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I don't know of any websites, but yes, there are books on ASL grammar! This is a good place to start; it's by a non-native signer, but it's also affordable...there are some ASL grammar books out there that aren't! Here is an example of the expensive type. :)

To answer your question about active/passive hands...yes and no. It doesn't matter which you use, but it should be consistent. If you are right handed, then your right should be your "dominant hand" (DH) and your left should be your "non dominant hand" (NDH). If you're left handed, then your left is DH and right is NDH. As long as you don't switch back and forth all the time, you're fine. There are some people who switch for a few signs here and there (I have been guilty of it myself), but you're supposed to stick with one DH and one NDH. :)

Now, as for every half-turn of your wrists...actually that does kind of matter. I hope you don't mind if I explain the four components of a sign:

• Location - Where the hand is on the body. For example, in cat, the location is the cheek.
  
  
• Handshape - The shape of the hand, positions of the fingers. You can see most of the handshapes here, note that it goes beyond just the letters! For cat, the handshape is (usually) F.
  
  
• Palm orientation - Is the palm facing forward, back, left, or right? For cat, the palm is facing forward or "out" as most people call it.
  
  
• Movement - What does the hand do? Up, down, back and forth, in a circle, etc. For cat, the hand moves out from the face.
  
  If any one of these are changed, you're not signing cat anymore - in fact, if you change only the movement, you sign fruit! That's called a "twisting" movement. In the case of "every half-turn of the wrists" that would be palm orientation (PO). If PO is back (behind you), left, or right, you're not signing cat. So it does matter. Obviously if someone is sick, injured, etc they might make signs differently - but the way to be understood is to perform the sign accurately. There are slight variations from person to person, just like there are various accents in spoken language - but for the most part, everybody forms a sign with those four criteria intact.
  
  Of course, all that said...you can sign really really badly and people can figure it out. This video made the rounds among my friends a while back. The guy's signing is absolutely horrible but we all understood him. We wouldn't want to chat with him on a regular basis until he improved his skills...but we figured it out. :)

> It stated that hearing people were close minded and self involved.

This is true, but your teacher made the statement out of context.

With regard to deafness and Deaf issues, I would actually agree that the majority of hearing people are closed minded and self involved.

As an example: I'm starting a new job soon in the video relay industry. I recently sent a farewell letter to co-workers and in it I mentioned my new position. Later, I was approached by one of them who had been thinking about it and asked "Can't they just use SMS? That already works fine. " Even after explaining about English skills, native language, SMS being slow and error prone, etc he still didn't quite get why a deaf person would rather use sign language to communicate with someone instead of sending a text.

Obviously, hearing people aren't any more closed minded and self involved than any one else. However, people experience the world through our senses and our understanding of it is shaped by those experiences. Hearing people understand deafness (cannot hear) but cannot easily understand Deafness (experiencing the world without sound) and encounters such as I described above are the norm. This lack of understanding influences their behaviors and opinions towards deaf people.

Likewise, deaf people, whose own understanding of the world is also shaped by their experiences understand what sound and hearing is (vibrations of air turned into electrical impulses and interpreted by the brain) but lack understanding of what it's like to experience the world with sound. And just like hearing people, this lack of understanding influences their behaviors and opinions towards hearing people.

So far so good right? This is mostly just what you'd expect to find with any two cultures with a language barrier - except that's not JUST a cultural and language barrier. Deaf people learn to read and write spoken languages and hearing people learn sign languages but still tensions exist.

In the case of hearing people, the historical approach towards the deaf has been "make them Hearing, like us!" because that's what they understand. Give them hearing aids and implants and make them speak like we do. "Fix them", etc.

This Deaf oppression, oralism and audism has left it's mark on Deaf culture. Like in many cultures, there is a strong cultural memory in the Deaf community. For some people they are drawn to the Deaf Power subculture and in even more extreme cases develop reverse audism and persecution complexes but that's a very small minority. I find it hard to believe that 50% of the Deaf people you've encountered believe born Deaf are superior people (which is the very definition of reverse audism.) Superior signers maybe, but not superior people.

More subtle issues derive from just plain, run of the mill assumptions, misunderstandings, and miscommunications. What might be considered perfectly normal behavior to one person is taken to be intentionally motivated by malice on the other person's part, and it goes both ways.

I started this response hours ago and since then have had lunch and left and come back, so I might have veered off track at some point. For sure I lost my original train of thought and I don't think I can catch it again. Train Go Sorry.

So I'll just stop here. I hope this response helped.

A CI was put into me at around 18 months old. I was mainstreamed.

My school system had a magnet deaf/HH program that attracted students from five different school townships. As result, I wasn't the only deaf student in my grade, although it was still lonely company since only one of them only really grew up with me, with others coming and going. At most, there was five others, at lowest, there was two others. I never tried to interact with those who were in grades below or above me after elementary school.

I had interpreters in all of my classes. They started out with SEE and then slowly changed to ASL. Later, I found out that this was due to conflicting philosophies from my elementary, middle, and high schools. There wasn't an unificated plan at the time even though there was a person who oversaw all three programs.

Far as I know, the most "successful" people who came out of the magnet program was HH. I was an abnormality in that I had 0% access to spoken English after Elementary School. In fifth grade, I determined that my CI was nothing but a distraction and gave off the false image that I was HH instead of deaf. I still wore the CI for a few years, turned off, and then eventually I built up enough confidence to stop wearing it. Nothing changed although my Middle School's TOR made a bit of fuss but considering how well I was doing in my classes, it didn't last for too long.

I did pretty good, academic wise. I was involved in extracurricular activities (Cross Country, class officer, and so on). I had scholarships thrown at me. But it was three years after I dropped out of university (after three years of alienation and isolation) that the fact that something was missing was noticed by me. I'm sure that my father and others have noticed it before but they either didn't tell me, or if they did try to bring it up with me, I just brushed it off. I wasn't making progress with my emotional and social life.

At least in the meatspace. Around fifth grade, I discovered Internet and with that, I acquired Written English and a social life. Even today, my cyberspace social life is more active than meatworld's.

There's a couple of books that might be of interest to your research; Madness in Mainstream and Turning the Tide.

Feel free to ask more questions if you have any. I have plenty of tidbits.

Your sister should get certified as a teacher, no doubt. This will let her become a teacher. But we don't need more teachers, we need more great teachers.

Some things that more teachers need to do (not just Deaf school teachers):

• Get a strong pedagogical foundation. That is, the methods and psychology of teaching. The school system in America has been static, because not enough teachers know how to teach. There has been ample study on the psychology of how students learn, and how best to reach them. Most "alternative teacher certification" programs have no focus on pedagogy, just basic knowledge. Knowing facts does not make you a good teacher. You have to learn how best to develop knowledge in students, it does not come naturally. If your sister does not have access to a good pedagogical program, have her seek one out. Look up constructivist learning techniques, inquiry-based models, and findings from Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson.
  
• Have an advanced certification-level of experience with the language. When it comes to schools for the Deaf, some schools will required their teachers/interpreters be certified at the state or national level. Others will just require that they have "achieved the proficiency level required". If she's a strong signer, certification isn't as important, but getting certified as an interpreter will open more doors. If she were teaching by speaking, say, English, she should have an expert ability to speak English, not just a cursory knowledge of it. The same should hold for ASL, or technical "languages" demanded by the subject.
  
• Find a school where she agrees with the policies. If I had a Deaf child, I would never send them to a school where signing was forbidden. The classroom should be an environment where students and teacher communicate openly and freely, and placing barriers on communication makes no sense educationally. If the point of a school is to teach them to interact in a hearing world that fears and does not accommodate them, and she's okay with that, then she can find a school that suits her principles. If the point of a school is to teach students and allow communication, we should not forbid the use of any tools or languages. When it comes time to interview at schools, she should ask them on their policies. If they are policies she doesn't agree in, she should make it known at that time. If they do not (or cannot) acquiesce, it is not the school for her.
  
• Keep that passion for teaching. There are few excellent teachers in this country. Teaching is a demanding profession, and is often downtrodden. If you are not passionate about your subject and students, never get in to teaching to begin with. If you keep that passion, it will be one of the most rewarding professions possible.
  

That's great. I think this book has some good advice for you, even though it's a little dated. I don't really know of other books as I'm an adult and this book came out when I was a kid.
One of the really important points the book makes is self-care as a parent. You have to have a support system that understands you. Another really important point in the book is the agency of the child, in other words, the capacity for your kid to make their own decisions instead of putting them into a box.

It's great that you go to monthly meet ups! Feel free to continue this chat if you have any questions.

I used to collect For Better or For Worse comic strip collection books. Same with Zits. I don’t have the Zits collection anymore but I still have my FBoFW books.

Anime... I’ve never gotten into that genre. Maybe lack of exposure or proper introduction? Idk.

Marvel or DC? MARVEL! Although I do like me some Dark Knight, though...

Visual essays are also one of my favorite things. Good example is this one: Huxley & Orwell.

So I’m not deaf and I don’t wear hearing aids but as soon as I read your post I thought of silicon putty earplugs? Like these from amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003ATFEUY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_75yxCb7YAQSY7

You may be able to put the putty around and make a better seal with the hearing aids? Idk if this helps but good luck!

I'm fussy about my headphones too, and I just accept that whenever I need to buy new ones I need to buy several and throw most of them away until I find one that I like. Unfortunately headphone choice is very personal so it's unlikely that anyone will be able to recommend the perfect ones for her.

You don't need special mono earbuds though. If your music player of choice doesn't have an option to play everything in mono then stereo-to-mono adapters are basically free. If she really wants earbuds instead of trying more proper headphones, then look on Amazon for those too. But remember that you'll have the same problems with earbuds as with headphones - you'll have to go through several before you find one that is comfortable and doesn't keep falling out and doesn't get bunged up with ear wax all the time.

Hi, I'm Deaf and I don't particularly have advice for vibration techniques that could help you.



One way I think could help is using a bluetooth earpiece like this and set up an audible notification from your phone, alerting you through the bluetooth earpiece.


Vibration technology is going to be a dilemma of too strong and it wakes up your boyfriend or too weak and it doesn't wake you up. You could also get used to it and tune out from the vibration. I used to have a shaker under the pillow and I eventually started sleeping through it (so I use a strobe light which forces me to open my eyes and shut off the alarm).


Hope it helps. I don't really know much about the experience of using bluetooth earpieces, tbh.

Over-the-ear headphones such as these are probably your best bet, if you can find a pair that comfortably fits over your hearing aid.

Also, they make "headphone amps". Typically they are used by audiophiles who need the extra power for their special headphones, but they should work just great for your purpose too.

I'd recommend the Sweetheart Alarm. It's super girly, however, it has adjustable sound pitch and volume, and can turn it off completely if sound is useless. It flashes (although not remarkably) and has a vibration pad you put under your pillow. This thing is powerful so be careful, as it can get noisy if it hits anything hard. I've used it before and after I started losing my hearing, and I really like it. https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Alert-SBH400ss-Sweetheart-Shaker/dp/B000LDNTT0?th=1&psc=1 Hope this helps!

Depends if you have conduction hearing loss and where that conduction hearing loss is. Conduction headphones work for me partially because my hearing loss is mixed and the conduction hearing loss is specifically my eardrums. If you really must try a set though, I highly recommend you to order from somewhere that you can get a complete refund.

I got mine from Amazon in case I needed to return them, but I kept them because they work well enough for me to be satisfied. They're not perfect, but it's better than nothing in my opinion.

This is the specific conduction headphones I ended up purchasing. If your conduction hearing loss is due to the bones in your ears though, I don't think these will work for you. Your best course of action overall, though, is to get a referral from your doctor to see an ENT or Audiologist to test your hearing.

Thanks for all the help I got from this group!


The book has now been published, and it's free today (April 1 and April 3) on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PNWQ69P

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You can see the part of the book that's relevant to this thread here:

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https://i.imgur.com/w6AeZiv.png

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If you want to make it ACTUALLY fun, there is a lip reading game called "Hearing Things": https://www.amazon.com/Hasbro-C3379-Hearing-Things-Game/dp/B01MR4V1M1

I use https://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-Gaming-Headset-KHX-HSCP-GM/dp/B00SAYCVTQ I've done somewhat similar stuff before from home so maybe this would help. They are extremely comfortable imo.

Personally, I'm a fan of sunrise alarm clocks. The Phillips one is good, but pricey. I have this one currently, and it works fairly well. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KHTG7SC