ASL Progress Me and Lily 04-29-2010 in Out in the Open

ASL Progress Me and Lily Thursday, April 29, 2010

I have been really working on teaching Lily all the sign language I know. The problem is that I don't know proper Sign Language Grammar yet. I want Lily to be fluent in ASL and the only real way to do that is for me to become fluent. In the fall I will be taking the second ASL class. I have learned about 100 words (unless you count numbers) I am supposed to be able to count to 1 billion. However, I am getting the higher numbers mixed up. (100 and above) So I have to review those. Lily on the other hand is learning signs/and spoken words at an amazing pace right now. I tought her Butterfly in sign (which is a hard sign) and she immediatly tried. However, she can't really do it... but she tries! She tries to say it too, but it comes out "F-wy". She skips the whole "Butter" part completely.

I am impressed with how much ASL I have actually learned. However, I have learned very little grammar. So I basically sign like a baby. Instead of properly signing "Where is the bird?" I have to sign "Where Bird." When I sign that to Lily she will look out the window and look for one. She is signing "where" now too, but I don't think she knows exactly why. I think she signs it because I do. She is signing "cat" now too when she see's the cats. Oh and she signs Dog when she sees a dog. She has completely stopped signing "more". I just need to do it more with her. However, I have a hard time signing more often because I just don't know enough to make it really make a lot of sense.

In addition to her signing, she is really starting to talk. It just makes me smile to hear her little words. Even if the word "No" is one of the words I hear the most of. It's nice to be able to ask her what she wants and she can really start to answer. Especially her signing milk, hungry, and eat. My mother read something that said when she gets a little older and the TV is on to keep the volume down and the closed caption on to help her learn to read. I think that's a great idea!

Other than that, all is well. School is done in 1 week!!!

Her

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I took ASL in school and taught my sisters. I love it! See if you can get into some classes during the summer or something - maybe a mommy/baby sign class. I know churches provide them. You just have to search around. Good luck and keep it up! I love ASL! |,,|/ [ladyshadows52] 4/29/2010 11:28:02 PM
i'm hard of hearing and pretty fluent in ASL ... i am hoping when i have kids that i will teach them asl as well so we can communicate a bit more. ive also taught my bf some asl as well. but he pretty loud to begin with. anyway im happy you are teaching your baby some sign it helps alot with what they want once they have common sign like milk toast cheese and things like that. =] [littleballofsex] 4/29/2010 11:54:54 PM
I learned to sign some as a child, because we had a deaf classmate, and my grandfather was deaf. I can still communicate OK, but it's a use it or lose it kind of thing. Not all of it sticks with you. How fun for you and Lily...what a wonderful skill for both of you to have! [Mommy2Katie] 4/30/2010 12:45:29 AM
Actually... "where bird" is the proper grammar for american sign lanuage. I think that is what makes that language so difficult to learn. English sign language is where you sign every single word... or close to it. However, I could be very wrong. This is my understanding from being around other deaf individuals who are very fluent in asl. I prefer ESL or a bit of both. [Shades of Grey] [p] 5/6/2010 10:57:52 PM
I'll sign "cat ran up tree" (we typically exclude "the" when signing) and my best friend will sign "cat tree up" ... it is so confusing sometimes! I think it's wonderful that you are teaching Lily as well. I'm sure I've told you this several times in the past. :) I'll also add, if teaching sign language as a primary language... I strongly recommend ESL. I have hearing-impaired [Shades of Grey] [p] 5/6/2010 11:01:33 PM
peers who have been taught ASL as a primary language and they find it difficult to learn how to write in proper English. Tristan's father has this problem. But of course, this won't be an issue with Lily. :) I sign ASL with Tristan, but also fill in the blanks verbally. He understands me perfectly well (with voice, or without) but has become stubborn about signing back these days. shakes head [Shades of Grey] [p]