I want to learn ASL: I am deaf but I don’t sign beyond a basic level.
My interest in learning sign language was a long time coming. For years, trying to “pass”, I totally resisted it, but with my hearing growing worse and with a daughter who struggles with speech, I need to learn.
As we live in a very isolated area when we are in the United States, and on the road in Mexico when we are not, I need to learn ASL online. Here are some sites that I have found useful to learn ASL:
Super awesome site. Free lessons, fingerspelling, dictionary, the whole shebang. Oh, and my favorite, Deaf Jokes page!!
Two Deaf men are signing to each other.
The first man asks, “What did your wife say when you got home late last night?
The second man replies, “She swore a blue streak”
And the first man asks, “What did you do then?”
And the second man replies, “I turned out the light.”
- iASL
- ASL Pro
- ASL Dictionary
- Sign 4 Me
This site kind of overwhelmed me with all the ads and stuff for sale. So far it seems like a lot of dictionaries, including “religious” ones (- if you are wanting to teach your child Bible signs, this is probably your stop).
You are able to “check out” videos, DVD’s and books, a’la netflix. They even give you a postage paid mailer to send them back. In addition to the DVD’s, they have streaming online videos and offer all kinds of things for ASL instruction, deaf culture and children – really, really cool site. Check out the lessons available for ASL instruction here. Sweeeeeet!
This has a ton of online ASL classes here – both free and paid courses with homework and everything. I love that they have a section for homeschoolers, they have tutors and an online practice community too!
This is primarily a site for baby sign – which I am not looking for. But they are some cool links to places to learn other languages – Latvian sign, anyone?
I currently already use this on the iPhone. It’s a brilliant video-based signing dictionary. Very easy to use and free.
This is the Deaf blogging community. It’s awesome because there are a lot of vlogs – video blogs – a great way to interact with real people, virtually.
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If you are wanting to learn ASL or have your kids learn, I hope this helps.
If you know of some other system or structure for online learning, I’d love it if you’d comment. Thanks!
PS
Signing Time: if you haven’t already tapped into this truly astonishing system of catchy music + signs, well, here’s your introduction now – it is the easiest possible way to teach babies and kids basic ASL