A history of seeing essential English (SEE I).

Over the past 30 years, several Manual Codes on English have been developed in the United States. Unlike American Sign Language, which is a language independent of English, manual codes of English were designed to specifically reflect English and are signed in English word order. The first such system to appear during this time frame was Seeing Essential English (SEE I), developed by David Anthony, a deaf educator of the deaf. Today most educational programs for the deaf use Signing Exact English (SEE II) or Signed English and there is confusion about the nature and role of SEE I. This paper is designed to clear up some of the misconceptions that have grown up around SEE I, to provide some historical background about its development, and to review some research findings concerning its effectiveness.