Body Language and the Deaf

A new study offers evidence fro what we all know already - deaf people who use ASL pick up quicker on body language than hearing people. Researchers at UC Davis and UC Irvine, funded by grants coming from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, say it is evidence that the deaf would be more effective at jobs and projects requiring sensitivity to subtle visual traits, such as airport screening. The study also supports the notion that sign language is a variation on body language rather than a completely different system of non-verbal communication, according to the researchers. Details are in the journal Cognition.