Beth Arnold and her husband decided before their baby's birth to take American Sign Language classes. They wanted a way to help their child communicate earlier with them without whining or crying.
Little did they know then that their son, Samuel, would be diagnosed as deaf when he was 2 months old.
Now 18 months old, Samuel has other problems, including having Down syndrome, which have prevented him from learning to sign, but Beth plans to continue her ASL education - she's currently in a Level III class - and extended family members are planning to learn basic sign language.
American Sign Language, the first language of many deaf people, is said to be the fourth most commonly used language in the United States. It has become one of the most popular foreign languages taught to the hearing at high schools and universities across the country.
Although it's estimated that only 3 percent of hearing families will learn sign to communicate with their deaf children, that number may be on the rise, said sign language interpreter M.J. Light.
"You're seeing an increase in people wanting to be able to communicate with their child. They're taking a more active role in their children's lives," she said.
There are 55,000 deaf people living in the eight counties of Northeast Tennessee, Light told her group of students during a recent American Sign Language class at Frontier Health's Communication Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Light has seven students enrolled in a Level III class.
"This deals more along protocols of interpreting," Light explained. "We'll be focusing a lot on being able to read deaf individuals and also on our expressive sign skills. It's a little less vocabulary. The third level is knowing how to use the vocabulary that you've learned and as it progresses into fourth and fifth, more how to be an interpreter."
The CCDHH offers ASL classes year round, and Light said they've seen an increase in the number of people interested in learning sign. The increase can be partly attributed to ASL's visibility in movies and TV shows, as well as at public events and church services.
Sign language has turned up in at least two movies last year - "Madagascar" and "The Family Stone."
"[On NBC's] ‘The West Wing,' ... one of their individuals was deaf," said Light, who recently served as an interpreter at "Sesame Street Live" at Freedom Hall Civic Center. "There are a few sitcoms out there that will occasionally have a deaf individual just to show the variety of this world, but I believe it is becoming an increasing thing to see sign language in the media.
"Sometimes we'll have surges, and they will have interest in the third and fourth levels," Light said. "Recently we've seen a surge in the upper levels. People have an interest because they know the importance of knowing sign language. ... Sometimes they have a family member who is deaf. You'll find people who are just interested because it's a beautiful language. Some are interested because of job purposes."
Loretta Gonzales, a high school math teacher, began taking sign language classes a year ago. She made it through Level IV and is now repeating the classes.
"I'm a teacher and one of my students wore hearing aids and was losing her hearing," she explained. Gonzales taught the girl, who has since graduated, for three years.
"This keeps me practicing, keeps me alert, keeps me doing," she said. Later this month, Gonzales - whose husband is hard of hearing - will participate in an ASL immersion weekend in Alabama where she won't be allowed to speak orally the entire time.
During their first Level III class, Light reminded her students to warm up their hands, wrists, arms and neck before beginning to sign. She had them introduce themselves by spelling their names, and tell why they are interested in sign and how long they've been taking.
She explained to them that she began learning ASL at age 10, as a homeschooled student. Her first teacher was a deaf woman, and her education continued at East Tennessee State University followed by an interpreter training program.
ASL is a complete, complex language that employs signs made with the hands and other movements, including facial expressions and body postures. No one form of sign language is universal, and different sign languages are used in different countries.
"American Sign Language is not English on hands," she said. "It is not a form of English. It is a visual, not auditory, language."
After reviewing some basic words - father, uncle, daughter, rabbit, school, desk, files, folder, paper - Light explained that facial expressions play an important role in sign because deaf people focus on your face and watch your hands peripherally.
She reiterated that you should never touch a deaf person, particularly one who's not looking at you, because you will scare them. And, she said, you should never refer to a person who's deaf as hearing impaired.
"Hearing impaired means something's broken. There's nothing broken. They're deaf," she said.
After watching a videotape and taking a short quiz, Light broke the students into two groups and asked them to converse with each other.
Alonna Donovan, at 17, was the youngest in the class. She was there with her father, a pediatrician. The Science Hill High School junior already knows Spanish and French.
"I think it's really pretty," she said. "It's really unique and there's not another language in the world like it."
The goal of the CCDHH is to train folks to eventually become interpreters, Light said.
"That's a long-term goal," she said. "It takes three to four years to become fluent and keep your head above water."
The Level I class is the basic introductory course and students learn the ABCs, numbers, and two or three word sentences - "Hello, how are you?" and "Where do you live?"
Level II focuses on more vocabulary, and the upper levels keep building on those basic skills.
http://www.timesnews.net/communityArticle.dna?_StoryID=3595856
Little did they know then that their son, Samuel, would be diagnosed as deaf when he was 2 months old.
Now 18 months old, Samuel has other problems, including having Down syndrome, which have prevented him from learning to sign, but Beth plans to continue her ASL education - she's currently in a Level III class - and extended family members are planning to learn basic sign language.
American Sign Language, the first language of many deaf people, is said to be the fourth most commonly used language in the United States. It has become one of the most popular foreign languages taught to the hearing at high schools and universities across the country.
Although it's estimated that only 3 percent of hearing families will learn sign to communicate with their deaf children, that number may be on the rise, said sign language interpreter M.J. Light.
"You're seeing an increase in people wanting to be able to communicate with their child. They're taking a more active role in their children's lives," she said.
There are 55,000 deaf people living in the eight counties of Northeast Tennessee, Light told her group of students during a recent American Sign Language class at Frontier Health's Communication Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Light has seven students enrolled in a Level III class.
"This deals more along protocols of interpreting," Light explained. "We'll be focusing a lot on being able to read deaf individuals and also on our expressive sign skills. It's a little less vocabulary. The third level is knowing how to use the vocabulary that you've learned and as it progresses into fourth and fifth, more how to be an interpreter."
The CCDHH offers ASL classes year round, and Light said they've seen an increase in the number of people interested in learning sign. The increase can be partly attributed to ASL's visibility in movies and TV shows, as well as at public events and church services.
Sign language has turned up in at least two movies last year - "Madagascar" and "The Family Stone."
"[On NBC's] ‘The West Wing,' ... one of their individuals was deaf," said Light, who recently served as an interpreter at "Sesame Street Live" at Freedom Hall Civic Center. "There are a few sitcoms out there that will occasionally have a deaf individual just to show the variety of this world, but I believe it is becoming an increasing thing to see sign language in the media.
"Sometimes we'll have surges, and they will have interest in the third and fourth levels," Light said. "Recently we've seen a surge in the upper levels. People have an interest because they know the importance of knowing sign language. ... Sometimes they have a family member who is deaf. You'll find people who are just interested because it's a beautiful language. Some are interested because of job purposes."
Loretta Gonzales, a high school math teacher, began taking sign language classes a year ago. She made it through Level IV and is now repeating the classes.
"I'm a teacher and one of my students wore hearing aids and was losing her hearing," she explained. Gonzales taught the girl, who has since graduated, for three years.
"This keeps me practicing, keeps me alert, keeps me doing," she said. Later this month, Gonzales - whose husband is hard of hearing - will participate in an ASL immersion weekend in Alabama where she won't be allowed to speak orally the entire time.
During their first Level III class, Light reminded her students to warm up their hands, wrists, arms and neck before beginning to sign. She had them introduce themselves by spelling their names, and tell why they are interested in sign and how long they've been taking.
She explained to them that she began learning ASL at age 10, as a homeschooled student. Her first teacher was a deaf woman, and her education continued at East Tennessee State University followed by an interpreter training program.
ASL is a complete, complex language that employs signs made with the hands and other movements, including facial expressions and body postures. No one form of sign language is universal, and different sign languages are used in different countries.
"American Sign Language is not English on hands," she said. "It is not a form of English. It is a visual, not auditory, language."
After reviewing some basic words - father, uncle, daughter, rabbit, school, desk, files, folder, paper - Light explained that facial expressions play an important role in sign because deaf people focus on your face and watch your hands peripherally.
She reiterated that you should never touch a deaf person, particularly one who's not looking at you, because you will scare them. And, she said, you should never refer to a person who's deaf as hearing impaired.
"Hearing impaired means something's broken. There's nothing broken. They're deaf," she said.
After watching a videotape and taking a short quiz, Light broke the students into two groups and asked them to converse with each other.
Alonna Donovan, at 17, was the youngest in the class. She was there with her father, a pediatrician. The Science Hill High School junior already knows Spanish and French.
"I think it's really pretty," she said. "It's really unique and there's not another language in the world like it."
The goal of the CCDHH is to train folks to eventually become interpreters, Light said.
"That's a long-term goal," she said. "It takes three to four years to become fluent and keep your head above water."
The Level I class is the basic introductory course and students learn the ABCs, numbers, and two or three word sentences - "Hello, how are you?" and "Where do you live?"
Level II focuses on more vocabulary, and the upper levels keep building on those basic skills.
http://www.timesnews.net/communityArticle.dna?_StoryID=3595856