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.

The debate

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.

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The oralist claim that the manualists neglect the residual hearing in deaf children and their emphasis on sign language isolate them from the wider culture and hearing family members thus serving to inculcate them in a clannish and inferior subculture that leaves them unable to succeed in the general population. They point out that a only a tiny percentage of the general population can use sign language. Oralists feel that nothing is more important than giving deaf children the tools to fit with their families and society at large and so to not develop a child's ability to hear and speak to its utmost is tantamount to neglect or even abuse.

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The modern development of the cochlear implant has served to renew the historical debate anew.

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