Hearing – impaired people cannot hear sounds well. How do they ’ hear’ words and 'talk
Many hearing-impaired people use American Sign Language (ASL). They talk with their hands. Sometimes two hearing-impaired people talk to each other. They both use ASL. Sometimes a person who can hear interprets for hearing-impaired people. The person listens to someone talking, and then he or she makes hand signs.
There are two kinds of sign language. One kind has a sign for every letter in the alphabet. The person spells words. This is finger spelling. The other kind has a sign for whole words. There are about five thousand of these signs. They are signs for verbs, things and ideas. Some of the signs are very easy, for example, eat, milk, and horse. You can see what they mean. Others are more difficult, for example, star, egg, or week.
People from any country can learn ASL. They don't speak words. They use signs, so they can understand people from other countries.
ASL is almost like a dance. The whole body talks. American Sign Lan¬guage is a beautiful language.