Success!! SignWriting with DeafBlind...

[Nancy Cole]

Hi again,

Well, people think that Deafblind are totally blind.  But my student has
never expressed language or anything until just recently when I started
signwriting with her.  The signwriting seemed to bring it out of her, or
something, it was like a light  bulb and everything just "clicked."  When I
did my student teaching in Colorado, I'll never forget this one teacher I
worked with told me...in order for kids to learn language you have to give it
to them, so that's what I did.  Everything in my room has signwriting and all
her old vocabulary.  But I do a mixture of her old symbols and signwriting,
because I've been out of practice for a year.  I'm also working with another
student who can hear, but is mute, and moderately retarded.  Laura, my
Deafblind student has never written anything by herself before, and now she
is starting to, and also connecting the handshapes to signs she knows, so
this makes me more motivated to give her more language.

I will try to document my experiences more.  I'm keeping a journal, and will
keep you all informed.  All of the posts really are helpful and I read them
everyday.

Have a great week:)
SMiles
Nancy Cole
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