| referencebooks ( @ 2005-06-19 14:03:00 |
| Entry tags: | communication, language, medicine |
Medical Sign Language
Medical Sign Language: Easily Understood Definitions of Commonly Used Medical, Dental and First Aid Terms, by W. Joseph Garcia, Director, Silent Environment Educational Kamp (sic), Ellensburg, Washington. Published by Charles C. Thomas, 1983.
This is essentially an English to American Sign Language bilingual medical dictionary, for use in a clinical setting or in education for medical practice. It's just over 700 pages long and in fairly large print with large illustrations for the ASL versions of various terms.
The illustrations are in simple line drawings with arrows showing the direction of hand movements. Most terms are shown in multiple drawings to show the multiple signs involved. From the perspective of someone who doesn't know any ASL I'd say they seem pretty understandable, and the "pronunciation" likely ends up no worse than what you'd get out of a typical phrasebook for any foreign language.
Besides being practical from a medical point of view, it's interesting to look through this book to get a glimpse of how ASL works. For example, the phrase "general anesthetic" is made up of the sign for "injection" followed by the sign for "sleep."
The pictures are accompanied by written descriptions of how to make the sign. Some of these are all you need to know. For example, here's the description of the sign for "uvula." "(1) The index finger of the right "one" hand points to the mouth. (2) With the mouth open, the right "one" hand points down and wiggles slightly as if imitating the uvula moving."