Baby Sign

I was searching the internet recently and came across something called "Baby Sign." I read a little about this topic and became fascinated. Babies are able to physically communicate as young as six to eight months old. This is a long time before a baby is able to speak or begin to express what they want and need through words. It is also said that babies that learn how to sign to express themselves will have an easier time later on in life when it comes to expressing themselves. I thought this was really interesting because when you think of babies, you don't immediately view them as thinking human beings that are aware of their surroundings, wants, and needs. Yes, babies cry when they are hungry or have a dirty diaper, but do they really know why they are crying, or are they just uncomfortable? Well Baby Sign suggests that babies are completely aware of what is going on and that teaching them signs like "no," "eat," "all gone," "drink," "bye-bye," etc., will help them communicate with others exactly what they need.

I also found it interesting to see that baby sign is a fad today. It is growing more and more popular and is helping parents everyday understand their babies better. I was surprised to find out that the concept of baby sign has made it as far as to be on shows as large as Oprah, NBC, ABC, Dateline, etc. I found a website with some clips of babies signing. The url for this site is http://video.yahoo.com/video/search?p=baby+sign+language. Some of the videos are short and don't get into detail but there are one or two that are really interesting to watch. Some other interesting sites to check out are http://www.ksby.com/home/headlines/4636341.html and http://oprahselects.com/oprah-winfrey-show/baby-signing-how-to-talk-with-your-baby-in-american-sign-language/. These two sites deal with the story that was used for the Oprah show and a book that is now being sold that explains baby sign to parents.

I realize that this doesn't directly deal with deaf people because the babies that are learning this are not necessarily deaf. However, it is an interesting aspect of sign language. I've actually seen baby sign up close before and never realized what the parents were doing with the baby until i researched it. I was a lifeguard for years and during the open swim programs, parents would often wait on the side of the pool while their children swam. One time, a woman had a baby with her that looked to be a little less than a year old. I was sitting near them and I heard her ask her husband to hold the baby because she had just done the "sign for eat." I did not think anything of it but i turned around once and saw the baby gesture towards its mouth. To think back on that now is really fascinating. You do not realize how much sign language can be used for until you research it.

Gallaudet University

I decided to do my first post on Gallaudet University. I wanted to research this for a couple of reasons. Primarily because I am really considering taking sign language further and can really see myself working with deaf people. I am a double major in management and modern languages and have also had a passion for different languages and how they work. For a long time I thought I was meant to work with spanish, but lately have become fascinated with sign language.
I began by looking on the University's homepage http://www.gallaudet.edu/x1843.xml. I was really amazed by some of the things that I found. The first thing that really shocked me was the amount of majors and minors that are the same as any other university. I never realized sign language could be used to communicate things such as accounting, chemistry, computer science. I guess I just thought that if I had a hard enough time with these subjects in english, that it just wasn't possible to explain them without words.
Next, I decided to look at the graduate programs that Gallaudet offers. Like I mentioned earlier, I am very interested continuing on with my studying of sign language and hope to be able to work in a place where I can use it frequently some day. I am still two years away from graduate school but have added Gallaudet to the list of schools to consider. The three graduate programs that I found most interesting are the departments of ASl and Deaf Studies, Interpretation, and Social Work.
Another area of Gallaudet that I found fascinating was the sports teams. When I think about certain sports, I cannot imagine them without sound. I was a swimmer for years and relied on sounds to tell me when to dive in, people cheering for me on the side of the pool screaming to go faster. These were things that I depended on as an athlete. How do you know when to dive into the pool when you are deaf?
I come from a town where there are not any deaf people that I know of, so it is hard for me to understand deaf people do the same things as us. I think I always thought of it as a disability/disadvantage until taking this sign language class. Now I know that is not the case at all. Deaf people have there own culture and live life just like anyone else does. They may have a harder time doing certain things but they don't necessarily let the fact that they cannot hear discourage them.
Looking at Gallaudet University's website opened my eyes a little to deaf culture. I no longer think that deaf people are disabled and I'm pretty sure that there are a ton of deaf people out there that could kick my butt in chemistry or accounting. I'm really glad I took the time to look at this site and realize something new about a group of people that I had been unconsciously stereotyping for years!