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Sharing the Book
As a tutor, my main focus, of course, is helping
families learn to read and share books with their deaf
children. I bring a book into the families’ homes once
a week. I usually sign the story first for the parents or
caregivers, then work with them and help them to
learn to sign the story. For parents and caregivers of
younger children, I often bring props. I take along
little figures of animals, plants, or people that will
illustrate the story. I try to help the adults learn that
they can do the same thing.
I answer any questions and watch the parents and
caregivers practice signing the story before I leave.
Sometimes parents want to know the etymology of
signs, how they came about. I’ve explained that the
sign for g i r l originates from a gesture for the bonnet
strings, and the sign for b o y originates from a gesture
for touching the hat brim. When we read Mrs. Wi s h y -
Wa s h y by Joy Cowley, the parents wanted to know the
signs for the farm animals. We’ve also discussed signs
for food, trains, and boats. Every parent and caregiver
wants to know the signs for every one of the words.
We discuss other aspects of American Sign
Language, too, such as classifiers, those handshapes
that function as pronouns and verbs. We discuss facial
expressions, how they at once provide grammar for
sign construction and intensify interest for the
children who are watching the signed story.
Lastly and equally important, we talk about
fingerspelling. Fingerspelling seems to be one of the
biggest hurdles for people that learn sign language as
adults. Fingerspelling takes time to learn and practice
to perfect, but it is critical for young deaf children.
Fingerspelling keeps people from trying to invent
signs and helps children associate signed words with
printed words. I share my own experience with
parents, explaining how I fingerspell often to my own
deaf son. I repeat the fingerspelling for him until it
becomes natural for him to fingerspell himself. At 4
years old, he was already fingerspelling words such as
j o b and b u s.
Parents and caregivers always have questions, and
when I come back the following week they often have
a list of questions for me. Sometimes the parents say
that they forget signs. I encourage them to get
involved with deaf people and the deaf community. I
also encourage them to let their children meet their
deaf friends outside of school.
While I teach the parents and caregivers, they also
teach me. They have taught me about determination
and devotion. They have taught me about the
importance of learning American Sign Language and
helped me appreciate its beauty and complexity. It
makes me proud to see their motivation, how hungry
they are to communicate with their children. I am
grateful to have had this experience.
FA L L / W I N 2 0 0 6 O DY S S E Y 1 3