Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Skype, ASL and Kids

Our daughter (age 10) knows Signing Exact English, is fluent in verbal English and is interested in learning ASL. To that end, we sent her to summer camp for deaf kids, which she loved, and where she did become more fluent in ASL. She is starting to take lessons from a wonderful lady who has been deaf most of her life. To make things easier, and save on gas, we installed Skype on our computer so they could do some of the lessons over the computer instead of meeting in person.

At some point in my brain a light bulb began to glow. If she can connect to her teacher via Skype, she could also connect with other people via Skype. For those of you who aren't up on Skype, you need to buy a camera for your computer, but the software is free, and you can then connect computer-to-computer, kind of like on Star Trek.

If you have kids around her age who would like to help her learn ASL, leave a comment below, and I'll try to figure out how to connect with you off the internet.

K.L.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

if you gonna try internet, then check out www.camfrog.com

its free

Abbie said...

ooVoo is another program just like skype except you can see up to six people at once :)

Deb Ann and Hannah said...

I use ooVoo, too. I loved it.

I grew up with SEE, and now I use ASL and PSE most of times.

I enjoyed reading your post :)

Anonymous said...

thats true...with camfrog you can see 9-20 people at once depending on your size

Jess said...

Hey! My name is Jessica. I am Hearing, however am fluent in ASL. I am in college, majoring in Deaf Ed and my best friend is Deaf. I'd love to help your daughter learn ASL. If you're interested in her talking to me, please feel free to contact me and I'll chat with you/her sometime soon and make sure you feel comfortable with it. Thanks :)

Lorikan said...

I teach ASL using Skype. I also offer face-to-face tutoring. I offer help for school projects, like songs, prayers, and presentations. Additionally, I can teach parents signs for babies. If you are local (Jacksonville, Fl) I also offer group rates and discounts.

Check out my website at www.lovesigning.com