AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

ASL

ASL- ITS OWN LANGUAGE ASL is not an adapted form of English,

unlike Braille, which is a code for the English alphabet.

ASL has its own syntax (sentence structure) and grammar.

ASL is its own language, much like French, Spanish, and Italian.

HOW MANY PEOPLE USE IT? ASL is the 3rd most common language in

the United States. ASL is only surpassed by English and

Spanish with anywhere between 500,000 and 2,000,000 people in the U.S. use ASL as their primary form of communication.

IS IT ONLY PEOPLE HARD OF HEARING OR DEAF WHO USE ASL? Parents can teach simple ASL signs to

babies in order to help them communicate at a very young age.

Special educators often teach ASL signs to people who have difficulty communicating verbally, whether or not they can hear or not.

Primatologists (scientists who work with apes, chimpanzees, monkeys, and orangutans) teach ASL to the animals so that they can communicate with human beings.

IS THERE ONLY ONE TYPE OF ASL? Sign language is not universal. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico use

American Sign Language (ASL) while England uses British Sign Language.

ASL does have some similarities to French Sign Language and the two have a few matching signs.