Manualism

Manualism is a philosophy of deaf education that maintains that the best way for deaf students to acquire language and knowledge is with the use of a language produced manually and received visually, in other words a sign language. This philosophy has been locked for centuries in an emotional debate that continues to this day with the alternate philosophy of oralism.

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The manualists claim that the oralists neglect the psycho-social development of deaf children in their zeal for training in articulation which requires long, tedious practice leaving them with no time or energy to advance academically and socially. This leaves them with inadequate skills and often with poor speaking ability despite the great effort invested since the oral method works best with children who have lost hearing after already having learned to speak. Manualists feel nothing is more important that giving deaf children a visual-motor language they can truly master so as to enable their intellect and humanity to develop normally and that to not respect the whole child treats them as only a broken set of ears and is tantamount to neglect or even abuse.

Deaf education: redirect Deaf culture...

Deaf: The word deaf, can have very different meanings based on the background of the person speaking or the context in which the word is used. The term is commonly used to mean having profound hearing impairment, a physiological condition causing an inability to receive or process aural stimulation, i.e.,...

Language: A language is a system of expression and communication. Individual languages use sound, gesture, and other means to express and communicate concepts, emotions, ideas, and thoughts. Expressions of a language are analysable into words, whose meanings are usually conventional. The word "language" is ...