Supporting a Deaf young person cont.
Deaf terminology BSL is a full and complex natural language. It is the preferred language of most Deaf people in the UK, for whom spoken English may be a second or third language. BSL is a rich, visual-gestural language with a distinctive grammar using handshapes, facial expressions, and body language to convey meaning. BSL has its own grammatical structure and syntax, and as a language it is not dependant on nor strongly related to spoken English. BSL was only recognised by the UK government as an official language in 2003, following a large campaign (152). Sign Supported English (SSE) is another form of signing used in Britain. SSE uses the same signs as BSL but is signed in the same order as spoken English. It is also used alongside spoken English. It is in particular used in schools where deaf children are learning English grammar alongside their signing, or by Deaf people who socialise a lot with hearing people (153). Sign names are nicknames for people given by Deaf people and are a fundamental part of Deaf culture. Fingerspelling a person’s name can take a long time and a sign name instead is an important aspect of deaf culture. Sign names usually derive from the way a person looks or their interest (154). For example, instead of fingerspelling ‘Bob Smith’ a Deaf person might just fingerspell ‘B’ then ‘S’ while mouthing ‘Bob Smith’. Sign names can also take the form of a nickname such as ‘curly hair’ or ‘glasses’. Lipreading is a way for a Deaf person to understand what someone is saying by watching the movement of their lips, mouth, tongue, and face. Lipreading isn’t always useful by itself – different words can have similar lip patterns. It’s important to be aware that on average only 30% of a sentence might be lip readable so it involves a lot of processing and guesswork. This can be even
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