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How did Sign Language develop in America? (Alice Cogswell (9 year old…
How did Sign Language develop in America?
Alice Cogswell
9 year old neighbor of Gallaudet
Became Deaf at 2 years old due to Meningitis
Gallaudet thought she was teachable. With the support of her father, he sought out to find a way to educate her.
Laurent Clerc
Became Deaf at the age of 1 from falling off a chair into a fireplace.
Attended the school for the Deaf in Paris, France founded by De l'Epee and later became a teacher there.
In 1815, met Gallaudet who would convince him to come to America one year later to cofound the first school for the Deaf.
Gallaudet and Clerc establish the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons in 1817 (later named the American School for the Deaf).
Alice Cogswell is the first student to attend the new school.
Martha's Vineyard
Jonathan Lambert born Deaf in 1694. After several generations of Deaf children being born into his family it was assumed he carried a Deaf gene.
With 1/4 children being born Deaf on the island, there was a very high Deaf population. They had invented a sign language. The Island functioned fully
bilingual.
The sign from Martha's Vineyard later mixed with the French Sign Language brought over by Laurent Clerc and became the foundation for American Sign Language.
Video
Abbe Charles Michel De l'Epee
De l'Epee was a French priest. He visited a home and found twin little girls who did not speak and because of their silence, he thought they were rude. When he learned that they were Deaf, it changed his life.
He invented a sign language and spent his life teaching the Deaf.
His success led to a class of at least 40 students, and in 1754 he set up and funded by himself, the first public school for the deaf in France, the "Institution Nationale des sourds-muets de Paris,"( the National Deaf-Dumb Institute of Paris.)
He established 21 schools for the Deaf all funded by his own money. He often went without to make sure his Deaf students had what they needed.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Went to school to be a minister however, after meeting Alice Cogswell, he put those dreams aside in an effort to try to educate Alice and others like her.
He traveled to Europe to find the most prominent Deaf educators.
He met Laurent Clerc and convinced him to join him in establishing a school for the Deaf in America.
