Deafness is a much worse misfortune.

For it means the loss of the most vital stimulusthe sound of the voicethat brings language, sets thought astir, and keeps us in the intellectual company. -Hellen Keller

The history of the Deaf in the Philippines is traced back during the Spanish era. In 1596 Fr. Raymundo de Prado acknowledge the existence of signs. According to his records, deaf people use signs that
time in order to communicate to each other. By the time the Spanish-American war ended, the United States of America began governing the Philippines and so, the American Sign Language was introduced in Deaf Schools. The birth of our Filipino Sign Language was greatly influenced by ASL. In 1907, through the School for the Deaf and Blind, known today as Philippine School for the Deaf, the American Sign Language (ASL) was introduced to the Filipino deaf community.

The Deaf in any people group comprise from one to three individuals in every 1000 births (Parkhurst, 1997). Most Deaf children (more than 90%) are born into families where both parents are hearing (Mitchell, 2005). Most of these children learn language in the way of speaking or signed. They do not learn to speak because they cannot hear, and they do not learn to sign because there is no one to teach them. Many deaf all over the world grow up without any language. Only family members of these deaf people develop only home signs.

Institutions teach deaf children to sign language. Few deaf children that came from deaf family practically learn language through their co-family members. Sometimes, in a group of deaf children in a school that sign language is not taught, sign language eventually develop between them. For example, note that this is how Penang Sign Language developed in Malaysia in the 1950s to 1970s (Hurlbut 2000), and this is also how Nicaraguan Sign Language is currently developing in Nicaragua (Osborne 1999).

Because of research, sign languages are now becoming better accepted as real languages, equal to the spoken languages of hearing people. It is a powerful tool in fighting for the rights of deaf people all over the world, with its impact on more abstract issues of identity and more concrete ones of school language policy and the availability of sign language interpreters.

Deaf children doesnt necessarily read the written words because written words are some extent of sounds. Since a deaf child do not hear any sound of written language, there is no other way for him or her to decipher how it should be spoken or what does it means. Memorizing words are like memorizing telephone numbers, it should be memorized individually. An average deaf student of a high school graduate in a well-developed country has like a reading ability of grade 4 (primary 4) student while in other countries, a complete graduate fall back again as illiterate.

http://www-01.sil.org/silesr/2008/silesr2008-010.pdf