Hands and Voices is a community ran completely by parents. They are dedicated to serve families with deaf or hard of hearing children. Their unbiased opinions about communication modes or methods can help you make decisions or give you resources that fits your family best. not only that, they have websites for posting jobs and resumes for deaf education. Hands and Voices also hosts events. From webinars to story times, they always have something going on for the children in the deaf and hard of hearing community. Hands and voices are in most states, but not all. If you have a deaf or hard of hearing child and you wish you had more resources, I’d start by contacting Hands and Voices!
Baby sign language was the best place for our family to start. It is just as it sounds; they’re basic signs most commonly used for babies. Teaching your little one baby sign is a great start in communication. In fact, I’ve found that even a hearing baby benefits from ASL because babies can sign to you much sooner than they can talk.
We used the baby sign language website. Here you can learn the basics like starter signing or teaching signing To your baby. They also have a dictionary section to look up signs, and a section you can practice with flash cards.
Baby sign is a great place to start and not just for babies!
Bill Vicars is a deaf professor that teaches American Sign Language. He has a website called Lifeprint that I consider to be my lifeline! Almost any word you want to learn is on this website. He also posts his lessons on YouTube which have been a huge help for learning ASL at home. His website has links that will take you to his YouTube for learning videos. In addition to this, Lifeprint also has gifs and pictures to enhance your learning. There are a lot of people online teaching ASL, but make sure you’re learning from a deaf person. The deaf professors and content creators will make sure that you’re learning ASL correctly.
If you’re learning ASL it’s important to be certain you’re learning it from deaf content creators or CODA (Child Of Deaf Adult). These content creators will make sure you’re learning Sign Language correctly.
Here is a list of my favorite Deaf content creators:
Ronnie McKenzie - he makes great learning videos. My favorite part is that he shows you his hands and signs slowly to ensure you’ve got the sign down.
Shaheem - he has some teaching videos, but a lot of the ASL I learn from him are from him signing songs or doing bits with his wife, which I think is a lot of fun.
Elizabeth Harris - I love her openness to share about her life. She has quite a few videos that share ASL resources. She also makes ASL covers which I find so much fun!
Scarlet May - she does ASL covers as well and she tells stories with captions. I often learn things while watching her videos this way.
Thatdeaffamily - this is a family of 4 who are all deaf or hard of hearing. I enjoy hearing their experiences of what it was like growing up deaf in a hearing family and what they’ve done differently with their kids who passed the deaf test!
Savvy ASL (Savannah) - she is a deaf performer and KidzBOP kid. I love watching her sign her interpretations of songs!
There is another content creator I enjoy learning Sign Language from, but he isn’t deaf. He is a CODA.
Jon Urquhart - he has great informative videos teaching sign. My favorites are the ones where he shows how very similar signs can mean extremely different things. He also has an American Sign Language learning website called ASL Spring with tutoring, mentoring, and more! It even looks like they offer your first lesson for free!
Please check out my Etsy store featuring the ASL learning activities I’ve created for my daughter that I want to share with others! Including Bluey ASL Alphabet Practice, Finding Nemo ASL Color Practice, and more!
I know sometimes money is tight so I’ll be offering a free Bluey ASL Alphabet card.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.