Updated: Oct 12, 2022
It is now September, Deaf Awareness Month. A ASL Picture Books, this is a great time for us to look back on the work we have accomplished and what is yet to come.
ASL Picture Book’s blog began in September 2020. In its first year, our blog shared information about ASL being the perfect second language with often overlooked benefits. We also shared 5 methods to easily get started and great resources on fingerspelling. We also gave shout-outs not only to the team who made My Monster Truck Goes Everywhere With Me possible (including a warm appreciation for Diana Campbell’s amazing work) but also to the fantastic people who connect with our mission to make sure every child is heard (Kimberly Sanzo, Maureen O’Shaughnessy…)
I would like to take this moment to reflect on the avenues we have explored in the past year, since September 2021.
Education
ASL Picture Books is strongly dedicated to education about ASL and how deaf or hard of hearing children acquire language. We trongly believe that every child should have a chance to be heard so they can find their unique gifts and offer them to the world.
We began by looking into Strategic and Interactive Writing Instruction (SIWI), an approach to writing that considers the bilingual nature of DHH students. Thi method fosters the development of language and communication skills in both languages simultaneously. One of the tools used in this method is the language zone, a tool where a teacher and a student work together to establish meaning in many different ways. In ur article on the subject, you can see this process come to life with our examples using lesson plans!
Our blog articles also looked at how the structure of ASL differs from English. This is a great place to start if ou don’t know much about ASL! If ou happen to be a parent or a teacher of a DHH child, you can begin to understand why this child makes certain mistakes in English. Nat rally, this led us to consider the unique challenges that DHH learners have to face in language acquisition. Giv n the fact that 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, many of those parents don’t speak ASL. The efore, the parents have to learn at the same time as the child.
We also encouraged you to learn sign language and teach it to your preverbal infant! Sig language for babies is really helpful because it allows your child to communicate their wants and needs before they can actually speak!
And finally, we put the spotlight on 10 courses to step up your ASL game this year! Wit September being Deaf Awareness Month, it’s the perfect time to dive into a course to learn (or continue learning) ASL! If ou know of a resource that we haven’t listed, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Science
This year, we’ve also taken an interesting dive into scientific research about the acquisition of sign language and the differences between the brain of a deaf person and a hearing person. We f und out lots of neat stuff!
In an article entitled “Brains Are Better With Sign Language,” we reviewed scientific studies that conclude that sign language enhances cognition for hearing, hearing signers, and deaf native signers, young and old, regardless of biases, socioeconomic status, and stereotypes about sign language. How xciting is that?!
The following month, we reviewed the science around the acquisition of sign language for a child who uses Cochlear implants. The opic is hotly debated, and we wanted to see a bit more clearly! So have a look and let us know if we’ve succeeded!
Finally, we closed off this series with a look at how a deaf person perceives the world differently from a hearing person, a CODA(child of a Deaf adult). Deaf people have a different way of making sense of the world around them. It i commonly thought that Deaf people are more intuitive. We l oked at the science behind this, asking ourselves how the brain of a deaf person perceives external stimuli and how this is different from a hearing person’s experience.
We would love to continue looking at science-based articles on those topics, so if there is a topic you’d like us to look into, or an article you want to share with us, please don’t hesitate to contact us right away!
Representation
A big topic for us this year was the representation of DHH folks in literature. We ha e looked into s