Contact Signing/Pidgin Sign English
Contact Signing, also known as PSE (Pidgin Sign English), is a sign system that uses ASL signs in approximate English word order, omitting prefixes, suffixes, endings, and small words. It is important for you to be aware that the term Pidgin Sign English is greatly falling out of favor with the Deaf community. Today, the term Contact Signing is preferred over PSE. Contact Signing is often used to help bridge the communication gap between the deaf, the Deaf community, and the hearing. This is especially true in situations where a signer has limited ASL skills. Contact Signing is a sign system that allows signers to manage a limited signed conversation.
Perhaps it is best to describe the Contact Signing system as a cross between English and ASL. Often it is used as a transitional step in the process of acclimating someone into ASL. Depending on the skills of the signer, this system can vary in degrees between English and ASL.
Total Communication, referred to as TC, uses all means available for communication: sign language, gesturing, lip reading, fingerspelling, speech, hearing aids, reading, writing, and visual images.
Contact Signing is used by a number of educators, employers, and service providers quite successfully. Often, hearing parents of deaf children and students new to the study of ASL use Contact Signing in their early learning stages. In addition, a percentage of late-deafened adults adopt Contact Signing as a support method of communication. They have expressed a sense of comfort with the approximate English order of ASL signs. This is quite natural, as English is their first language. Parents of children who have had cochlear implants are also, in the formative years of language development, adopting Contact Signing.
Characteristics of Contact Signing include the following:
Standard signs
ASL signs
Fingerspelling
Facial expressions
Body language
Approximate English word order
