sign: WHERE and WIND - two new signs we're signing during our challenge

I started signing WHERE to Little Fingers.. she's not signing it back but she surely understands what I mean and will use the word herself.

I also started WINDY and she does sign WINDY (even with the littlest bit of WIND - so cute!). ... which is funny because my sister is Wendy and she couldn't separate the two at first, but now she can.

So two more words for our challenge!
WHAT new words have you taught or learned?

(C) 2012 HearMyHands, LLC
As you can see Signing Simon has gotten a major face lift from his original character.
Sign: WHAT - he's not mad, but he is showing his eye brows inward as that's part of the sign :) 

letter of the week: W and sign: WHICH

Letter of the week: W

This morning for the first time Little Fingers used to the word WHICH. I was so surprised!(Now, I have to sign it to her!) 

I'm a big language geek though - sometimes I really want to praise her for new word usage (like jump up and down - lol), but I just answered her question and moved on. I was so shocked! WHICH! Wow!That opens up a whole new can of (good) worms - here comes the WHICH questions! ;) 

For example: WHICH do you want, cookies or crackers? ... I was already doing this but now I can emphasis the WHICH sign! 

sign HOW - My great ideas of HOW to use sign language in speech-language therapy! Check it out!

I'm pulling up an old post I wrote in May that I wrote for Talk It Up Therapy about HOW (H - the letter of the week ;)!. ) I use ASL in school. Make sure you read the whole thing for some great games I created to use to learn sign language

Before I didn't have elementary or middle school kids on my case load in speech-language therapy. I know how students of a-l-l ages that I can play different games and believe it or not my high schoolers remembered my signing games the beginning of this year and asked if we were going to play them again! Wha!?  

Last spring, I started an agreement with a few high school speech groups that if they got done what we needed to accomplish, then I would give them a quick mini-sign language lesson at the end of their session. This idea went over great! The girls in different groups thought it was ‘hot’ (their words – not mine) and so it began! But first – we started with a figurative language lesson because how could I pass up the opportunities to talk about ‘hot’ as in anything but the actual temperature ‘hot’! As that moment passed and I got my lesson accomplished, we moved onto a quick lesson in sign language! Ta-da – success! I signed SEE YOU LATER and away they went. And let me tell you – they remembered the next week!

So .. HOW do I use sign language with elementary and middle school students in therapy? There’s a few games that could work on your goals and incorporate sign language. 

1.     SignBurst!

a.     Players required: 2 +

b.     Items needed: a timer, a pile of cards that are your target words for the session (and perhaps a couple previous sessions), and available hands! On each card with the target word should be additional related words (either synonyms, antonyms, associations, etc.)

c.      Rules: One student will sign the word and the other students are required to come up with the synonym (or antonym if that is what you are working on) for the word. So for example, the word on the card is ‘happy’. Other words on the card are ‘glad,’ ‘excited,’ ‘cheerful,’ ‘blissful,’ ‘joyful,’ etc.  The one student would sign HAPPY and the other students would have to beat the timer with as many words as they can think of for ‘happy’. **If the students don’t remember the sign given (e.g. HAPPY) then fingerspelling is permitted – not speech! H-A-P-P-Y.

2.     Deaf-ine it!

a.     Players required: 4 + (two groups of two minimum)

b.     Items needed: target words written out on index cards or from a worksheet

c.      Rules: With the timer started, one person reads the definition of the word to his/her partner(s). The partner(s) is required to sign the correct response. The team member reading the definitions continue to read more definitions until the timer goes off. For example: definition: “it’s round and tells times.” Other partner must sign CLOCK; and continue to the next definition. Points will be given for each correct response. The other team follows the same directions. At the end of each round, the team with the most points wins that match.

3.     Sign What? (the play on words – “Say What?”)

a.     Players required: however many other students during that therapy session

b.     Items needed: a story or article

c.      Rules: You (the clinician) read the story and emphasize the important parts in sign. The students need to know what the signs are prior to the story being read.  After the story is complete, you ask the appropriate comprehension questions. The person who remembers the correct answers gets a point. If he/she remembers the sign too, they get an additional point.

These are just a few ideas. In my therapies, I find it’s critical to rehearse word-finding skills. I find that almost everything I do has some word retrieval practice in there somewhere. Using sign language (limb gross and fine motor skills) can help jug the memory of the word(s) the student is trying to think of. Using sign language paired with the spoken word works different areas of the brain with the whole – here it comes big words – visuospatial memory! A student’s sure to remember a definition to a new word or concepts heard in a story when signs are attached to it.  The use of sign language allows for a fun new interactive way to teach the same ol’ goals.  I am able to get across my semantic language, following directions, auditory processing/comprehension, and pragmatic goals using the three goals discussed above.  Sign language comes across as a ‘hot’ way to learn the concepts they prefer not to rehearse.  Success in my book! Sign on!

Don't forget to check out our store - we have a great game See It and Sign It (click here). We're going to have a awesome product review on it soon! 

sign: SCHOOL

sign: HOW (the dominant hand is the one with the wrist twists)

WHERE Have I Been!?

WHERE have I been!?

compliments of Sign2Me (r) 

WHERE have I been?! I’m always busy so that’s not the excuse! Starting two Saturdays ago I was having migraines daily and some that lasted into the next day. My husband – the big problem solver said, “it’s because you keep looking down at your computer!”.  So my solution: splurge and buy a desktop! Well that turned into the biggest ordeal. I love my Mac and Apple products but this wasn’t a good experience. Long story short, Apple kept my new desktop and my laptop that I have attached to my hip 24/7 for 48 hours. Needless to say I wasn’t productive. Homework was turned in not by my standard, I was late to class online because my old laptop was pre-historic apparently and didn’t like Java, the sign language files were MIA and this is just part of the saga.

For those who don’t know, I am a doctoral student at Nova Southeastern University getting my Speech Language Pathology Doctorate. So next week I have to go back down to Florida for dissertation workshops and meetings.  I don’t know how the Sign of the Day will go during that adventure but I’m going to try my best.

My headaches have improved with my limited computer time. But I still have big plans for HearMyHands! Our summer classes start soon. We still have great products that we’re helping awesome families with. We have a new website building this summer with some specular surprises coming soon! I have some amazing updates from Ms. Little Fingers - some signs and some words! 

Have a great summer! And Keep Calm and Sign On!

sign: HOW for HOW do we hear

What we think of as our ear...

Really looks like this!

And it's these three major parts of our ear that help us pick up sound and attach meaning to it. These 3 majors parts are the:

1. Outer ear: consists of the ear canal and eardrum. Sound travels down the ear canal, striking the eardrum and causing it to move or vibrate.

2. Middle ear:space behind the eardrum. There's three little bones that vibrate, which, in turn, creates movement of the fluid in the inner ear.

3. Inner ear: The fluid moves causing changes in the tiny hair cells, which in turn send electric signals from the inner ear up the hearing nerve to the brain

The brain then interprets these electrical signals as sound.

Now, one important thing to note: 

You don't have to hear to listen!

Hearing is just one of our five senses; we use other senses as well to communicate. That's why it's important to consider the whole person when communicating with others. 


This is considered the 'pathological' viewpoint taking out the cultural aspect of communicating.  The 'cultural' viewpoint is another critically important viewpoint - we shall talk about another time.

Sign: HOW has a slight twist of the wrist of the dominant fan.

*ear information taken from www.asha.org* 

sign: WHO for WHO I am as a SLP, mom, & ASL lover

Who am I?

• First and foremost I am a mom, wife, sister, and daughter
• I am a student getting my SLP.D (speech language pathology doctorate) and some day finishing my interpreting degree. But most importantly, I believe I will always be learning. The best advise I received was just last summer, 'it's when you think you are an expert is really when you are an egg-pert'.
• I am a Deaf culture advocate
• I am a language lover but I am only fluent in ASL and English
• I am a certified and licensed speech language pathologist
• I am a sign language teacher
• I love yoga, dogs, horseback riding, and traveling

How I got to where I am?

• I always loved ASL. I remember staring at the interpreter during concerts or other large events when I was supposed to be paying attention to the everything else.
• I moved to San Diego after high school, which while hard to leave my family - was the best decision I could have made! Why? Because I learned not only ASL but Deaf culture and the importance of community. I didn't just learn ASL from a book, I learned it from events, Deaf coffee  chats, Deaf bowling nights and pizza nights ... the list goes on! I met awesome people and created invaluable relationships and I knew ASL needed to be in my life for good. 
• I moved to DC where I continue classes and my close San Diego contacts. I moved again back home to South Jersey and that's where things took a different turn. I started going to two colleges at once while living in DC so I could pursue ASL interpreting but pursue a degree greater than an associates - so I began my education in speech-language pathology as my back-up plan (from all the worker's comp situations I heard about from friends in the interpreting business).
• After moving back home, I was in a car accident and my dream of interpreting went out the window. My back-up plan quickly took the front seat and I had to keep moving forward. 
• I wanted to share my love so I figured out how to use ASL in and out of therapy. 

 WHY I am doing this? 

•  I truly love ASL and what it stands for. 
• I started this business New Years Eve 2011 while my baby was sleeping and my family was enjoying their holiday and I thought, this is what I enjoy. Viola - in my 5th month, I'm humbled by others WHO share my passion for one reason or another. I'm blessed knowing I can help others for a variety of reasons. 

So for Better Speech Hearing Month - I wanted to tell you WHO I am, How I go to where I am, WHY I'm doing what I'm doing ...  

Better Speech Hearing Month - I don't look at it as let's improve speech, let's improve hearing ... I look at it like "Let's Improve Communication".            


Sign: WHO

                                                                                                              

sign: WHEN for WHEN do we use sign

An update: WHEN do we sign?

compliments of Lifeprint.com

WHEN: non-dominant pointer finger stays still while the other dominant hand finger 

makes a circle around and down to it.

Ms. Little Fingers is 13 months old now. She's saying some words, climbing up and down any stairs, walking all over, eating whatever we give her (most of the time) and trying to say whatever we say. So .. we up the ante with our signs quite a bit!


Here's some times and ways we're signing...


1. wake up with our good morning song so I sign GOOD MORNING to Ms. Little Fingers


2. then we move on to DIAPER (no DIAPER DANCE song - she's too tired to hear that up-edy beep-bop song!). I vary it also signing POTTY and POOP. (She's already pooped on the potty twice so I try to introduce it when possible).

3. We continue using EAT, MORE, DRINK and MILK after she's dressed in her high chair. 


4. We've added CEREAL in the high chair scene.


5. We dance and sing in the car to the babysitter's - don't ask but true - yes, we dance in the car. Let me tell you she has rhyme! When she's excited she signs and says BABY - she's just funny like that :) (And no I don't sign in the car typically to her - there's enough other things going on!)

6. When the work day is over, and the weather is nice, we take a ride in her beloved CAR. We sign CAR. 


7. But if it's really nice, we sign WALK, grab the dog and take a stroll. 


8. Dinner time brings back the MILK, EAT/FOOD, MORE and ALL DONE (which is signs and says now!).

9. Now she loves adventures in the kitchen. She loves getting into things she shouldn't be in but the great thing is when I say/sign THANK YOU and put my hand  out to her and she gives it to me. 


10. During play, DADDY and I sign DADDY and MOMMY


11. The night ends with tubby time. BATH and DUCK join our tub scene. We bring in the BUBBLES sometimes too.


12. But our night ends with DIAPER and BOOK. She points to the BOOKS she wants me to grab off her book shelf as I get her ready for bed and she stands on her changing pad. 


These are just some of the times. I know there's other times but we'll leave it at this for now. How about you? When do you use sign?

WHY do I write my signs in capital letters!!?

Today's sign is WHY because I figured you might want to know by now WHY I write my 'Sign of the Day' in capital letters!

This is just one variation of the sign. I sign WHY differently.

American Sign Language is not a written language. Therefore when signs are in written format, it's referred to as 'gloss' because you are not translating the language - you're merely trying to write it down in written format. Gloss can even portray questions versus statements (as in what is being done with your body language and facial expressions).


It's important to note that ASL is not a word-order language, rather ASL is inflection (like some Asian languages). English on the other hand is word-order. The other important concept I'm always teaching in class is that ASL does not have a word-to-word correlation with Engish. Therefore, while many times you can ask 'what the sign for [fill in the blank word]?' - there are just as many times that there isn't a sign because signs are concepts (not necessarily words). 

For example, going through college years ago, I wanted to know the sign for 'corrupt' - at the time my friend said, "well explain it to me. WHY do you want the sign?" So I explained the story to her and she explained to me how to sign that concept. Ding Ding Ding - it was a light bulb moment - Right! There isn't a word-to-word correlation so of course there doesn't always have to be a 1:1 correlation.


So WHY do I write my signs in capital letters - now you know :) 

This is me and my rendition of WHY. Instead of moving my three
inner fingers down away from my head [like the image above], I only move / wiggle
my middle finger.Since it's a WH-question, technically you're supposed to have a slight tilt forward and
eyebrows in (so the eyebrows in is difficult when your husband's laughing at you during the picture).

sign: WHAT What's the Sign... Wednesday!

Starting this month (February) we are introducing "What's the sign Wednesday"! We're very excited about this weekly series. Simply post a comment on WHAT sign you are looking and we will try our best to provide that sign! Or if you are looking for a sign for a certain situation (e.g. bath time, eating, etc.). If we can't find the sign in our resources, we'll sign it ourselves!

Get started! We certainly can't do several in a day but we'll surely try to help with one or two a week. If we don't get to yours, check back the following week, perhaps you're sign with be the featured sign!

compliments of lifeprint.com

Stay tuned for the upcoming months special weekly series!