You can also experience hearing loss from working around a lot of extreme noise or even from going to too many loud rock concerts. Still others lose some of their hearing as they get older. American Sign Language became the standard in 1817, when Thomas Gallaudet founded what is now the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. That's when formal education for the Deaf in America began. When the spoken language is not effective in communicating the way we want it to, we can use a visual language called Sign Language.
Sign language is a visual language.
It uses fingerspelling , a set of handshapes which uses a different one for each letter of the alphabet. When you spell with your fingers, it's like writing in the air. The air is your paper. It uses signs which is a specific handshape, position, and movement to express a word or phrase. To applaud in Sign Language, raise your hands with palms facing out.