writing by hand - not so easy ? -

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
December 2, 2003

On Nov 25, 2003, at 8:25 AM, Stefan Woehrmann wrote:
> They have got the problem to formulate ideas, stories on their own.
> Most of
> the students started to interact in SL not until before they became 6
> or 7
> years old. Sometimes I am afraid that we lost this first
> speachdevelopement - phase -- And now we are struggling ...
> Nevertheless - I am curious to use any means to improve their
> expressive
> skills.

Stefan and Everyone -
It has been a holiday week here, so it is possible that the teachers in
the US did not see your question...But attached is a nice photo of a
Deaf child in Brazil writing rows and rows for practice...They produced
some great handwritten documents later...Antonio Carlos posted them on
his web site...go to:

Brazilian SW Handwriting and Students
http://gmc.ucpel.tche.br/signwriting/frei-pacifico/

I do not know if writing SignWriting by hand will help increase your
Deaf student's expressive skills...no proof of anything...but I can
hardly see how it would hurt them?...When students only paste signs
already written for them, in the dictionary in SignWriter, that keeps
them from practicing how to write or type...that actually might be
holding their development back...you never know until you test with and
without....you may find their speech skills improve when they write
SignWriting on their own, because some deaf students get so excited to
express themselves in written Sign, that they rush over to a hearing
person and start vocalizing...I have heard of this now several
times...so I would suggest testing it...Albuquerque, as far as I know,
is in the same boat with you, Stefan...they got dependent on pasting
signs from the dictionary too, but there are some students who write by
hand on their own, because they choose to...

I believe you told me, Stefan, that a Deaf co-worker of yours writes
pages of SignWriting by hand and faxes it to you? That is
wonderful...if nothing more the handwriting is useful for those who do
not have computers... Val ;-)




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