Chloe Ziff . Professor Gary Rosenblatt. April 13, 2017.

Chloe Ziff Professor Gary Rosenblatt April 13, 2017 American Sign Language II Seeing Voices By Oliver Sacks Seeing Voices is a profound novel that was written by famous neurologist, Oliver Sacks in 1989. Seeing Voices is a book that delves into the history of Sign Language and expresses a genuine meaning behind what language truly is. Oliver Sacks is an engaging and fascinating writer. Being able to explore outside what he is used to, he can expand his knowledge about language. Being knowledgeable on psychiatry can help him get a better understanding of cognitive ability in the deaf community and the importance of why keeping Sign Language away from Deaf children is not beneficial for them in the hearing world. Like many of his books,†¦show more content†¦The language of the Deaf is usually consistent with the environment the language is being spoken in. For example, the signs that one can encounter in British Sign Language can be different than signs that are seen in American Sign Language. Although Sign Language itself is very universal, the specific patterns and methods of spe aking that are associated with each kind of Deaf Community can be drastically different. Sacks himself was not deaf, but it was an exciting experience for him to dive into a community he was not familiar with. The second part of the book, Sacks goes into detail about the importance of Sign Language itself and discusses the situation in which he meets a young Deaf boy named Joseph. When reading this book, I completely understood and agreed with Sacks when he stated that deaf children must learn a language at a young age to be successful. With that being said, Oliver Saks researched American Sign Language, and as a result, he ultimately decided that the Critical Period Hypothesis is extremely important when discussing the Deaf community. This theory states that there is a critical age at which people should learn a language, or they will forever be unable to express themselves with little to no education in language. Sacks show that by keeping Sign Language away from Deaf children is ultimately hurting them rather than helping. Forcing deaf children at a young age to speak and not use Sign Language as their first language is