Sign

American sign language can be a really fun language to learn. But behind the language there is an entire culture with the Deaf community. They have events, their own traditions, and most importantly, rules. What may be polite in our culture may not be in the Deaf community. That’s why I’m here to help you out with some of the do’s and don’ts in Deaf culture. Let's start with the do’s, most of the basic principles apply when introducing yourself, state your name and where you’re from and all the

The constellation that I have chosen as my favorite is the constellation of Cancer, the crab. I chose this constellation because my zodiac sign is cancer (which is, of course, a muggle tradition- your sign is based off your birthday). Many, if not all, of the zodiac signs came from constellations, including cancer, so I chose the cancer constellation because of its specific meaning to me. The constellation is simple, constructed of only five stars, which are connected at the middle. The myth behind

The Culture of Sign Language Helen Keller once said, ¨Blindness separates people from things; Deafness separates people from people.¨ Sign language is not just a way of communication for deaf people, it is a culture. Ninety percent of deaf children are born to deaf parents. The challenges facing parents with deaf children are numerous when it comes to identifying educational strategies that will maximize language acquisition, a sense of belonging, concept development, social competency, and ultimate

American Sign Language, ASL or Ameslan, is a visual-gestural language of the Deaf community that was made for and by Deaf people. It is visual due to its use of body movements rather than sounds, so receivers are using their eyes to understand what is being said. While by gestural it refers to the elements that are comprised of “specific movements and shapes of the hands and arms, eyes, face, and head and body posture” that act as the words and tone (Charlotte, pg. 1). Personally a great deal of

people that began to be fascinated with the ability that Deaf people could communicate with each other using their own home signs. With this same fascination in America lived a man named Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. He met a girl named Alice Cogswell, who was Deaf and was able to teach her a few words. According to Gallaudet University’s website it says that he not knowing sign language, Thomas attempted to communicate with Alice by pointing to his hat and writing H-A-T in the dirt. She understood him

I first learned American Sign Language through a TV show. It was one of the shows that were trending lately, just like the current Stranger Things and Thirteen Reasons Why. I was a bandwagoner so I would always watch all the shows that were talked about. Switched At Birth educated me so much about ASL, deafness, and more. Because of this show, I have wanted to learn sign language more than ever. More than just learning a language, I wanted to know what experiences accompany a hearing person beginning

trying to saying to you. Now imagine that your speech and language pathologist begins to introduce you to a completely non-verbal language that you start to understand. American Sign Language (ASL) is the language that deaf individuals use to communicate in their everyday life. This language is made up of gestures, word signs, hand classifiers, and facial expressions that are produced by the signer's body in order

A few of the important factors that I thought were important in this unit were the American Sign Language itself, the rules of social interaction in the Deaf culture, and Deaf literature. American Sign Language is well described in the book, “Introduction to American Deaf Culture” by Thomas K. Holcomb. Holcomb explains how American Sign Language is often confused with “English on the hands.” However, Holcomb cites, “Research has clearly determined that ASL has an independent grammar that happens

In Marion County we pride ourselves on giving each child what they need to thrive. For many of our Deaf and Hard of Hearing students, American Sign Language is their first language. It has become more and more apparent through educational programs and research that being proficient in American Sign Language leads to proficiency in reading and writing in English. Being proficient in two languages is called bilingualism. Research has proven that early exposure to bilingualism provides fundamental

Classifiers are handshapes we use in American sign language (ASL) to show the movement, placement, orientation, size, and shape of a noun. Since ASL is a rule-governed language when using classifiers you must first identify the noun, then you can use the classifier to show how the object moves or is placed in relationship to other objects (Aron). American sign language uses eight different kinds of classifiers for specific categories. Since classifiers cover a wide variety of uses there are several