"Joseph Watson (1765-1829) worked for Thomas Braidwood (1715-1806) from 1784, and became headmaster of the London Asylum for the Deaf & Dumb in the Old Kent Road. In Instruction of the deaf and dumb Watson wrote that “Persons born deaf are, in fact, neither depressed below, nor raised above, the general scale of human nature, as regards their dispositions and powers, either of body or mind.” He considers what language is, and describes how he goes about “communicating a knowledge of language to the naturally deaf and dumb.” The second part of the work, sometimes printed in a separate volume (1810), has lists of vocabulary and plates designed to encourage a child to acquire an understanding of written & spoken language. The illustrations in the volume of plates are delightful glimpses of everyday life in Georgian England. Individual pictures are not labelled, so this meant children were not restricted to learning one set term for an object or scene." (internet article by H Dominic W Stiles (Univ. College of London, 2013)).
The children were taught to read and write but his policy of teaching lip-reading over sign language - the argument being that the children would have to communicate with the world rather than in a private code with each other - would be controversial now.