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Sign languages convey meaning through manual communication and body language instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns. This involves the simultaneous combination of hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express a speaker's thoughts.

The history of sign language
The history of sign language was full of frustration and confusion for individuals in the deaf society. In the mid-1960s, William Stokoe, a hearing scholar from Gallaudet University worked alongside his deaf colleagues to develop a new sign language dictionary that used the internal structure of sign language, including hand shapes and their specific movements to define words. As a result, some came to view sign language as a human language that could be analyzed and understood as like any other. The majority of deaf people, however, felt offended and angered by such a creation. Professor Gilbert Eastman at Gallaudet was shocked that someone would present his language through a collection of bizarre squiggles and symbols. Both members of the deaf and hearing society struggled to name "the sign language", contemplating whether or not it should have even been considered an actual form of language to begin with. There was much worry if such a language would contribute to their already minute state. Evidently, the recognition of American Sign Language brought more conflict and anxiety instead of the expected excitement and joy assumed to occur from the development of a new language. The basis of their anxiety came from their exposure to the public and the thought of exactly how they were to develop their own deaf culture. The combination of language and culture promised equity and opportunity to their minority group and they needed to learn how to develop both. In the 1970s and 1980s, the National Theatre of the Deaf hosted many who were poets and expressed their deaf culture through sign language on stage. Dorothy Miles was one of the first poets to generate ASL poetry. Throughout her career, she went from creating poetry where she precisely matched signs with words to performing poetry where she manipulated the signs themselves to create new forms of meaning that were beyond words themselves. Forms of art, like this one, brought the deaf community together to experience language through performance, which sparked the development of their culture.

Multiple types of sign language
There is no single "sign language". Wherever communities of deaf people exist, sign languages develop. While they use space for grammar in a way that oral languages do not, sign languages exhibit the same linguistic properties and use the same language faculty as do oral languages. Hundreds of sign languages are in use around the world and are at the cores of local deaf cultures. Some sign languages have obtained some form of legal recognition, for example the American Sign Language within the United States and Canada, while others have no status at all. Deaf sign languages are not based on the spoken languages of their region, and often have very different syntax, partly but not entirely owing to their ability to use spatial relationships to express aspects of meaning. The expression of the deaf language differentiates with the time era in which those with hearing loss live.

The first deaf schools
Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée was the first person to open a deaf school, in Paris. Épée taught French Sign Language (LSF) to children, and started the spread of many deaf schools across Europe. The American Thomas Gallaudet, who had traveled to England to learn methods of teaching deaf children in order to start a deaf school in the US, witnessed a demonstration of deaf teaching skills from Épée's successor Abbé Sicard and two of the school's deaf faculty members, Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu. Gallaudet studied under these French masters and perfected his own teaching skills; then, accompanied by Clerc, he returned to the United States, where in 1817 they founded the first successful American deaf school, in Hartford, Connecticut. American Sign Language, or ASL, started to evolve from primarily LSF, and other outside influences.

Communication barriers
The most predominant forms of communication barriers originate from one's own personal self and they are directly the result of the hearing loss condition. These barriers are associated specifically with speech and language. In terms of speech, hearing loss has an effect on speech sound production, for example distortion caused by the omission of various letters from words. The pitch of their voice may sound too high or low and their volume may be louder or quieter then intended. Resonance of voice is also affected, as it can be Hypernasal speech or denasal. Prosody, which represents the patterns of stress and rhythm in the voice, will often become irregular. As a result of such changes to speech, the receiver during a conversation is likely to deem the communicator's speech unintelligible. The placement of improper stresses on syllables makes it more difficult for the receiver to clearly perceive and hear the intended words. Three major problems in terms of language are present for those with hearing loss. First, there are problems with language formation, where individuals may overuse nouns and verbs and they may improperly place words within a sentence. Second, the actual content of the language is troubling, for example the interpretation of synonyms and antonyms. This results in a limited vocabulary. The third major problem is associated with Pragmatics, which includes the inability of individuals to recognize that a message has been delivered to them, therefore resulting in inappropriate questions being asked. All of these speech and language barriers make it difficult for those with hearing loss to control their own speech and understand what others have to say, therefore making it quite difficult to hold a conversation altogether.

Hearing aids
Hearing aids, which amplify the incoming sound, will improve hearing ability, but not completely restore normal hearing. The use of this technological device may or may not have an effect on one's sociability. Some people feel as if they cannot live without one because they say it is the only thing that keeps them engaged with the public. Others dislike hearing aids very much because they feel wearing them is embarrassing or weird. Due to their low-esteem, they avoid hearing aid usage altogether and would rather remain quiet and to themselves in a social environment.