Photo by hue-photo
Life is often unkind to those whose deficiencies are not understood. For example, for thousands of years it was believed that the deaf people are dangerous to society. According to that deaf-mute people in many countries are treated as if they were simple-minded, and they were interned in an asylums or often, even killed.
In the 16th century appeared a man who wanted to help the deaf and dumb. It was an Italian physician Cardan. He believed that the deaf can learn with the help of written characters. His work has attracted a lot of attention, so he in the 17th century invented the alphabet that he expressed with his fingers, similar to today’s speech with fingers used by deaf and dumb. However, it’s been a hundred years before he founded the first public school for the deaf in Leipzig . In every civilized country today, there are institutions for education of deaf-mutes and those whose hearing is damaged.
Deafness may be congenital or acquired, and complete or partial. Hearing can be lost in several ways: as a result of some disease, due to a head injury caused by diseases of the inner or middle ear and ear canal.
Why deaf people cannot speak? Almost always because deaf man never heard the spoken word! However, this can be remedied. In fact, almost all deaf children with normal intelligence can learn to speak if they undergo special instruction.
Up to seventy -five years have taught the deaf to communicate almost exclusively by signs, facial expression and fingers. Using a finger alphabet deaf can “pronounce” the word, letter by letter, at a rate of 130 letters per minute. The deaf still mostly use language characters. For example, if the index finger rubbed across his lips, it means “not telling the truth” and if the three fingers gently hit his chin, it means “my uncle”.
Today the deaf learn to understand what they are talking , even to themselves. Teaching them to observe the movements of the lips of the speaker, to watch and touch the lips and voice organs of their teachers, so that then, imitating those movements, they can repeat that by themselves.
