Signing

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

As I've posted before, I'm minoring in Deaf Studies in college. I've been fortunate enough to take some great classes about Deaf Culture and learn a lot of sign language over the course of my college career. However, I leaned some sign language long before I ever stepped into a college classroom.

I was part of a sign language club in elementary school, where we learned signs and had concerts where we signed to songs. It was a great club, and I learned a lot. It was where I first found a love for sign language and learning about the deaf community.

My mom actually volunteered her time helping out with the sign language club. She had learned some sign in the past and was able to brush up on her skills and help teach all of the kids in the club.

Over the years, my mom and I have taught some of my littlest siblings "baby signs" to help them communicate before they could talk. I briefly touched on that back in my third post, "A Memory," when I talked about taking in my little brother. We also taught my littlest sisters some signs when they were younger.

Though we haven't kept up with teaching the girls as much as we could have, they do know that I can sign and they have talked to a family friend of ours who is deaf, so they understand what sign language is. We show them a sign once in a while if the situation calls for it. Well, this week, my youngest sister (she's the baby of the family by three minutes) has been suffering from a double ear infection. I'm pretty sure it's a double anyway, but I could be wrong. Anyway, the point is that she hasn't been able to really hear anything for a few days now. We've had to yell to get her to hear anything that we say. So my mom figured she would teach my little sister some new signs so that we could sign things to her instead of yelling. She now knows how to say "go play," "go eat dinner," and "good night," among other things. Of course, her twin is also picking up on some of the signs, though she doesn't show as much of an interest in it. It's so cute to watch them signing though, and I'm really glad that they can be involved in something that I'm so passionate about. Hopefully the next time they see our family friend, they won't be shy about doing a few signs for her!

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Thanks!
Taylor

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