Category: EDTC 300-Learning Project

For the final week of my learning project I decided to take a different approach. For this week’s learning I focused on learning about baby sign. I wanted to know if it was common for people to use them and if they actually worked? I also decided that a research style learning this week would allow me to use some new resources like journals and articles that I haven’t really used throughout this learning project. I also wanted to learn a few of the signs but for the most part I wanted to learn how common the signs are and more about the baby sign as a whole.

For this weeks learning I used two main sources. I started off by using a resource that would help me become familiar with the different signs. The resource I used was How to Teach Baby 25 Key Words in Baby Sign Language. The format of this resource was super easy to follow and learn from. The different signs where labelled then described and also had a picture attached to demonstrate the sign. Once I had made myself familiar with a few of the signs I choose to move onto the research aspect of this weeks learning.

I started off the research aspect of this weeks learning by searching “How common is sign for babies”. From this search I found a really good website “Baby Sign Language: When, How and Why to Try It”. This website told me everything I need to know about sign language for babies like when to start teaching it, how to teach it and why to teach it. The website define baby sign by saying, “Baby sign language is an effective way to help your child communicate, allowing your non-verbal little one to express his needs before he knows how to use words.” It also noted teaching your child sign can help avoid a lot of frustration caused by trying to communicate which I think would be very helpful for myself this summer when I’m working at the daycare because I know how frustrating communication can be. I was surprised that the website suggested you can begin teaching sign between 8-9 months it seemed so young but I guess the sooner you can communicate the better. I was also surprised to learn that teaching you baby sign can actually help them start to verbally speak sooner because they become more excited to communicate.

Reflecting on this week of learning I am super glad I decided to take a different approach with this week. I definitely think teaching sign to babies does have lots of benefit and this is defiantly something I will keep in mind for when I have kids. This concludes the learning aspect of my learning project thanks for following along.

For week 5 of my ASL learning project I focused on the months of the year, the days of the week and a few weather characteritics. This week I tried to challenge myself and use unique resources to learn. In this process I was able to find a discover an entire new ASL learning community. I began my learning project for the week by creating a Tok Tok account. I know weird I’m a 19 year old without a Tik Tok account or at least I was. 😉 Once I downloaded the app I went to the search option and typed in ASL. I was completely astonished to see how many results I found. I started to scroll through the content and it seemed like I could almost learn any ASL I had very imagined thought Tik Tok. I had discovered a thriving ASL learning community in the most unexpected place. I decided to refine my search to a more specific topic and see the resources I could find. I managed to find one account that had a great learning video for the months of the year. I followed along with this video and watched it numerous times till I eventually caught on. I really liked this resource because the women verbally talked out the actions and demonstrated the signs clearly. The other main resource I used for this weeks learning was the YouTube Channel Learn How To Sign. I have used this channel in previous week but I seem to always come back to it. The women in the video does a lot of verbal explanation and she always describes and demonstrates each sign couple of times. I would 10/10 recommend this YouTube Channel to any ASL learners.

Reflecting back on this weeks learning experience I would defiantly consider this a win. I had the opportunity to discover a thriving ASL learning community which will definitely help me in my future learning ASL. I also learned not of content in a responsible time frame thanks to the great online resources I found. Next week I plan to review my learning this far and then create a plan to continue my learning. Thanks for following along on my ASL journey.

For week 4 of my learning project I choose to focus on expanding my knowledge of the common words and phrases. This week learning went rather smoothly, and I feel like I developed a strong understanding for many different signs. I started this week learning off by search google looking for common sentences or words to learn when you’re learning a new language. From this search results I found a lot of helpful ideas of different sentences I could focus on learning this week in ASL. However, I also found that a lot of the suggestions pertain to travelling because most often when someone is learning a new language it is for tourist purposes which I found interesting. This brought me to thinking about how it would be to travel to a place where everyone communicating through ASL. This is honestly kind of a fascinating thought it was interesting to think about the different things in my life, but I read every day without actually knowing I’m reading. In a place where people only communicated through ASL what they have images of the hands doing the signs or symbols? What do you think?

After finding a variety of words and terms I wanted to learn I started looking for some resources to help me learn them. In my past weeks of the learning project I’ve had my best luck learning through videos, so I naturally turned to YouTube do you help me find videos explaining the ASL signs for each term I wanted to learn. Since I used a lot of different videos for this week’s learning, I’m not going to touch on every single one however I will share two YouTube channels I have found helpful for this week’s learning. The first channel I used is called Learn How to Sign. I think I may have use this channel for a resource a couple weeks back. However, I really like this channel, so I decided to use it again this week. I like this channel for a few main reasons. The first reason is the women organizes the different signs into categories so the video I used this week focused specifically on family which made it easy to find all the different terms I was looking for in one spot. The second reason I really like this channel is because the women is also vocal. Recently I found that lots of the ASL learning videos are silent which makes sense but for me it is harder to learn I like vocals while I’m learning. In these videos the women provide an explanation of the sign and then demonstrates it. Few times which really allows me to examine her hand movements. The second YouTube channel I used this week is called eHow. This channel provides very short videos with one sign per video which is handy when you are looking for one specific word. However, the man in these videos doesn’t really explain the different signs so it’s a bit more tricky to grasp. I would say both resources are great overall it depends what you need to have a preference on over another.

Reflecting on this week one of my main struggles was actually finding terms I should learn so carrying forward to next week I have decided to put my learning into categories to make it easier to learn. Next week I have decided I will focus on the 12 months, the days of the week and the weather. In as I have mainly relied on YouTube to produce videos for my learning resources. However, in this coming week I am challenging myself to you as a video resource found somewhere other than Youtube perhaps Tik-Tok or my ASL learning Facebook page that I have joined. Wish me luck as I search for new learning resources in the closing weeks of my learning project.