Washoe’s ASL Development

Summary

In Washoe's ASL Development, the diary entries it's talking about how a chimpanzee
named Washoe, thanks to stimuli and dedicated teaching, show that she can understand and
use some words signs. Through the work of doctors who believe it is possible that a chimpace
can learn the American Sign Language.

In the writing is showed how some days happened. The baby chimpanzee arrived at
the laboratory on June 14, 1996. Doctors believed that she could learn American Sign
Language, as the chimpanzee's behavior was positive and she seemed happy. The doctors
worked extensively to provide him with the right environment to enable his learning. On July
26, her caregivers began to talk to her constantly and she showed cognition because she could
discern differences between some signs of others.

On October 9, someone write that she can used the sign of "toothbrush". That person
was not very convinced but concluded that it could be the 19th sign. If that was true, the only
sign that she understood was recognizing the differences between subjects. On December 6,
Washoe showed that she could make her own signs, but the doctors couldn't fully understand
them. For example, when she saw a swan she used the signs of "water" and "bird".

However, on February 5, newspaper reporters who had been in the laboratory. They
were unsure about Washoe's success. Noam Chomsky a famous linguist, believes that she does
something in exchange for a reward. Faced with this comment, the doctors were disappointed
that he could not see Washoe using his own language.

Finally the newspaper ends, on March 7, for that day washoe showed his signs to his
friends, their names are: Tutu, Loulis and Dar. They showed that they learned signs without the
help of researchers but could not specifically understand what Washoe was doing.