Two Deaf Women Show Us Bilingualism At Its Finest

I had a deaf woman come into my store with her husband and three small children. Her family was hearing but she was deaf. I know so little ASL. But I made sure to sign thank you to her and she smiled because it might have been the first time someone used her language outside of her family during their trip. I was so excited I wanted to show a lot of love to her. Idk I have this curiosity about deaf people and their language. So neat.

We have a deaf daughter and are a hearing family. We have used ASL from the start and spoken English. It seemed natural to give her as many options as possible. The biggest challenge we faced was finding a place to learn ASL as a family. You would think that organizations would realize the whole family needs access to learn in order to make it a part of their lives.

Please consider captioning this video so that the Hard-of-hearing community can enjoy it as well. The automatic captions are subpar and do a grave disservice to the speakers, signers, and message of the video. Not only that, but then there's the message of non-inclusion that it sends to the HOH (or late-deafened, such as myself) community... Let's bring the two together, make DHH truly that. Deaf AND Hard-of-hearing.

When I adopted my three yr.-old daughter from China years ago, she couldn't speak Chinese because of a bilateral cleft lip and palate. I used Signing Time Videos to teach us all signing. Her first real language was sign. She started special ed preschool just a few months after coming here, but the school would not provide a sign interpreter for her. I believe as a teacher and as a parent that ASL should be taught from kindergarten up. It enhances literacy for hearing children as well as providing communication skills.

I'm hearing, I am learning ASL and I love it. I would like to have kids. If my kids are born deaf they will know ASL and English, it they are hearing they will learn ASL and English. Both are beautiful languages

I think it is stupid that deaf people are expected to choose between asl and english sign language. They should be allowed to which ever way they want.

Psh, I wish I could take off my glasses when I got home. I'd be unable to function.

Thanks a lot for your videos ¡ I'm english-french-spanish translator. I'm from Colombia and i'm currently studying to become a colombian sign language interpreter. I would like share this video in particular with my friends but most of them don't understand english. That's why I would like to subtitle it , if you agree with that....

I'm not going to lie I like the fact deaf people have more emotional facial expressions. I feel like hearing people aren't....so...emotional with their expressions? if that makes sense.

I wish sign language was a universal thing, though that would make finger spelling complicated. I really feel the world could communicate if we all had something in common

Why is it a practice to advise parents to pick only one language? As an early childhood educator, I have been taught that the first five years of life is the optimal time to learn language. In addition, the bigger a child’s vocabulary, the more successful they will be in school. So we give opportunities to learn other languages to increase their vocabulary. Also, I have met many bilingual children under the age of two. One child had two home languages and was learning English at school. Just doesn’t make sense to limit a child to one language when they are perfectly capable of learning more than one. I give big kudos to the families that put the work in to teach their children both languages!

Also, how in the world do you raise deaf child without learning ASL??

There's a girl in my school that has a cochlea implant (I hope that's how you spell it) and the teachers have to wear special microphone type things so she can hear them from further away but when we're speaking to her personally we don't need it, we just have to make sure to say it quite clearly. It's kinda cool seeing how stuff like that work.

So well said& signed!

Stumbled across this video while doing some early childhood development research. I'm glad I found it! The Coleman's are actually my neighbors! I was pleasantly surprised to see their faces pop up 😊

My daughter has Down Syndrome, and we watched Signing Time on Netflex to communicate with our daughter. I miss it on Netflex.

Thankyou for this!!!! You don’t know how much it has helped me. I was never taught Sign language as a child, I had to teach myself later. I’m hearing person who used to find it frustrating not being Able to talk to all the children of whom couldn’t use their voice and ears for communication. I found it very frustrating not being able to go and play with so, when I have children, From birth, I am going to teach them sign language and Makaton in BSL & ASL. It’s a great way to keep everybody included in this world and I love that you answered my question so thoroughly. Thank you so very much.

I wosh asl was offered in school to kids like spanish or french. Why cant is be considered the same as a second language... I tried to take it in my community college but it was no longer offered so i took spanish.

Thank you for this video. For those who are struggling with making the choice of which path to go down,  do choose the best one for you. I personally believe, having both paths, is the best choice. I work with Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students, and this is what I tell them, " Choosing the best option for you is what you need to do, but remember to have an open mind, you never know what your future will hold." Being a CODA, I had no choice, but I absolutely love this path my life has been on. I have the best of both worlds.

Awesome story!