Newcross News Issue 12

Learning and Development
A brief history
of Sign Language
For many of us, Makaton has proven to
be a hugely versatile and helpful means of
communicating. It’s now a language that we
actively promote across Newcross via local
training courses.
Of course, there are many different types of sign language
which have evolved over the years and the history of signing
dates back much further than you might imagine.
685 AD Archbishop of York John of Beverly was
recorded as teaching a deaf person to speak – it
was seen as a miracle
1500s Italian mathematician called Geronimo Cardano
identified that learning does not require the
ability to hear.
1600s Sign language was used for secret
communications as well as for public speaking
and interaction by the deaf.
1760 Thomas Braidwood opened ‘Braidwood’s
Academy for the Deaf and Dumb’ which is
considered to be the first school in Britain to
include sign language in education.
1771 Catholic priest called Abbe Charles Michel de
L’Epee established the first free deaf school
open to the public.
1880 Alexander Graham Bell was involved in the
scheme of banning the use of sign language in
at the Milan conference in 1880.
1892 Electrical Hearing Aid Invented
1974 Sign language was acknowledged as a language
and officially named ‘British Sign Language’.
2003 British Government recognises British Sign
Language as a bona-fide language.
2010 The 21st International Congress on Education
of the Deaf formally apologised for the 1880
ruling citing that it accepted the damaging
ramifications of the sign language ban.
2017
onwards
Several new sign languages developed including
forms such as Makaton. Today there are over
137 different forms of recognised sign language.
Some have legal recognition whilst others have
no status whatsoever.
“
Did you know?
There are an estimated
560 million people in the
world with a hearing loss.
If we hadn’t a voice or
a tongue, and wanted
to express things to
one another, wouldn’t
we try to make signs
by moving our hands,
head, and the rest of
our body.
Socrates – 5th Century BC
“
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