Signing Savvy Blog

Quizzing Enhanced with Fill-in-the-Blank Option

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:18:04 EST

We have enhanced the Signing Savvy quizzing feature to add a "fill-in-the-blank" question type in addition to the two multiple choice question types ("match meaning to sign" and "match sign to meaning"). The new "fill-in-the-blank" question type is a particularly good way to test your fingerspelling recognition skills (as discussed in the previous blog post, FINGERSPELLINGâ�¦â�¦that dirty BIG four-teen letter word!).

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FINGERSPELLING……that dirty BIG four-teen letter word!

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:32:00 EST

In all my years of signing, I have never had anyone say to me, "I canâ��t believe how easy fingerspelling is!" or "Man, I really LOVE fingerspelling all these odd words that donâ��t have signs for them." It just isnâ��t a favorite part of the job! It is the thing that makes even seasoned interpreters break into a sweat when they have to start signing for a calculus class or in a court of law with a bunch of foreign names flying through the air.

I have come up with a few tricks through the years to make it easier, but the only true way to improve your fingerspelling skills is to practice. The practice needs to be both receptive and expressive.

Signing Terminology
Expressive - When you are signing/fingerspelling something to someone else.

Receptive - When you are reading(watching) someone else's signing/fingerspelling

There are some good websites out there that offer some examples to get that receptive practice. (See our Facebook page for one sited there.) I also want to take this opportunity to show you a few ways Signing Savvy can help you with your fingerspelling. Although we have many savvy users of the site, it can be easy to overlook features if you have not used them before.

First, Signing Savvy shows a fingerspelled version of every word. When viewing a sign video, the squares next to the word indicate the different versions of the sign that exist and there is always a "FS" version, which lets you see the word fingerspelled. It is a good reference, however, you will notice that the "FS" version individually signs each letter and does not demonstrate the flow between the letters. (Note: There are some words that should always be fingerspelled and the main video is of the word being fingerspelled - see ASL as an example and notice the flow between letters). You will notice that underneath the video it tells you what is currently being signed, including the current letter being signed when fingerspelling a whole word.

Second, if you are a Signing Savvy Full Member you can use the Signing Savvy flashcards and quizzes to test yourself on fingerspelled words by creating a wordlist of only fingerspelled versions of words. If you want to add a word that has multiple signed versions to your wordlist, just make sure you are viewing the "FS" or fingerspelled version before adding it to your wordlist. Once you have all the words you want in your wordlist, use either the flashcard or quizzing feature in Signing Savvy to test yourself.

I thought it would be interesting to put the question out there to our Facebook followers and see if they could come up with a few interesting tricks of their own. Here are some of their suggestions:

Fingerspelling while in the car.
Several people suggested the trick of fingerspelling while in the car (license plates, road signs, building names etcâ�¦.). I like that idea but I just hope you are the passenger in the car at the time so that you arenâ��t having to fingerspell the license plate of the car you rear-end because you are too focused on spelling the LONG name on the building you are passing!

If you are on a longer road trip, you could also play the "alphabet game" where you look for words (on signs, billboards, buildings, cars, etc.) that start with each letter of the alphabet, starting with A. You compete with others in the car by trying to be the first to get to Z. Each word you see, you would point at it and then fingerspell it. An alternate version would be to look for any item, not just words. Of course, again, this game is not recommended for the driver.
Focus on the whole word and not letter by letter.
Another suggestion from our Facebook friends was to focus on the whole word and not letter by letter. This allows you to have a better flow as well. It is also helpful to say the sounds of the letters, NOT the letter itself as you are spelling the word phonetically. (This works well with both expressive and receptive fingerspelling.)
Donâ��t get fixated on each letter.
Donâ��t get fixated on each letter, rather focus on the entire word and the flow of the hand changing as you create the word in the air. This will also help in not allowing you to â��throw your lettersâ��, which is another common problem for new finger spellers.

Signing Terminology
"Throwing your letters" - This is something that many new signers do and it is a bouncing movement either up and down or forward that is disruptive and bothers with the reading of the fingerspelling. The elbow should stay still and just have the fingers moving and the wrist when appropriate.

We also need to remember the general rules for fingerspelling. It isnâ��t right to makeup signs for words you donâ��t know because they are too long to fingerspell. You may laugh, but I see it happen all the time! Some people have even used the excuse that they work with young children so they canâ��t fingerspell. That is NOT true. When young children are fingerspelled to for small words that normally can be fingerspelled, they focus on the shape of the word. They will copy the shape to the best of their ability and then later they will make the connection to the alphabet. I have seen little children who are too young to know better, spelling words like BUS and BUG and are not even aware that they are spelling things.

I invite everyone to join us on our Facebook page where we have regular discussions and questions going back and forth about the hot topics in sign language and Deaf....

Showing TENSE while signing ASL

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:34:29 EST

One thing that many new signers struggle with is how to show tense (past, present and future) while signing. In ASL, you don't sign words like went or going or suffixes like "ing", "ed" or "s".

By including the sign NOW at the beginning of a sentence, you can clarify the sentence is in the present tense.

English Version: I am going to the store.
ASL Version: NOW + STORE + I + GO.

By including the sign PAST or BEFORE (the open hand waves back over the shoulder in a single motion) at the beginning of a sentence, you can change the meaning of the sentence from present to past.

English Version: I went to the store.
ASL Version: BEFORE + STORE + I + GO

Alternatively, you can make the sentence show past tense by adding the sign FINISH to the end OR the beginning of the sentences.

English Version: I went to the store.
ASL Version 1: STORE + I + GO + FINISH
ASL Version 2: FINISH + STORE + I + GO

You can make the sentence show future tense by adding the sign NEXT to the beginning of the sentences.

English Version: I will go to the store.
ASL Version: NEXT + STORE + I + GO

To summarize, in ASL we use the following signs to clarify the tense:

NEXT to show FUTURE TENSE
PAST/BEFORE or FINISH to show PAST TENSE
NOW to show PRESENT TENSE

The time of the day that the signer is signing the phrase can effect how the sentence is interpreted, even though the words/signs are exactly the same.

For example, if the sentence below was signed in the morning, the interpretation would be as shown: "Tonight, I will eat dinner."

English Version: Tonight, I will eat dinner.
ASL Version: NOW + EVENING + I + EAT + DINNER

But if the same sentence was signed late in the evening, its' interpretation would be: "Tonight, I ate dinner".

English Version: Tonight, I ate dinner.
ASL Version: NOW + EVENING + I + EAT + DINNER

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Tips for Learning Sign Language in Your Natural Environment

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:48:20 EST

One of the most common questions I get from people who are first learning sign language is, "How do you remember so many new words? It's overwhelming!" It is; and unless you plan on incorporating it into your everyday life, it won't stick with you.

Often sign language instructors will divide sign vocabulary up into categories like household items, food, family, colors, shapes etc... Doing this helps you to categorize the words and file them into your memory bank that way. As you are using Signing Savvy to learn, create your own word lists to categorize the signs you are learning or look into the many, many shared word lists that others have already created. This categorization of vocabulary will be very helpful to you in your learning.

Also, start with the words that are a part of your everyday life, the words with which you will have constant interaction. Then using the printing feature from Signing Savvy, print out little cheat sheet photos that you can place around the house on those everyday items. You will be surprised how quickly you will memorize the signs for these words.

Then later, because you have already created the word lists, you will be able to give yourself a quiz online to be able to sharpen those skills even more.

If you have others that live with you, see if they will help you practice both your receptive (you receiving the sign from others) and expressive skills (you signing the words to others). It is this constant interaction that will improve your learning experience.

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Learning Sign Language as a Foreign Language

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:17:43 EST

Learning signing language as a foreign language is a very good option for hearing students. It greatly enhances their understanding of languages. It increases their ability to communicate in a variety of situations when a spoken language is not an option. And American Sign Language is the fourth most used language in the United States. We love the idea of a world where more and more people are able to more effectively communicate with our vibrant Deaf and Hard of Hearing population. That has been a goal of our web site from day one!

Across the United States, many high schools are having to rethink the way they are currently running their foreign language programs. Many states are now requiring students in their 2014 graduating classes to have two years experience in a foreign language and many more are looking at requiring three! This has left school districts scratching their heads on how to meet these new requirements. Many smaller schools have just one foreign language they currently offer (generally Spanish), but are now struggling to figure out how to expand their offerings.

At Signing Savvy, we see this as a perfect opportunity for those who are interested in sign language to go to their school boards and ask for them to consider introducing sign language as a foreign language option to their school's curriculum. The school's administration will have to look into their own state's requirements for foreign languages. Many states do already accept sign language as a foreign language option. The administration will also have to work with the state to establish the credentials of the people who can teach the classes. In many states, teaching of sign language courses at the high school level can be done by a certified interpreter that also has a bachelor's degree or a teaching certificate.

There is no better time than now to get involved in your local school's education. We will do what we can to help you along the way, including continuing to provide a complete sign language resource that can help both students and educators in learning and teaching sign language.

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Fostering communication between school and home at the high school level

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:35:56 EST

Often times when a Deaf student is at the high school level, they have been using the language for so long that they are very fluent in it and great storytellers using their language, sign language, yet they still struggle with putting that great ability into a written form. This is where this next Teacher Tip can be a helpful tool.

Most students have times where they have to do reports, such as a report on a famous person. They can do a good job at the research part, and can even tell others about all the information they have gathered and learned about the person, but converting that into written word is still a struggle. Allowing the students to put their knowledge first into a video format is very beneficial because of this. It allows the students to use sign language that is rich in dramatic expression to convey their thoughts and knowledge without limiting them to the English words that they may struggle with.

Have the students make a video first, then use the video as a guide to translate the ASL presentation into a great written paper. This idea allows for freedom to communicate in a Deaf student's own language, without stifling their creativity. It also allows a very teachable moment for you as the teacher to help translate their signed words into written expression, with the ability to start and stop and revisit if needed. The end product will be an amazing expression of the student's actual knowledge and creativity...and a lot of fun too!

Of course both the video and the paper are excellent tools to send home to help foster communication between school and home. You could even send the video home and have the parent help their child in translating the sign language into written English. That way, both the student and their parent will teach each other and learn a lot along the way.

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Link to Us

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:13:53 EST

Want to link to Signing Savvy? If you think Signing Savvy is a great resource and want to recommend it to others, we would love for you to add a link to us on your website or blog!

We've created the link to us page to help make it easy for you to add a link on your website to Signing Savvy by just copying and pasting the desired code into your site. We have provided our official description, buttons for general links, plus links to our blog, the sign of the day, and specific signs. Also feel free to use any of these link images in PowerPoint or Keynote presentations or wherever you would like to....

A look at signing family members: The sign of the day theme from the last week

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:15:48 EST

You may have noticed a theme across the signs of the day in the last week. We asked our Twitter followers for suggestions for the sign of the day and someone suggested we try week-long themes. Although we will not be using a theme every week for the sign of the day, we thought it was a great idea to start incorporating a theme occasionally.

We choose family members for our first sign of the day theme, from Wednesday, September 14 to Wednesday, September 21. Signing Savvy Member Tip: To see past sign of the days, view the sign of the day wordlist.

If you follow the sign of the day, we thought it would be a great learning opportunity to point out a few takeaways about the signs from the last week.

Sunday's sign of the day was MOM. For this sign, the thumb of the 5-hand taps the chin. Signing Savvy Member Tip: Take a look at the memory aid for signs to have a better understanding of the origin of signs and a way to remember them. Our memory aid for MOM explains that the lower portion of the face refers to the female gender and that's one way you can remember the sign for MOM is signed on/near your chin. If you look at the sign for FEMALE, you will see you stroke the side of your chin with the thumb of the A-hand.

DAD, which was the sign of the day on Monday, has some similar signing patterns as MOM. DAD is signed on/near the forehead and male signs are typically made on the forehead. See the sign for MALE and DAD.

GRANDMA (the first Wednesday's sign of the day) and GRANDPA are signed similarly to MOM and DAD, but with an additional movement out suggesting a generation out.

The signs for UNCLE (Thursday's sign of the day) and AUNT also follow these same gender patterns with UNCLE signed with the U-hand in a circular motion near the forehead and AUNT signed with the A-hand in a circular motion near the chin. You can easily remember the hand shape that each of these signs use because UNCLE starts with the letter "U" and uses the U-hand and AUNT starts with the letter "A" and uses the A-hand.

Now that you are starting to notice the patterns of signs, you should be able to guess the sign for NIECE (the second Wednesday's sign of the day) and NEPHEW. Both start with the letter "N" and use the N-hand in a circular motion. NIECE is signed near the chin, while NEPHEW is signed near the forehead.

COUSIN (Saturday's sign of the day) is signed using the C-hand in a circular motion close to the head -- that sign could be used for a female or a male cousin. There is also a second way to sign COUSIN where you shake your C-hand by the head instead of using a circular motion. If you wanted to specifically sign FEMALE COUSIN, do the sign by your chin, and if you want to sign MALE COUSIN, do the sign by your forehead.

The signs for SON (Tuesday's sign of the day) and DAUGHTER (Friday's sign of the day) do not follow the exact same sign pattern as the last few signs discussed. SON and DAUGHTER start like the signs for MALE and FEMALE and then transition into the sign for BABY. You can remember these signs because (regardless of age) a SON is one's MALE BABY and a DAUGHTER is someone's FEMALE BABY.

Our featured sign of the day theme of family members did not include any signs for in-laws, but there is also a pattern to be found when signing in-laws. Often it is the sign of the family member, plus the sign for LAW. See MOTHER-IN-LAW as an example.

We hope you enjoyed our first week of using a theme for the sign of the day! We will also be using a theme for the next week. We had a Twitter follower suggest the theme of emotions. Thursday, September 22 -....

Fostering communication between school and home at the middle school level

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:59:37 EST

This blog is part of a series of Teaching Tips for teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students. However, many of the ideas would work well in ANY teaching situation where you are working with children and parents (families).

The last article in this series was aimed at elementary education, now it is time to move on to the Middle School age students and continue our work on literacy skills. (Remember our goal is to improve reading, writing and communication skills.)

Classroom Activity: Create a Newspaper
Grade: Middle School

This idea builds on the concept that at this age, what these kids like best is to hang out, be a part of a cool group and talk about things that are of interest to them. What better time to have them create their own newspaper!

This will allow the students to choose topics of interest to them, which hopefully will also allow them to have more comfort in their writing. Because of the high interests and feelings of confidence surrounding the topics the students will also feel more comfortable sharing this writing with others which is an important part of writing - publishing! You may need to be push the students at times to venture into areas out of their comfort zones as well, but once the ball gets rolling with a class newspaper, it will take on a life of itâ��s own.

One purpose of this project remember is to improve communication between home and school as well, so topics and articles should be something that the studentâ��s parents and families will also enjoy reading.

Example Articles could focus on:

Features about various mystery classmates (where students try to guess who is being written about)
Features about places families have traveled over their summer break
Movie Reviews
Fashion Trends
Latest Technology
Gossip about Television shows/stars
Etcâ�¦.

Once students complete their paper, have them practice a presentation of their paper at home with their parents before presenting in front of the class. This is an opportunity for the student to share sign vocabulary from their paper that maybe their parents wouldnâ��t know. There are many topics that the students would like to cover that may not be common vocabulary in their home settings and this assignment is a great opportunity to increase everyone's vocabulary at home. ....

Update to Android Mobile App

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 23:11:47 EST

We just updated the Signing Savvy Member App on Android to version 1.2. The new app resolves an issue that was making it difficult for some users to login to the app. The issue was that Android was auto-correcting what you typed as a password (thinking it was just regular text). The updated app no longer auto-corrects (changes what you type) on the password field. We also made a few additional bug fixes in the app. If you are using the Android app, we recommend you download the update.

NOTE: The Signing Savvy Member App for Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) did not have the password auto-correct issue and remains unchanged at version....

Fostering communication between school and home at the elementary level

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 06:57:54 EST

We will begin at the ground level with an elementary level suggestion for improving literacy and work our way up to other grade levels in later blogs.

This suggestion works on the basis that children learn better when they are involved in the process. They also love to talk about themselves and especially when it involves taking pictures of themselves and including them in the decision making.

Classroom activity: Transferring daily classroom events into a written form in order to promote literacy as well as teach vocabulary to parents using signs and photos.

Grade: Elementary

Supplies needed:

digital camera (or good cellphone camera)
ability to print digital photos after you take them
large white construction paper (for mounting the photos to)
Signing Savvy membership for printing and wordlist creation

Instructions:

Take photos

Begin by snapping a few photos throughout your day of different activities. Later you can even put the camera in the hands of the students and let them decide what to photograph.

Print and mount photos

Print out the photos and have them mounted on a large sheet of white construction paper ready for your "floor/circle time" (when everyone gathers together in a group and focused).

Add photo captions from students

Now add descriptions to your photos. You can do this a variety of different ways, choosing just one author, or taking suggestions from a couple students, but the point is to have the students give you captions for the activities displayed in the photographs.

This is a great way for the students to put into written language what they all just shared together as a common classroom experience. They will be making a connection between the signs used and the written words on the paper.

Students pick favorite words

Then have the STUDENTS choose five words that you have just written on the paper that they feel would be good to show their families at home the signs for. Maybe it is a word that they have not used before, or one that you will be using a lot in the class in the near future, regardless...let them help in the choosing and emphasize that THEY will need to be the teachers at home to show their families these signs and teach them how to produce them. (They love to be in that role.)

Print the signed words from Signing Savvy and add them to wordlist Then simply underline the five words they choose to focus on and print them from Signing Savvy. Add them to a shared wordlist so that the families that have memberships can refer to them and even create online flashcards or quizzes from home.

Send copies home

The five printed words are then attached to the bottom of the photo page in the space you provided and copied and sent home with the students. This can either be done using a photocopier (you may need to scale the page down to fit on a regular piece of paper) OR just taking a digital photo of the paper. In either case, you can actually create a hard copy that actually goes home everyday, OR in a digital file that is emailed. Regardless, the families become use to the fact that on a daily basis, at least 5 new signed vocabulary will be coming home from school, along with great photos of their children involved in activities at school. Parents will love it and they will see their students excited to tell them what they did at school that day and TEACH them the signs!

* I know it sounds like a lot of work but once you get into the routine of doing this on a daily basis, you will be able to do the whole process in about ten to fifteen minutes and you will wonder why you didn't do it years ago!

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Fostering communication between school and home

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:14:09 EST

Many people who have worked in the field of Deaf Education have had to deal with an alarming statistic that has plagued the field for a long time. The average reading level of the exiting or graduating deaf senior is that of a 4th grader. It has fluctuated over the years but for the most part it is still much lower than any of us would care to accept.

I have heard many different explanations as to why this is the case. It may be because over 90% of our deaf children are born into hearing families, and are therefore raised in homes where sign language is not the native language of the household. (As an aside, one of Signing Savvy's goals is to help hearing family members improve their sign language communication with deaf family members.)

It may also be that the structure of education just isn't as cohesive and friendly to the deaf student as it is to the hearing student because of the mass amounts of language that a child is expected to understand and use throughout their day.

Regardless of these obstacles, we, as educators just need to do school smarter! That is, we need to do a better job at using the resources we have out there to foster the growth of a more literate student. Don't take this wrong, teachers work very hard to educate the students they have, but if we could educate them more efficiently, then we both come out looking...and being, SMARTER!

The blog articles we call Teaching Tips aim to do just that. They give you ways to look at things you may already be doing in your classrooms but adding an edge to them to take you to that next level.

We all know that one of the keys to a successful student is one that has involved, productive parents. Yet many times the parents feel very disconnected from what is happening at school. They often aren't (or don't feel) welcome in the classroom. The problem is exacerbated because the child has very little to share with their parents once they arrive home. Right away this causes a disconnect between home and school.

I want to spend the next few Teaching Tips blogs to discuss some ways to help foster communication between school and home. We will start at the elementary level and work our way up. I encourage you to comment and share your own experiences and ideas along the way. Don't look at this as just for school teachers either. Many of the ideas would work well in ANY teaching situation where you are working with children and parents (families).

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Update to Mobile Apps

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:46:54 EST

There is a new version (v1.1) of the Signing Savvy Member App available now for Android devices. The new versions fixes several bugs that were in the initial release of the Android app (hopefully it greatly reduces the crashes)! The Android app also improves the interface layout if you are using an Android tablet, such as the Samsung Galaxy tab.

UPDATE - There is also a new version (v1.2) of the Signing Savvy Member App available now for Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch). The new version will properly update the sign of the day without the need to logout or quit the app. The new version also fixes a bug introduced in v1.1 that made the app unresponsive.

If you are a full member, we encourage you to download the updated app! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful while you are away from your computer. If you are not yet a member, you can still use the app to view the sign of the day on your....

Creating a Deck of Printed Flash Cards

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:01:44 EST

In my sign language teaching, I create word lists containing the vocabulary of each of my lessons. I share these word lists so my students can view it. The students can then use the online flash card and quizzing features to learn the vocabulary and better prepare themselves for the next in-class test. NOTE: If they have an Apple or Android mobile device, they can also use the flash card feature on the Signing Savvy Member App.

The online flash cards are great as you can actually view the entire motion of the sign since they are shown as videos. However, some people still prefer printed flash cards. Printed flash cards are especially useful to send home with the students. That way, the students can practice their vocabulary with their parents or siblings and everyone ends up learning!

Below is an example of some flash cards I recently created and printed.

To create these printed flash cards, I followed the steps below:

I used the Signing Savvy's word list feature to create a word list of the vocabulary lesson. Just like my previous example, I shared the word list so my students with Signing Savvy memberships could access the list.
Then I went through each sign in the word list and selected what frames I wanted to print using the Signing Savvy printing feature. You can select from one frame up to nine frames of the video to represent the sign. That is, the frames you select are the images that are printed for each sign.
Since I was creating flash cards, I selected the option to print the sign description on a separate page of paper.
Then I printed the signs. Since I had a two-sided printer, I printed front-to-back with the sign images on the front and the sign description on the back. If I only had a one-sided printer, I could have just printed two sheets and glued the two pieces of paper together.
Finally, I cut out the cards to create my deck of flash cards! If you want to get really fancy, you can print them on cardstock paper and laminate them.

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Turn an Ordinary Children's Book into a Creative Sign Language Learning Tool

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:55:00 EST

Children's books are often great learning tools because they are visual, help build a child's vocabulary, and kids love them! I use them all the time in my teaching to young students. Now, with Signing Savvy and a bit of creativity, you can create a sign language version of your favorite children's books to further enhance their learning potential.

Below is an example of a very well known children's classic that has been modified to show the signs.

To create this book, all I did was:

Use the Signing Savvy's word list feature to create a word list of the words from the book. This word list is actually a shared list that anyone who is a member can access.
Then I selected the key frames of video in each sign and printed them using Signing Savvy's printing feature. You could print them on (sticky) contact paper or use a combination of regular paper and clear packing tape.
Then I cut out the print outs and stuck them in place in the book.

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Still time to tap into that summer creativity!

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 20:50:16 EST

Teachers, I know you are all enjoying your summers and don't really want to think about "Back to School" just yet, but I thought I would take the time, over the next few blog posts, to highlight some of the cool things you can do....

Move Complete

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:22:14 EST

Everything now should be transitioned to the new server and working (both the website and iOS and Android mobile apps). The update should increase performance and overall make Signing Savvy a bit more snappy.

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Moving Day Approaches

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:32:33 EST

We will be moving Signing Savvy to a new server this weekend. This may cause the site to be inaccessible for several hours. In reality, the transition should be much quicker (a few hours). We will begin the process late Friday evening when not many are relying on the site to minimize the downtime.

Once the transition is complete, the new server will provide increased performance and a more reliable service for you.

NOTE: The move will also benefit the Signing Savvy Mobile App.

UPDATE (Saturday-Morning): We are in the process of moving the site right now. Some features may not work as we work through the move. Everything should be working again by Sunday at the latest.

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Signing Savvy Member App Now on Android

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:12:51 EST

We have been working hard on the Android version of the Signing Savvy Member App to make it as feature rich as its iOS counterpart. Well, we are happy to announce that version 1.0 of the Android version is now available!

Just like the iOS version, the Android version of the Signing Savvy Member App is free for full members of Signing Savvy (available on the Android Market for Android 1.6 and newer devices). Just like the website, the app includes the ability to search for and view thousands of high-quality sign videos, build your own vocabulary word lists and share them with other members, view other members shared word lists, create virtual flash cards out of word lists to practice your signing, and much more ... all in a streamlined mobile interface.

If you are a full member of Signing Savvy, you can login to the app and use all of its features. If you are not yet a full member, you can still use this free app to view the Signing Savvy Sign of the Day on your mobile device.

Signing Savvy Member App Available for iOS Devices

Tue, 17 May 2011 01:25:16 EST

After a great deal of work, we are happy to announce that version 1.0 of the Signing Savvy Member App is now available for Apple iOS mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch)!

The Signing Savvy Member App is free for full members of Signing Savvy (available on the Apple App Store). Just like the website, the app includes the ability to search for and view thousands of high-quality sign videos, build your own vocabulary word lists and share them with other members, view other members shared word lists, create virtual flash cards out of word lists to practice your signing, and much more ... all in a streamlined mobile interface.

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Misconception #2: There is a sign for every English word

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:20:15 EST

Question: I am looking for the sign for word (insert word) and cannot find it.

Answer: There is not a sign for every word in the English dictionary. However, there is usually a sign for most concepts expressed in English. Conceptually correctness is the key.

If you are trying to find a sign on Signing Savvy, first think about the meaning behind what you want to say. If you search for a word and either no sign comes up or the sign that comes up seems to have a different meaning than what you want to say, think of a different word that conveys the meaning of what you want to say and search for that word.

Lets look at an example from Signing Savvy:

I want to look up the word PROTECTION from the following sentence: I need to put on some more sun protection before going on the boat.

When I search for PROTECTION, I do not find a sign. Therefore, I simplify the word and search for PROTECT. Simplifying the word is a good searching strategy on Signing Savvy, such as removing the -ion, -ing, or s (plural form) of the word.

However, in this case the sign for PROTECT may not really convey the conceptual meaning of sun protection. That sign could be used but what I'm really trying to say in my sentence is more like the sign for FILTER or SCREEN.

Now while looking this up I also thought of the work block, as in sun block. When I looked up BLOCK, I found two signs, one for the meaning to block something or prevent it from entering, and one like a building block.

The sun protection I was thinking about was more of a filter than a block, since I still wanted to get a tan, so I would use the sign for FILTER.

As a signer and a sign language interpreter, you constantly have to decide which sign best fits the conceptual meaning of what you are saying. This is one thing that beginner signers really struggle with. It is not always a direct English....

Misconception #1: There is only one sign language

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:50:04 EST

Question: Is sign language universal throughout the world? ...and if not, why don't we just make it that way since it would make the world have at least one language that everyone could understand and use?

Answer: Unfortunately sign language is NOT universal throughout the world. There is American Sign Language, British Sign Language, Spanish Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language, Ausian (Australian Sign Language) and many more. In fact, there are even multiple sing languages used in the United States (American Sign Language and Signed Exact English). Although one universal sign language would probably make things easier, just like with spoken language, I'm sure the world would have a very difficult time trying to come up with whose way of doing it was the best way so I don't see it happening anytime soon!

Signing Savvy focuses primarily on American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is a complete, unique language developed by deaf people, for deaf people and is used in its purest form by people who are Deaf. Being its own language, it not only has its own vocabulary, but also its own grammar that differs from English. American Sign Language is used through the United States, Canada, and a few other parts of the world.

Since Signing Savvy is first and foremost a reference for folks signing or learning to sign in North America, it is important for us to also include other signs that you may encounter beyond just ASL signs. For that reason, we also include some commonly used English signs. However, we try to always list the ASL sign as the first sign variation on any given word.

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Addressing Top Signing Misconceptions

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:14:15 EST

My next few blog posts are going to focus on the "TOP MISCONCEPTIONS" or questions that I seem to get asked about on weekly basis either in person or from users of the site. For those of you that go back and read old blogs these....

Browse Signing Savvy on Android!

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:37:16 EST

We are happy to report that, in addition to all of your favorite Apple iOS devices, Signing Savvy should now work with your Android devices (Android OS 2.2 or newer with Flash support)!

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Enhancements to Word Lists

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:18:54 EST

Creating Word Lists and Sharing Word Lists, when combined with Flash Cards and Quizzing, are our most popular full member features. Today, we added a minor enhancement to creating word lists and a new shared word list of our own.

Creating word lists that are sorted by date

You can now create word lists that sort the word list by the date the words were added to the word list. This is in addition to the previous options of alphabetically or custom ordered word lists. When you view your word lists that are sorted by date, the word list will show the date each word was added to the word list. This may come in handy, for example, if you are teaching (or taking) a sign language class and you want your word list to reflect WHEN the words (signs) were introduced.

What was the Sign of the Day yesterday?

Part of the reason we added the new word list ordering option is so we could add a Sign of the Day word list. This new shared word list shows all of the signs of the day....