Deaf education of Spain
By taj darkazalli
How it all started
Spain is where language was first systematically taught to the deaf. Instruction is thought to have begun in the mid-sixteenth century in Spanish monastic communities, where the monks under vows of silence employed a well-established system of signed communications. Early in the 1600s, deaf education entered the domain of private tutors, laymen with no use for manual signs who advocated oral instruction for their pupils. Deaf children were taught to speak and lip-read, and this form of deaf education, which has been the subject of controversy ever since, spread from Spain throughout the world.
http://books.google.com/books/about/A_Silent_Minority.html?id=udHE4CEe8vkC
The different types of signs
There are small differences throughout Spain with no difficulties in intercommunication, except in Caralonia Catalonian sign language and in valiinciam sign language. Some linguists consider both these and the Spanish Sign language three variants of a polymorphic sign language.
We're it came from
SSL is the sign language used in Spain. Just like how Spanish is completely different from English, SSL is completely different from ASL.
SSL is the same across Spain, except for Catalonia and Valencia, which have their own signed languages (Catalan Sign Language and Valencian Sign Language).
SSL was influenced by American, Mexican, and French signed languages. And SSL itself influenced Venezuelan Sign Language.
http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/spanish-sign-language-ssl.html
conflict between deaf people and the society in which they must educate themselves, find work, forge social relationships, and so forth is still a point of concern in Spain just as it is elsewhere. Nonspeaking deaf people were routinely prohibited from inheriting property, but those who could learn to speak were allowed to inherit. On the other hand, whereas the history of benevolent paternalism regarding deaf people in Spain may have had its benefits, it has also unquestionably prevented the full integration of deaf people into society.