User:Definitesky

Definitesky 18:57, 15 September 2007 (UTC)Salvadorian Sign language is a language used by the Deaf community in El Salvador. Its main purpose is to provide education. There are three distinct forms of sign language. American Sign Language was brought over to El Salvador from America by missionaries who set up small communal schools for the Deaf. The government has also created a school for the Deaf, teaching by the means of their own modified Salvadorian Sign Language. The third type of sign language used is a combination of American Sign Language and Salvadorian Sign Language. Most Deaf understand and rely upon both. Their own unique Salvidoran Sign Language is based upon their language and is most useful in regular encounters; however, American Sign Language is often relied upon within education, due to the larger and more specific vocabulary. This is why the Deaf community within El Salvador sometimes rely upon both ASL and SSL in a combined form.

According to a resource, El Salvador has fewer than 500,000 deaf. Bridgebuilders.org reports that El Salvador lacks a formal sign language system; however, that is becasue of the acceptance of the three types of sign language: ASL, SSL, and a combined form of both. Several individual Deaf people have travelled to the United States and brought back ASL, which blended into the national sign language. This also created a distance between the Deaf people who had education and could use ASL and English, and those who only knew Sal Sign and had limited Spanish reading and writing abilities. Though, it does create tension within communication at times, it has proven to be most effective in educating Deaf students, while maintaining their cultural individuality.

There is a formal school for the Deaf run by the government. About every five years, government-hired teachers make their rounds to all the villages and small communities offering to care for and educate the Deaf children. The parents may choose to not send their Deaf children away, but then the children risk receiving little to no education.

The Deaf in El Salvador can always find a way to communicate with each other using signs, ASL, Sal Sign or homemade gestures, because it is their natural mode of communication.