Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

Next week, from March 22 through March 29, our Sign of the Days will feature iconic signs. Iconic signs convey the meaning of what is being signed. Look for the signs for HELLO, DRINK, EAT, AIRPLANE, CAR, BICYCLE, TYPE, and BALL. You can see more iconic signs by visiting the Iconic Signs wordlist from the soon to be released book Activities in American Sign Language published by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) Press. The book by Brenda Cartwright and Sue Bahleda groups signs ...

Read Across America Day is every year on March 2nd - Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The whole month of March is also National Reading Month. The events are used to encourage reading and literacy.  Reading any book is great, but the National Education Association chooses a book every year and this year’s book is the Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You’ll Go. Resources for this year’s Read Across America Day Get the book: Printable activities to accompany the book:             Find ...

The Importance of Reading with Children According to the U.S. Department of Education, only 53 percent of children ages three to five are read to daily by a family member.1 Yet, children are significantly better at reading comprehension when parents read with them and encourage reading.2  Children who are read to at home do better in school.  Research shows they are better at knowing the alphabet, counting, writing their names, and reading.3 Additionally, the more types of reading materials there are in the home, the ...

One really fun idea for teachers to do for their students’ families for the holidays is to assemble a virtual cookbook filled with recipes to create at home.  We all know how important it is for children to be communicated with at home, as well as school, but many times parents are reluctant to do some activities at home because they don’t have the sign vocabulary to do so.

Help students get back into the swing of the school year by showing them our 12 special "Back to School" instructional WonderGrove animations featuring sign language. The "Ask the Teacher for Help" animation is great to encourage students to ask for help when they are confused. Watch the “Ask the Teacher for Help” instructional animation: Accompanying the animation, there are extention lessons for Pre-K, Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade, all which have been crafted by educators and align to the common ...

Summer is HERE!  For most children this means a break from school and fun in the sun with long summer days playing with friends.  Unfortunately, for many deaf and hard of hearing children, these weeks away from school can mean days without good communication. They will still have great summer days of play with friends and picnics with family, but often times communicating at home can be more of a struggle than at school – signing skills may not be ...

In addition to having its own vocabulary, American Sign Language also has its own grammar and syntax that differs from English.

Since ASL is a visual-gestural language, not a spoken consecutive language, it can only truly be recorded in video and not captured in writing. Many writing systems have been developed for ASL, but none of them have reached a critical mass, probably because it is difficult to capture handshape, location, palm orientation, movement and non-manual signals in a written word. For that reason, when scribing ASL, many people rely on the linguistic convention called "glossing," which means writing a word in your native language for each sign that appears. This is not a perfect system, but it can be useful when discussing the syntax of other languages, signed or spoken.

  We have had many people ask about signing THANK YOU to family and friends, and also giving thanks to God during this holiday season. In the case of THANK YOU to family and friends (or kind strangers!), you will want to sign the normal thank you gesture by moving your open flat hand out and down from your face, but do so in the direction of the person you are thanking.  You can remember the sign for thank you because it ...

Tis the season to be jolly!  Below are several holiday-oriented signs and word lists to help celebrate (or at least communicate about) the holidays in sign.   Holiday Signs   We WISH you many BLESSINGS this HOLIDAY SEASON, including HEALTH, HAPPINESS, time spent with FAMILY and FRIENDS, and PEACE, LOVE, and JOY.   View our Holiday Word List   Santa Claus Signs   Have you been NAUGHTY or NICE this year? Make sure to hang your STOCKINGS and put out MILK and COOKIES for SANTA CLAUS.    View our Santa Claus Word ...