Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

What was our favorite part of the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games? It had to be the Kaos Signing Choir for deaf and hearing children and Deaf Percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Kaos Signing Choir for Deaf and Hearing Children If you saw the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games, you probably caught the children in pajamas singing and signing the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen."  The children were from the Kaos Signing Choir for deaf and hearing ...

HI! My name is Kim Martinez, and I am proud to say, I am a mother of a deaf child.  She is now 26, and I would not change the way she is. I know most mothers say this, but this is so true for me. When God gives you something special like this, you do one thing…..PUNT!!  I am not going to say this has been easy, it has been really hard actually, but because of the gift of a ...

Our recent blog article on Education Options for Children that are Deaf or Hard of Hearing covered the various educational options available. We did not specify any one option as being "the best" option because every child, family, and situation is different and education is a very personal decision. However, one of our suggestions was to connect with deaf adults who can provide advice based on their own education experience. We found a TEDx video by Dr. Joseph Valente that talks about ...

We have received questions from parents, family and friends of newly identified children with hearing loss asking about what we know about educational options. Let me begin by saying that making educational decisions for you child is a very personal decision and takes a lot of thought and discussion with professionals that have specific knowledge of the services available in your area. There are many different education options to explore. You need to determine what is the best fit for your family.

Interpreting can be both rewarding and challenging. Here is my list of top ten pearls of wisdom for interpreters...

Chuck Baird, an amazing Deaf artist died February 10, 2012 after a four-year battle with cancer. Chuck Baird was often referred to as a playful mind and a generous heart. I was able to meet Chuck as he visited with a group of young Deaf and Hard of Hearing children. I have to admit his playful mind and generous heart is what stuck out to me the most while I watched him totally pull the children into his wonderful world of ...

The Hammer, a movie based on the life of the first deaf NCAA Wrestling Champion and UFC Fighter Matt "The Hammer" Hamill, was released on DVD a few weeks ago. The DVD cover says, "the inspirational true story," and it was just that… whether or not you are interested in wrestling, sign language, or deaf culture, the movie is an inspirational story about overcoming challenges and working hard to make your dreams a reality. And if you are interested ...

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, FINGERSPELLING……that dirty BIG four-teen letter word!). Quizzing yourself on word lists is a full member feature. All users can sample the quizzing option on the ...

In all my years of signing, I have never had anyone say to me, "I can't believe how easy fingerspelling is!" or "Man, I really LOVE fingerspelling all these odd words that don't have signs for them." It just isn'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 ...

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 ...