American Sign Language for older children

By: Tracie Dowell, Creative Hands

More and more states are recognizing American Sign Language (ASL) as an alternative foreign language for which students can receive a credit for. As of July 1997, 28 states had passed legislation granting schools the ability to give students a foreign language credit for ASL, and several community colleges and universities (including Brown, Georgetown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue, and the University of Washington) accept ASL as a foreign language for academic or elective credit.

How is ASL a foreign language? Well even though ASL is unique to North America and Canada, it is considered a foreign language because a language’s place of origin really has little to do with it being considered “foreign.” A good example of this is the American Indian languages such as “Navajo” that are accepted in fulfillment of university foreign language requirements. Because many native speakers of the languages studied in our schools live in the United States and were even born here, many programs are beginning to refer to themselves as second language programs rather than foreign language programs.

Now let’s get down to business. Here’s how you can implement an American Sign Language education program for your child at home:

Step 1
Start with taking a class yourself on basic ASL. You may even find an instructor to teach your child for you or you could both take the class as a family event. If that doesn’t work for your schedule, there are ASL software’s that you can buy to walk you through the basic vocabulary. Along with software, I have seen many good instructional videos that teach you ASL; a good one is “Getting started in Signing.”

Step 2
Now that you know some basic ASL vocabulary you can begin to put together a small curriculum to guide you through the different topics of vocabulary. For example:
Week One: ASL History
Week Two: Alphabet
Week Three: Numbers
Week Four: Food & Drinks

Step 3
Start your child according to your curriculum. With week one, sit down for an hour twice a week and have a “class.” Make sure you test your child so you can ensure that the vocabulary is being retained and to make sure that the signs are executed correctly.

Step 4
Hooray! You and your child know basic American Sign Language. You can stop here but remember to practice so you don’t “lose it!” I recommend sending your child to a more advanced class so he/she can continue learning a more extensive vocabulary.

It’s so rewarding to be fluent in ASL and to list the benefits would take forever. Many people who have never even met a Deaf person are so fascinated with ASL that they just like the idea of knowing the language for their own purposes. In my opinion, everyone should know it.

Article by:

Tracie Dowell, owner and instructor of Creative Hands, has 23 years experience using American Sign Language due to having Deaf parents. Check out her website to learn more about ASL: www.mycreativehands.com