Deafness in the context of "Hearing loss"

Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign languages are full-fledged natural languages with their own grammar and lexicon. Sign languages are not universal and are usually not mutually intelligible, although there are similarities among different sign languages.

Wherever communities of people with hearing challenges or people who experience deafness exist, sign languages have developed as useful means of communication and form the core of local deaf cultures. Although signing is used primarily by the deaf and hard of hearing, it is also used by hearing individuals, such as those with deaf family members including children of deaf adults.

Joint attention or shared attention is the shared focus of two individuals on an object. It is achieved when one individual alerts another to an object by means of eye-gazing, pointing or other verbal or non-verbal indications. An individual gazes at another individual, points to an object and then returns their gaze to the individual. Scaife and Bruner were the first researchers to present a cross-sectional description of children's ability to follow eye gaze in 1975. They found that most eight- to ten-month-old children followed a line of regard, and that all 11- to 14-month-old children did so. This early research showed it was possible for an adult to bring certain objects in the environment to an infant's attention using eye gaze.

Subsequent research demonstrates that two important skills in joint attention are following eye gaze and identifying intention. The ability to share gaze with another individual is an important skill in establishing reference. The ability to identify intention is important in a child's ability to learn language and direct the attention of others. Joint attention is important for many aspects of language development including comprehension, production and word learning. Episodes of joint attention provide children with information about their environment, allowing individuals to establish reference from spoken language and learn words. Socio-emotional development and the ability to take part in normal relationships are also influenced by joint attention abilities. The ability to establish joint attention may be negatively affected by deafness, blindness, and developmental disorders such as autism.

Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label, especially within the culture, the word deaf is often written with a capital D and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audiological condition, it is written with a lower case d. Carl G. Croneberg was among the first to discuss analogies between Deaf and hearing cultures in his appendices C and D of the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language.

'The Marlborough Family' is a 1778 large portrait painting by the British artist Joshua Reynolds. It is a group portrait of Fourth Duke of Marlborough, his wife the Duchess of Marlborough and their children including George, later the fifth Duke.

Reynolds was the president of the Royal Academy and leading British portrait painter of the era. With eight sitters, it was the most ambitious group painting he had so far attempted. He travelled to Blenheim Palace between 13 August and 4 September 1777, where he spent much of his time with sittings of the children. According to the young artist William Beechey the Duchesses mother the Duchess of Bedford was not impressed with the depiction of her daughter but Reynolds pretended not to hear because of his well-known deafness.

Douglas Tilden (May 1, 1860 – August 5, 1935) was an American sculptor. He was deaf from a bout of scarlet fever at the age of four and attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, California. He sculpted many statues that are located today throughout San Francisco, Berkeley, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The American School for the Deaf (ASD), originally The Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, is the oldest permanent school for the deaf in the United States, and the first school for deaf children anywhere in the western hemisphere. It was founded April 15, 1817, in Hartford, Connecticut, by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Mason Cogswell, and Laurent Clerc and became a state-supported school later that year. Asylum Street, in Hartford, and Asylum Avenue, in Hartford and West Hartford, were named for the school.