Sunday, April 6, 2008

Silent Words

Long ago I started to learn American Sign Language from an interpreter who is now my husband. Besides working at the California School for the Deaf for many years, I served as a church Sign Language interpreter, raised three Deaf foster sons, and have taught American Sign Language to lots of people. Our daughter started learning it when she was born.
My husband and I even taught sign language to our first dogs, who were deaf dalmatians. One of them, Brenda, became able to understand about 350 signs (mostly names of individuals and foods) and taught us to understand about 30 animal signs. Brenda was a brilliant dog and able to understand human language about as well as some two year old people do.

3 comments:

L.L. Barkat said...

That is really, really fascinating about the dogs. I've always seen sign language as a kind of dance. Dancing words.

Anonymous said...

Two, no three, no four things that I really, really like about your blog. 1) The name, very clever. Blog naming is key and yours is an excellent one. 2) The tag line. Words, language, AND “compassionate communication”, what a delicious combination. 3) The brevity. How you pack so much into so little is enviable. 4) The delivery. I’m completely intrigued by your observations and experiences and can't wait to read more. Dogs learning to sign? Incredible.

Anonymous said...

it is wonderful to communicate and Love in the way that another can perceive it.

thank you for sharing this story.