Learning that your kids made a new friend at school is a heartwarming experience, but what if it turns out that the new friends had their own specific needs? This is the situation one mom found herself in.
A momturned to the internetwith a heartwarming story, when her twins befriended a deaf child and needed help communicating their names in ASL. Helpful netizens gave her a boatload of advice, tips, and tricks and were rewarded when OP came back with an update. People shared their thoughts on the downright wholesome story and their own experiences. We also got in touch with TraditionalHeart6387 who wrote the original story.
Children often don’t have the best communication skills, so add in ASL and you have yourself a challenge
Image credits:Liliana Drew (not the actual photo)
A mom needed some help when her twins befriended a deaf child
Image credits:Artem Podrez (not the actual photo)
Image credits:RDNE Stock project (not the actual photo)
Image credits:TraditionalHeart6387
TraditionalHeart6387 ended up getting some help from another mom
Sign language in one form or another has been around a lot longer than most people might think
While ASL (American Sign Language) as we know it in the 18th and 19th centuries, Spanish conquistadors reported that Native Americans already had a form of nonverbal communication to assist withinter-tribal discussions and trade. These days, in the US, there arebetween 250,000 and 500,000“speakers” of ASL. If that number seems a bit imprecise, it’s mostly because there has never been a nationwide survey done, as many non-deaf people learn it to some degree for one reason or another.
In fact, American users of ASL evenhave regional “accents,”for example, studies have shown that folks from the south have a more relaxed and “flowy” style of signing, while New Yorkers are quicker and use sharper movements. Obviously, people who can hear who learn sign language (like in OP’s story) tend to haveslightly different postureand hand/arm movements compared to a deaf person who learns it at a much earlier age.
Image credits:Thgusstavo Santana (not the actual photo)
There are some solutions to differentiating between a noun and someone’s name
While generally, this is a lot slower, this method does allow ASL (and users of other sign languages) to differentiate between “normal” sentences and something the other person is trying to emphasize or set apart. This way, OP’s kids who have common-noun names can be set apart from this noun, although this only works if the deaf child actually understands fingerspelling and its implications.
However, as we see in the update (shared below) kids have their own ways of making communication work. After all, every child has semi-independently learned how to make friends and get its parents to do stuff, so the skillset is there. How this friendship pans out is anyone’s guess, since kids tend to need to be a lot older for relationships to truly cement, but should they really learn ASL, that’s a useful skill for life.
Image credits:cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
OP shared some more details with the readers
Many people gave her advice
Later, she shared an update with the readers
Image credits:Nastya Korenkova (not the actual photo)
People loved the story and found it heartwarming
The mom shared some more stories from this charming friendship
Image credits:ChurchArt Online (not the actual photo)
People wanted a bit more info
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