Editing British Sign Language (section)

==== The Braidwood schools ====
[[Thomas Braidwood]], a teacher from Edinburgh, founded 'Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb' in 1760, which is believed to be the first school for deaf children in Britain.<ref>{{Cite web|last=UCL|date=2019-08-07|title=Thomas Braidwood, The Braidwood School|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/british-sign-language-history/early-deaf-education/thomas-braidwood-braidwood-school|access-date=2021-05-17|website=History of British Sign Language|language=en}}</ref> The school primarily taught oral communication methods, as described by Francis Green—whose son attended the Braidwood school<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biography – GREEN, FRANCIS – Volume V (1801-1820) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography|url=http://biographi.ca/en/bio/green_francis_5E.html|access-date=2021-05-17|website=biographi.ca}}</ref>—in the anonymous treatise ''Vox oculis subjecta.''<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Francis|url=https://archive.org/details/b2199576x|title="Vox oculis subjecta;" a dissertation on the most curious and important art of imparting speech, and the knowledge of language, to the naturally deaf, and (consequently) dumb; with a particular account of the academy of Messrs. Braidwood of Edinburgh, ...|last2=Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh|date=1783|publisher=London : sold by Benjamin White|others=Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh}}</ref> In this account, Green describes how his son Charles would surely develop "a perfect acquaintance with language both oral and written", and how deaf pupils were given "a tolerable general understanding of their own language [English] so as to read, write, and speak it, with ease". Green also describes Braidwood's views of spoken language:<blockquote>Mr Braidwood hath frequently intimated to me, as an opinion founded upon his experience in this art, that articulate or spoken language hath so great and essential a tendency to confirm and enlarge ideas, above the power of written language, that it is almost impossible for deaf persons, without the use of speech, to be perfect in their ideas.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Green|first1=Francis|url=https://archive.org/details/b2199576x|title="Vox oculis subjecta;" a dissertation on the most curious and important art of imparting speech, and the knowledge of language, to the naturally deaf, and (consequently) dumb; with a particular account of the academy of Messrs. Braidwood of Edinburgh, ...|last2=Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh|date=1783|publisher=London : sold by Benjamin White|others=Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh|pages=167}}</ref></blockquote>[[Joseph Watson (teacher)|Joseph Watson]] was trained as a teacher of the deaf under Thomas Braidwood. He eventually left in 1792 to become the headmaster of the [[Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb]] in [[Bermondsey]]. He described his teaching methods in detail in his book, ''On the Education of the Deaf and Dumb'' (1809), where he opposed the use of signed versions of spoken language such as the Signed French used in the Paris school. The book contains lists of vocabulary and plates designed to encourage a child to acquire an understanding of written and spoken language.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=UCL|date=2019-08-07|title=Joseph Watson, Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/british-sign-language-history/early-deaf-education/joseph-watson-asylum-deaf-and-dumb|access-date=2021-05-17|website=History of British Sign Language|language=en}}</ref>