I am hard of hearing. I've been learning American Sign Language lately from a certified ASL teacher on Youtube. His name is Dr. Bill Vicars from Lifeprint.com (ASLU), and I've been learning from his videos for about two weeks now. There are a few reasons why I decided to learn sign language. I wanted to still be able to communicate if my hearing gets worse or if I could not wear my hearing aids for some reason.
Let me give you a little of my family history. My Uncle is deaf, so my Mom and her side of the family learned SEE to communicate with him. SEE is Signed Exact English, and most D/deaf people do not use SEE, they use ASL.
I was born hard of hearing. Growing up, my mom did not teach me sign language. I did learn a few signs here and there as I was growing up, but other than that, I never really learned the language. A few years ago, I had mentioned I was interested in learning ASL. I was given the family SEE book. I thought it was the same thing at first, boy was I wrong. I needed more interactive learning than just learning from a book, so I did my research and found Dr. Bill Vicars' website and youtube channel:
Here is the website:
Here is the youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/billvicars/featured
Like I said, I started about a month ago. I breezed through the first few lessons. I am on Lesson 16 as of publishing this, This is the playlist I am watching:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6akqFwEeSpiLwRFA3ZvuOWMwPXwI7NqA
It is the official ASLU master playlist that is updated often with lessons. This is the playlist I am going off of because he seems to have updated some of the lessons and it's easier to find the other videos because they are already in this playlist.
I asked Dr. Vicars what the best way to “study” his videos was, and his recommendation was to view the lessons on his website, Lifeprint.com, as well as watching the lessons on Youtube. It will help you review the lessons.
Here is the page with the lessons:
https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/lessons/lessons.htm
There are other ways to learn ASL of course, this is just the only way that is accessible to me. I'm sure there are online courses you can take. But, I challenge you, if you're not already doing so, to learn a new skill. It doesn't have to be sign language, although it would be helpful for D/deaf and hard of hearing people. It could be learning how to craft something, learning an instrument, learning a new language, etc. But, I do challenge you, before the year is over, to start learning a new skill, if you haven't already.
Until next time, God Bless
- Chloe
