Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

Tune into the television show Switched at Birth tonight (Monday, March 4th), to see the new episode "Uprising" told entirely in American Sign Language (ASL). It airs at 8/7 central time on ABC Family. It will be the first show on mainstream television to air in entirely ASL. The episode will have open captions for hearing viewers. The storyline was inspired by protests that happened 25 years ago this March at Gallaudet University. The real-life "Deaf President Now" protests began on ...

I have had several questions about how to teach young children to sign recently, so I wanted to repost an article I wrote back in 2009 (with a few modifications), which answers many of the questions. Research has shown that a child's muscles in the hands and fingers develop at a faster rate than those in the mouth and jaw. This shows us that a child is better equipped at a young age to sign before they can speak. And children ...

We hope you have a great Valentine's Day! This is a reposting of our blog post from last Valentine's day. It does a great job of covering all the different ways to show LOVE... in sign language that is! Many people know and use the sign for I LOVE YOU. This sign is used universal throughout the country and the world. We see it all over television, at sporting events and during "shout outs" to our mothers. The sign is actually ...

Many people have heard of individuals using dogs to assist them with their visual difficulties, but the use of dogs for people who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing is less understood by the general public. Hearing dogs for the deaf alert their owners to sounds, both inside and outside of the home. Some deaf people also choose to get hearing dogs for safety reasons. The general public's lack of understanding about dogs for the deaf has been known to cause ...

We launched Signing Savvy in January 2009 with the goal of creating a comprehensive online sign language resource.  Over the last four years the site has grown dramatically in content, features, and usage.  We are so grateful for the support of all of our active users.  It is you, our users, that make Signing Savvy so special. We particularly are thankful for our full members who allow us to continue to grow and maintain the site and enhance its features.  As we celebrate ...

This video gives a brief overview of the Signing Savvy service and the inspiration behind it by one of the Signing Savvy founders, John Miller.  In addition to his work on Signing Savvy, John has been a teacher, educator, and administrator at the K-12 and University level.  His focus throughout his career has been on Deaf Education and working with Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and their parents. Transcript of Video Over 90% of deaf and hard of hearing children are born ...

Recently I visited with a group of parents of young deaf children who were sharing their frustrations and struggles with learning sign. They were asking for tips to improve their skills as their families learn the language of their young deaf children.  Their question is one that I hear often, and I know I have addressed it in previous blogs, but because I hear it so much, I thought it might be good to discuss it again. I will also ...

From all of us at Signing Savvy, we wish you joy and happiness during this holiday season and all the best in ...

About a year and a half ago, I came across a young man having problems in one of my schools.  He was about five years old and like any other five year old boy, he was a bit stubborn.  But, unfortunately, he was also known to be a bit of a “flight risk” from the classroom.  We will call him Alex. Alex isn’t deaf.  I don’t even think he is hard of hearing.  Alex is a very bright young man….a bright ...

Seeing that we are in midst of the election season, I thought it would only be fitting to share a non-partisan sign language story that should give you a good chuckle as you enter your local voting precinct. This story relates directly to how signs can have very similar hand shapes and very similar movements BUT can have very different meanings just because of a few subtle changes!  For example, see the similarity between the signs for vote and fart. This experience ...