Re: Posted for Michelle Katz

[Janice Steirn <jsteirn...>]

>Does anyone think it important to have the sign taught directly to the
>children by someone in the deaf community, or is it acceptable to simply
>learn it and then pass it on.
>

>Michelle
>

Michelle,

I think it would be best to have someone who is at least fluent in Sign
Language do the teaching.  As a couple of people pointed out, I
mistranslated one of the signs when going from Sign to English because I'm
not a fluent signer.  (But the emphasis of the visual aspect of the sign was
my major point to my students.)  

I'm also in a small Jewish community and, as far as I know, we don't have
anyone who is hearing impaired, using ASL in our town.  We are lucky enough
to have a Speech Pathologist who is fluent, Jewish, and involved in Jewish
Education.  She went to CAJE one year and spent some time with E.J. Cohen so
that she could come back to us and teach us the appropriate signs.  Although
it probably would be best to have someone who is a member of the Jewish,
Deaf, Signing community teach, I'd suggest that you take advantage of
whatever resources you have.  And I'll add my endorsement of E.J. Cohen.
She's great.




Dr. Janice N. Steirn
Department of Psychology
P.O. Box 8041
Georgia Southern University
Statesboro, GA 30460
(912) 681-5505
Internet:  JSteirn (at) GaSou(dot)edu