Rather than trying to learn some more signs, I decided to refresh my memory by going back to the basics and recalling what I learned at the beginning of my ASL journey. I sometimes forget that in a learning journey it is not always continue learning new content but also ensuring the things we learned previously which are also foundational to progress in the future is also important.
Which includes the alphabet, counting and a few common sayings. I think it is easy to keep learning new signs, but they may not be helpful if I am not retaining the ones I learned previously.
As I was going through the alphabet again there were a few I definitely forgot how to sign, especially ones that I didn’t naturally practice. Letters that were in my name I am quite comfortable with as well as some others that are relatively similar to what their sign is like “O”, “V”, and “W” for example. However, the letters “G”, “H” and “K” were all ones I completely forgot and had to go back to my handy app ASL Bloom to re-learn how to do them!
Going back to counting wasn’t horrible! 1-5 was easy enough as it is similar to how you would teach children learning to use their fingers to count. 6-10 on the other hand were tricky the first time I learned them and without really any practice since. It is really just flipping your hand and counting back down your fingers using your thumb.
Then lastly, going back and reviewing some common sayings was actually the easiest, as I use some of these with my infant niece. Yes, no, hello, please are all ones that I am also quite familiar with from our old friend Miss Rachel. IYKYK!
As I revisit these skills, I recognize there is still a lot of learning to go, but I am happy to see how much I was able to hold on to without a significant amount of practice!
