Learning ASL

As an infant, my mom taught me sign language to be able to communicate before I learnt how to speak. When I found out I was going to be a mom, I knew right away that I wanted to teach my daughter sign language the same as my mom did for me.

Now that we have began sign language with my daughter, I want to further my learning to be able to teach her more! Currently I have taught my daughter Gracyn every sign I know and I want to add more to both of our vocabulary’s. As of right now she knows how to sign the following words: more, please, thank you, all done, hello/goodbye and show me.

My plan to learn ASL includes ten different online resources for the ten weeks we have of this course. I plan to use one resource per week to learn the basics of ASL.

Weeks one to three I plan on using YouTube to learn. I have found three separate YouTube pages I will focus on for the first three weeks of this project. Since I am focused on this learning for my daughter as well as myself I looked for resources targeted towards teaching ASL to children. The YouTube channels I will use are baby Einstein, Ms Rachel, and  Learn How to Sign.

For week four I plan to use an online book source to learn ASL. I have found a few online books, and still want to narrow down which book to use once I see the process to access them.

For weeks five to seven I want to use a newer platform to access some ASL. I plan to use TikTok for these weeks by focusing on profiles specifically for ASL.

Lastly, for the final three weeks I plan to use iPhone apps to learn ASL! There is a variety of free apps available to learn ASL and I look forward to comparing the three top options!

I am looking forward to learning more signs for myself so I am able to teach my daughter the signs as well! I believe ASL is a great skill to have as she grows and for me to have in adulthood as well. Knowing ASL may also come in handy someday if I have a student in my class who uses ASL to communicate!

Thanks for reading,

Brianna