“But I Don’t Have Time to Practice!”

We hear clients talk about how hard it is to find time to practice their signing skills, and we understand that it can sometimes be overwhelming! Especially when you don’t have someone to practice with, it can be hard to do. Practice is essential to keeping up any skill, especially a language. Remember when you were in elementary school and learned new vocab words? You were asked to use them in conversation or writing. This is the same! You must practice newly learned signs if you want to maintain that knowledge. To keep up fingerspelling, you can fingerspell everything you see! This is a very simple way to practice fingerspelling: watch TV and fingerspell words people say or things that happen, it doesn’t take any extra time. Actual socialization with other signers cannot be beat, though, when it comes to the most effective ways to practice ASL. Signing with people who are better than you will make you a better signer. Look for local signing groups and Deaf events where you can get out and work on your ASL, and don’t be shy!