lost their hearing later in life. Some of the causes of deafness are heredity, illness, physical abnormalities, trauma to the skull or ear, certain heavy medications, and, most common, loss of hearing acuity due to age. Hearing losses that are caused by diseases or obstructions in the outer ear can sometimes be corrected by surgery or a hearing aid. Hearing losses that result from damage ...
