Sign Language At the Library

1. Sign Language At the Library

2. Why did we start signing at the Irving Public Library? • ASL DVDs/books are used heavily. • Library customers request signing resources constantly. • There is a large deaf community in Irving. • The Irving Independent School District runs a Day School for the deaf. • Deaf adults visit the Library and make their requests known through writing.

3. How did we start? • In late 2005, my office assistant, Shannon, started signing with her infant daughter, Sammy, who has Down’s Syndrome. • At that same time, staff attended a workshop on Signing with Babies. We began to incorporate signing into storytimes and began adding resources to the Library’s collection. • During the summer of 2007, my daughter and I decided to learn sign language together. • We checked out and watched every Signing Time DVD that the Library owned—which was quite a lot. • We attended classes taught by the Birdville Independent School District. Shannon and her husband joined us. • Together, we decided to put together a monthly program for Library customers. This program is one hour in length and it is not enough.

4. The Irving Public Library Sign Me Up program. • Meets the first Saturday of each month from 2-3 p.m. • All ages are invited. Generally we have families and elementary school aged children. • We review the signed alphabet and the numbers 1-10. • We focus on themed vocabulary building during the first half of the hour. • We read a story and sign major words that correspond to the month’s theme. • We play a game or games to help everyone use and retain their new vocabulary words. • We sing a song and have everyone sing/sign the signs they know. • We do what is known as pidgin sign.

5. June 2007 Singing and signing the Silly Pizza Song to Signing Time DVD vol 3. We signed only the food items. The group is signing “cracker”, the girl in the video is signing “ice cream”…keeping up is hard!

6. December 2007 Shannon Terrill signs “belt” for her team during the clothing relay race. Signs learned this month were for winter clothing.

7. 10 reasons to learn ASL • It is one of the fastest growing languages of study in the United States. • Over 1,000,000 Deaf and Hearing people use it. • It is the third most common language used in the United States behind English and Spanish. • It helps many Hearing parents learn to communicate with their Deaf children and vice versa. • It can help people get jobs in the service industry. • Learning ASL introduces you to the Deaf community and its rich cultural experiences. • Learning ASL helps people gain an appreciation for language. • Many people say that ASL is a lot more fun to learn than other languages. • You can teach it to your baby. Babies can learn to sign before they can learn to speak. • It can help people with limited verbal skills develop their communication skills.

8. 10 more reasons to learn ASL • To have private discussions in public places. • To talk to your child without others hearing. • To discuss your evening plans at the dinner table without your parents overhearing. • To carry on a conversation with a friend across a noisy room. • To coach a talented child while he or she is out on the field playing soccer, without letting the coach know of your help. (Also useful in any other sport where you know more than the coach.) • To have a wild yet silent discussion with a friend during a movie, opera, or at the symphony. • To make plans for after-school fun without interrupting your teacher's monologue on the movement of ocean currents. • Signing is more subtle than kicking someone under the table. • Using ASL exercises a different side of the brain. • To send your love to someone across the room.

9. Helpful Hints • Make sure that you really want to learn a second language—it is not easy. • Identify the resources that are available to you: Classes, books, DVD’s, a friend who signs, a partner who will learn with you!! • The partner thing is important. You can learn words in a language and practice phrases and sentences. But, when someone responds to you, it is totally a new ball game. You must practice your receptive skills with someone—not a mirror. • Make a pact with yourself/your partner/your class that you will not quit, no matter how hard it gets, and don’t let them quit either! • Don’t be embarrassed about signing in public. • Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. • Practice, practice, practice.

10. Why sign with babies? Research shows that learning sign language benefits hearing infants by: • promoting positive emotional development. • helping parents and teachers be more observant and responsive. • reducing frustration, biting and other aggressive behaviors. • building trust between babies and their parents and caregivers. • allowing babies to share their words, revealing just how smart babies really are. • boosting babies' self-confidence and builds self-esteem. • providing intervention for children with special-needs including autism and Down syndrome • hastening speech development allowing young children who learn sign language to speak sooner than other children

11. Testimonial Teaching Samantha sign language : • she spoke with signs at 9 months • while slow to start using sign, she is now able to repeat signs at almost the same rate as a typical child • her grandparents have become very involved in learning ASL • she can express her wants and needs when words fail her or her pronunciation is unrecognizable and is not afraid to attempt communication • she has excellent fine and gross-motor skills in her hands • she has a sense of manners and will use “please” & “thank you” • she has taught ASL resistant adults a few basic signs • she has taught her cousins and classmates basic signs • she has created some of her own signs to better express herself through active communication • she sign words that she hears people say in conversation to demonstrate that she understands her surroundings

12. Benefits of teaching ASL in the Classroom • Students love to talk with their hands. • It is a natural boost to a students self-esteem. • Students can see, feel, and hear the words. • Students who have a hard time retaining verbal instructions might find a sign something to hold onto. • If the classroom has students that speak several languages, sign language can become the universal language. • Students will be introduced to a culture and a language. That culture and language will no longer feel strange—opening up a whole new world to them. • Students and teachers will be more attentive to each other.

13. How Do I Get Started in the Classroom? • Tell students that you are learning sign language and that you would like to share with them what you are learning. • Start simple—introduce a few signs that you use every day such as go, stop, sit down. • Be consistent—once you start using a sign, use it every day. • Be expressive—your facial and body languages are very important . • Have resources handy—have your favorite ASL dictionary handy in case they ask you for a sign that you do not know or have forgotten. Have your students help you look up signs. • Be patient—it takes time for students to remember to watch the teacher and each other—it takes time for students to feel comfortable using signs. • Don’t stop just because you don’t see results right away—Rome wasn’t built in a day. • Praise students who sign.

14. Some Activities to Build/Practice Vocabulary • Pizza Pizza-learn some signs such as pizza, cheese, sauce, cat, dog, fish—sign what kind of pizza you want. • Baseball signing-form teams-the pitcher throws a sign at the other team’s batter—if he can identify the sign then he gets on first base—follow the rules for baseball. • Read books and sign 1-2 words. • Make Bingo cards—the caller signs the letter and then the item—such as B cow—those playing mark B cow if it is on their card. • Opposites—sign something such as up and the students sign down, open-close. • Shopping-set up a store—students must ask for items through signing. • Rhyming signs-sign a word, such as chair and the students signs hair. • Add-a-word-sign the first word of a sentence such as “My” and have the next student sign the next word—possibly “dog” and finally someone might sign “dead”. • Aquarium—make up all kinds of fish such as “red fish”, “dead fish” , “smelly fish”, “ cat fish”, “flying fish”. • Association-leader signs a word, such as “dog” and the next person signs a word associated with dog, such as “hairy” or “noisy”. The next person signs a word associated with the second word—”noisy” might lead them to “train”. • Books—create a book with pictures of items, possibly a story that starts “I like. . .”. Once the pictures are glued/drawn into the book, they can “read” their book to the group.

15. A Few Book Resources • Come Sign With Us Revised Edition by Jan Christian Hafer • Complete Idiot’s Guide to Conversational Sign Language by Carole Lazorisak • Deaf Child Crossing by Marlee Maitlin • Everything Baby Sign Language Book by Teresa R. Simpson • Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language edited by Clayton Valli • Learn to Sign the Fun Way by Penny Warner • Let’s Sign Every Baby’s Guide to Communicating with Grownups by Kelly Ault • More Simple Signs by Cindy Wheeler • My First Book of Sign Language by Joan Holub • Raising a Bilingual Child by Barbara, Pearson, Ph.D • Sign Language for Kids by Lora Heller • Simple Signing with Young Children by Carol Garboden Murray • Simple Signs by Cindy Wheeler • Talking with Your Hands Listening with Your Eyes by Gabriel Grayson

16. DVD Resources • Baby Signing Time by Two Little Hands Productions • I want to Learn Sign Language by Dan Spelling Video & Film • My Baby Can Talk by Baby Hands Productions • Talking Hands by Small Fry Productions • Signing Time by Two Little Hands Productions • We Sign Classroom Favorites by Production Association

17. Useful Websites • Signing Time(www.signingtime.org) This site started IPL on signing • ASL Pro(www.aslpro.com) This is a large visual dictionary and includes quizzes. My favorite site! • Baby Signs(www.babysigns.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/institute.research/research.cfm) Research by Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn on the benefits of signing for hearing babies. • Small Talk Learning(www.smalltalklearning.com/research/studies.html) Includes a list of research projects on babies and signing. • Net Library (www.netlibrary.com) Type in American Sign Language as a full-text search and you will receive nearly 2,000 hits. • Signing Online(www.signingonline.com) Offers on-line sign language courses that are self paced. • ASL University(www.lifeprint.com/asl101) This website has great deaf/hoh/ASL jokes. Also, the instructions/information are very well done. Photographs are used to demonstrate the signs versus video—sometimes this is a good thing. • Texas School for the Deaf (http://www.tsd.state.tx.us/tool/tool_register.html) I am testing out their lending library called TOOL. In the past they would not let just anyone borrow their material.