Human speech is a means of communication directed towards hearing, and it can be fully assimilated only through hearing. If a person is born deaf or becomes deaf in early childhood, speech acquisition becomes extremely difficult, and deafness develops into deaf-mute.
With any disability, compensatory mechanisms come into play: the absence or weakness of one function is compensated for at the expense of others. People with severe hearing impairments use visual communication. At the same time, the "tool" is involved, which is always "with you" - the hands.
Deaf and dumb communication with each other
Deaf people use two types of sign systems - dactyl alphabet and sign speech.
The dactyl alphabet is a system of hand signs that correspond to letters. A hand clenched into a fist denotes the letter "a", a palm with straightened clenched fingers and a thumb set aside - "b", etc. These alphabets differ from language to language. In some countries (for example, in the UK) fingerprinting is done with two hands.
The Russian dactyl alphabet assumes fingerprinting with one hand (more often the right hand is used, but this is of no fundamental importance). The arm is bent at the elbow, the hand is in front of the chest.
In sign language, gestures do not mean individual letters or sounds, but whole words and concepts. There are sign languages that have developed precisely in the communication of deaf people, which differ in structure from verbal languages, and tracing sign speech, reproducing the structure of verbal. This is a kind of "bridge" between the language of the deaf and the language of the hearing.
Usually deaf and dumb people use sign speech as the main one, and dactyl speech as an auxiliary one, denoting names, titles, special terms with it - in a word, everything for which there are no concept-gestures.
Communication of the deaf and dumb with the hearing
A deaf-mute person does not live in isolation from the “world of hearing”, and such children are prepared for integration into this “world” even before entering kindergarten.
Deafness is rarely total. In most cases, a person has residual hearing that works at certain frequencies and at very high volumes. These people use heavy duty hearing aids. At the same time, it is impossible to hear fully, but a person still receives a certain share of auditory information. During classes, the child is put on headphones with powerful sound amplification.
Deaf educators (teachers and educators who work with deaf children) use all available "information channels" to "reach out" to the child's brain. Children are taught to read early. In specialized kindergartens, all actions are accompanied by a demonstration of tablets with words and phrases. When a child comes to kindergarten, he has to take a sign "Hello", and when leaving - "Goodbye", after a meal - "Thank you", etc. Demonstration of plates is combined with gestures, fingerprinting. Teaching the child the dactyl alphabet, the teacher teaches him to fold his lips according to the letters, puts his hand on his cheeks, throat or nose so that the child feels vibration.
Thanks to such efforts, in most children it is possible to develop, to a certain extent, even sound speech. Such people speak indistinctly, their speech differs in timbre, but if desired, you can understand them. Such people can read lips, which allows them to understand those who hear. When communicating with a deaf or hard of hearing person, do not turn away or cover your mouth with your hand.
But all the same, communication between deaf and dumb people with hearing remains difficult. In everyday life, such people usually use notes. In some cases, sign language interpreters help deaf people. The need for their services arises when deaf people go to a doctor, give testimony to the police or in court, or deal with officials. Nowadays, there are even Orthodox churches where divine services are held with the participation of a sign language interpreter. Unfortunately, the number of sign language interpreters in the Russian Federation is small: there are only three sign language interpreters per 1000 deaf people. The solution to this problem is a matter for the future.
