Lose your voice? On the phone and need to communicate to someone in the room without breaking your conversation? I learned a few signs when I was young and watched Sesame Street on a regular basis. The alphabet was fun to learn, and I quickly learned it.
When I was 13, my grandmother in her 90th year contracted pneumonia and had to have a breathing tube. She was attempting to communicate with her daughters and was getting frustrated. She glanced at me and it dawned on her that I knew a little sign language. She had learned it many decades ago and had always claimed to have forgotten it.
She grabbed my hand and began signing furiously. Because I knew sign language, she was able to communicate about important papers before she passed away a few months later. In college, most of my roommates were audiology majors. They were required to take 2 sign language classes. I wanted to know that they were saying. During that time I also worked as a cashier for Walmart. There was one customer who was deaf. He would get frustrated with the cashiers who would not tell him what his total was, so that he could read their lips.
A few of the cashiers were not known for their politeness. When he realized that I knew a little sign language, he would try to look for me at a register. We had several good conversations. He was one of my greatest teachers as he corrected me and taught me knew words. I had to go through surgery to remove my thyroid.
The surgery had some complication, and when I woke up, I could not speak and my throat felt like it was on fire. Nausea began to creep up on me and the thought of throwing up right after throat surgery terrified me. I began signing to the nurses. Oberg is currently student teaching and sometimes uses sign language to communicate with her students. ASL has given Oberg a greater appreciation for Deaf culture and given her more opportunities to communicate with others.
While Deaf culture supports individuals who are deaf, it also gives access to information about the world such as the ability to drive, travel, work and play an active role in society, according to the National Deaf Education Center. In a world that relies mostly on spoken languages, Deaf culture and ASL can open doors for everyone.
With changes to everyday life, such as masks and Zoom, it can be difficult for the Deaf community to interact with people how they usually would. Boise State ASL Instructor Mikkel Nelson believes it is important for everyone to learn sign language to better understand the Deaf and hard of hearing community. Before the COVID pandemic, Nelson would do home visits and work with families who have children who are deaf and hard of hearing.
As the children grow up, about two or three, I start working with the child a little bit more and modeling to the parents what that interaction should look like with the child to help them use the language with the child.
Deaf culture has many traditions, values and behaviors that support the Deaf and hard of hearing community. Deaf culture promotes an environment that supports vision as the primary sense used for communication at school, in the home and in the community. According to Snow, being bilingual or trilingual helps strengthen the brain and is great for when people are far away, like social distancing requires.
Snow understands that not everyone is an auditory learner, someone who depends on listening and speaking as a way of learning, and ASL can be an alternative way of communication.
Not everyone — even if you are hearing — are auditory learners. There are so many who are visual learners. Snow also explains that people other than those who are deaf or hard of hearing use ASL to communicate. Besides the practical aspects of parents knowing what their kids want, this practice has many benefits.
According to the American Sign Language University , babies as young as eight months can already sign words and imitate signs from their parents. Beyond that, sign language increases opportunities for parents and children to bond in positive ways. This can eliminate untold stress and anxiety for a child and opens pathways of greater trust and understanding in the parent-child relationship.
Researcher S. Glairon studied this phenomenon in depth in his study on babies using ASL. These same benefits hold true for autistic or special needs children who develop spoken language skills more slowly or have trouble articulating their needs. Researcher Marilyn Daniels from Pennsylvania University has conducted some fascinating research on pre-school aged kids and kindergarteners learning ASL. They even had higher test scores than the non-ASL kids. Most of the signs are iconic, so since the signs look like what the words are, it helps the child remember what the word is.
While it is an excellent effort, the student is still disconnected from his or her peers as well as the subject teachers with specialized knowledge. ASL training for teachers and students in schools will remove the communication barrier between the Hard of hearing students and their peers. The popularity of sign language is only expected to increase and learning sign language will be a huge advantage in customer and client-facing roles, networking, and a great addition to your resume.
Do you already know some signs in ASL? Take a free sign language quiz and test your knowledge of the language. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website.
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