American Sign Language (ASL) is believed to have been developed by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet in the early 1800s. As there were no deaf schools in the U.S., he traveled to Europe to learn from schools there. In an open exchange with Laurent Clerc, they developed American Sign Language off of the original French Sign Language, known to Clerc. Clerc learned English as Gallaudet learned sign language. Together, this formed the beginnings of ALS, which is still used today. Together, they founded the f