Why Sign?

Imagine there was a language you could learn in order to communicate efficiently with millions more Americans. Imagine you could teach your child that same language to give them the freedom to express themselves before they spoke a single word. If you kept that language education going throughout the years, both you and your child could gain a keener, nuanced sense of different cultures and different communities beyond your own. These are just the few benefits of American Sign Language.

Babies gain control over their hands long before they develop speech. You can turn to sign language if you want to communicate with your child and give them a foundation for language before they even open their mouths. Instead of being frustrated with slow vocal development, children can use sign language to express their wants, needs, and thoughts until they are able to speak.

If you or your child continue to learn sign language, then you build upon the foundation of knowing a second language, and you move past only knowledge into fluency. Fluency leads to a passion, not just for a language, but for the culture associated with it. The cultural competency and language fluency can be expanded by diving deeper into American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf culture and building connections with the people who are part of the Deaf community.

Seattle possesses a rich and diverse Deaf community, with Deaf folks working in tech, art, as well as other practices and careers. There are many hearing ASL users in Seattle, from those who grew up with Deaf parents to those who decided to work as an ASL interpreter. Learning ASL, even only the basic skills, can help you build meaningful connections with folks who are part of this local community of ASL users.

There is no better day than today to sign up for an ASL class at Visually Speaking and to begin to immerse yourself in this vibrant language and rich culture.