DCAL History of BSL 25 London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb

The Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb was visited by Abbé Sicard and Laurent Clerc in 1815, at the same time as Thomas Gallaudet was in London. Watson, nephew of Braidwood, and Headmaster of the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in the early 19th century, describes his teaching methods in detail in his book On the Education of the Deaf and Dumb (1809). He is opposed to the use of signed versions of spoken language such as the Signed French used in the Paris school.

Never let any thing so chimerical be thought of as an attempt to turn master to the deaf and dumb, in the art of signing… What should we expect from an European who should undertake to teach his own… language, to a South- Sea Islander, who was henceforward to live among Europeans… Should we suspect that the teacher would set about new modelling, methodizing and enlarging this … language as the readiest method to make the islander acquainted with the European tongue…