Learn Sign Language & Help the Hearing and Deaf Cultures Have a Better Understanding
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| American sign language letter shapes for ASL |
As a parent of a child who is deaf, learning ASL (meaning American Sign Language) so that I could teach my child ASL to provide a sure way of communication and help my child learn the necessities of life, as well as provide my child with the ability to communicate with grandparents who also happen to be deaf, I have learned so much about both the hearing and deaf communities.
Having grown up in the hearing community and learning what I have
learned about the deaf culture as well as the hearing culture, has made such an
impact on me that it brought me to make this post, as I could not continue my
life as a parent of a deaf child and feel that I did all that I could do to
provide the best for my child if I did not bring what I have learned to the
attention of both cultures to try to bring the two communities together.
The division of the hearing and the deaf is devastating, not
just to the deaf culture (believe it or not) but to the hearing culture as well. This division is the lack of understanding,
and it is the lack of understanding that causes adversity in any culture.
This distressing factor is why I have decided
to make available, to those who are willing to help me bring the deaf and
hearing communities together, free sign language worksheets, ASL flash cards,
sign language videos, and other ASL materials that my family and I created to help teach my
deaf child.
I hope that whoever comes across this information will take
the opportunity to learn ASL for free , not just because it will help bring the
two cultures together, but because it is an amazing experience to see and
understand sign language, and I wanted to share that experience with
everyone.
Did you know the amount of words in the English language continues to grow? What was estimated to be 1,025,109.8 words, according to the Global Language Monitor on January 1, 2014, has grown to 1,057,379.6 as of January 1, 2020.
Hands can only move so many ways, so to try to accommodate the ever growing English language, American sign language consists of a combination of finger spelling, expressive body language, hand sign classifiers, and gestures. Thus learning the ASL alphabet is a great place to start when learning American sign language.
Learn the ASL Alphabet!
Knowing the ASL alphabet will get you communicating in American sign language fast. Providing you the ability to fingerspell what ever you are trying to communicate.
So without further delay, the first ASL lesson you will need is this printable ASL alphabet worksheet. It is a worksheet that I created to help my child practice writing letters in the alphabet as well as learn the ASL alphabet.
In the future I hope to be sharing ASL flash cards that I've been creating for my child, an ASL aphabet video to help kids learn ASL, Dolch site word ASL worksheets, and more. If you have any requests for ASL learning materials feel free to leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do.