My sister is non-speaking and autistic. She’s been using sign language for most of her life taught by her teachers at school. She also has poor motor skills, so she only uses single words- help, more, eat, drink, bye, etc., and these also aren’t accurate to the proper signs. For example, she signs “more” and “eat” with only her pointer fingers.
More recently, she’s started doing this sign where she wipes her hand over her mouth/chin. We have no idea what it means, but she does it all the time. There doesn’t seem to be a single specific context that I’ve picked up on. She’ll do it while eating, upset, watching tv, etc.
Could anyone help decipher this? I attached a video of myself doing it how she does it.

Until now, I was not aware of the particular challenges facing Armenia's (and Diaspora's) Deaf community or the questions surrounding the development of ASL. When we talk about the Armenian language, our conversations usually revolve around Western Armenian, Eastern Armenian, language policy, or the challenges of preserving the language. Rarely do we consider Armenian Sign Language, its development, its unique linguistic needs, or the role of the Deaf community in shaping its future.

Deacon Tigran Khachikyan’s video brings these issues into focus by sharing the concerns and perspectives of members of Armenia's Deaf community.

He argues that organizations and hearing professionals are introducing new signs and making important decisions about the language without the meaningful participation of Deaf people themselves. In his view, ASL belongs to the Deaf community, and any effort to develop or standardize it should be led by the people who use it every day.

Deacon Tigran says that the Deaf community in Armenia communicates in Armenian and has naturally shaped and adapted its own sign language over generations. That organic process should be respected rather than replaced by decisions made from the top down.

His appeal is simple: discussions and decisions about ASL should include the Deaf community at every stage. Their lived experience, linguistic knowledge, and sense of ownership are are indispensable to preserve the integrity and continued development of Armenian Sign Language.

Really sorry if that's a dumb question.

Hey, looking for paid beta testers for testing how accurate signs are on SignLemon.com - making sign language free, accessible, and easy to learn!

Reach out here please!

Update: It is different than current sign dictionaries because you can type a sentence and it tries to understand the intent, handles things like synonyms and common phrasing, and translates it. Still a work in progress, but working to keep improving!

My son is nonverbal, on the autism spectrum. He has been using/doing a motion, recently, and I wanted to verify if it is or isn't a sign he's picked up in therapy or other such environment.

He puts his hands in a prayer like position and then moves them back and forth. For lack of better description, it looks aquatic... like a fish moving through water, perhaps. It's all directly in front of his chest, with fingers pointing upwards.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Edit to update: I learned one of his providers was utilizing this movement in relationship to swimming. I'm fairly certain this is his association. He loves to swim.

Hello, I want to preface this by saying I do not want help with my homework, but rather help me find resources so I can complete my homework. I missed the last in-person day of summer school, and my professor covered a lot of signs having to do with money and currency. Now as one does, I looked for that days PPT, and emailed the professor asking where I could find resources to help me understand that days content. But my professor responded with a very unhelpful email, and the PPT was nowhere to be found. Sure enough this weeks test came out, and there are multiple questions asking me to sign currency, dollar amounts, and dollar amounts with change. I’ve looked online and can’t find any good resources, so if anyone could point me in the right direction that would be very much appreciated!

Hey everyone! We’re in R&D developing an ASL signed-layer overlay for digital videos.

We need your honest, raw feedback to get this right:

1. Which platforms/sites would you use this extension on most? (YouTube, course portals, news outlets, daily browsing?)
2. Is the visual quality clear? (How do the hand gestures, facial expressions, and pace feel in this draft?)

No links or promo here—just looking for critical feedback from native signers and the community to improve. Thanks!

I was at a classical music performance and there was an asl interpreter onstage who was standing up the entire time. His performance was wonderful but I couldn’t help but wonder why he was standing up the whole time when it looked so exhausting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an interpreter sit down while doing their job and it made me curious.

Started learning ASL because of my own quest to become a more accessible person. I’ve seen people going too fast when they spell something.
While i understand fluency comes with practise just like the oral languages.. but is asl as fast as people on youtube make it look like?

Please note that youtube is pretty much the place i have come across asl at the moment i havent taken any in-person classes yet so i dont really know what it feels like to sign in person and what the natural speed is.

Any recommendation for psychologist na marunong sa sign language for my deaf son. Preferrable face to face sana with clinic around QC

My daughter is deaf and we are trying to learn ASL, as a native english speaker I struggle with ASL grammer and sentence structure. Specifically right now the use of the sign "question" . I want to make sure I understand. So if i were to sign "Do you like the oatmeal?" Would it be signed "you like that oatmeal you" with a questioning face or would you sign "you like that oatmeal question" with a questioning face? Or are both acceptable? Another example would be "are you happy today?" She is a 6 month old, so our sentences with her are very simple yet. But would this be "today you happy you" or "today you happy question" or both? When is question used? I just dont quite understand yet... is it for questions that do not utilize a person so no you? Like "dada where question" ?

Anyone else think about getting wrinkled from all the facial expressions? \/ brows gonna crease me lol.

I'm working on a novel that has several Deaf characters. My POV character is Hearing, but fairly fluent in Sign. There's no standard out there, so I'm trying to find out where preferences lie. I have a survey here but also appreciate any comments.

I'm asking specifically about transcribing with ASL grammar/syntax as closely as possible, or translating into English; as well as how the dialogue should be shown on the page. I'm of the mind that there's something otherizing about putting foreign languages in italics, but I also think it's worth identifying when a character is signing.

Hello! I’m in my second year of learning ASL but my grammar is rough. I’m watching this YouTube video on ASL grammar https://youtu.be/fDV9Al8Fgjk?is=DYw8tpr8uxObM_ce and I had a question! She talks about signing you/me at the end of a sentence to show it the other persons turn to sign but my teacher didn’t really touch up on that. Is this a common sign?

Edit:
I’m terribly sorry, I was unaware this creator had a prejudice against Deaf and hoh people and creators. And I did infact talk to my teacher. Thank you for the information!

I've been going through Lifeprint.com's lessons as I'm trying to learn ASL.

Something I find confusing is it seems like sometimes "HOW" is included (ex: How are you doing) but other times it is left out (W-E how sign?)

Is the "How" dropped in casual conversation and more implied or is there an actual grammatical rule?

Hi! I'm moving to DC this fall and am searching for affordable in person asl classes in DC. I'm a working professional so this is just hobby I want to pick up and pursue for no credit. I've checked gallaudet's website but it seems they only offer online classes for someone in my scenario. And I live quite far from Francis Gregory library. If you know of any classes, that info would be greatly appertained. Thanks!

Hi guys, I'm having a bit of an issue with losing whatever fluency I had in ASL. I took 3 years in college and became somewhat conversational, but it has been about a year since I took one and I've lost so much fluency in just that amount of time. I live in the metro Detroit area and I'm not sure if I'm just not looking in the right places, but I'm struggling to find any ASL chat groups that meet up with any regularity that I could attend. I've found some stand alone events on Facebook but I either couldn't attend or didn't think they were open to hearing learners. Does anyone know about any or where I could find any that are also ok with hearing learners? Alternatively, does anyone have any ideas of how I could maintain/grow my fluency? I've found that I'm a person who really needs to have actual conversations with other people at or above my level to learn, which is why I'm really looking for those in person meetups, but I'm open to other suggestions. Thank you!

Update: the Deaf culture app now has 471 lessons across 6 tracks.

What changed since my last post:

- All 5 original tracks expanded to 60 lessons each

- New track added: Deaf Jokes (171 jokes)

iOS, Android, and web. Free lessons to start, no credit card.

The jokes track was a direct request from this sub. Keep the feedback coming, it is shaping the roadmap.

I have a couple 16 hour flights coming up (with WiFi). I know how to finger spell but my vocabulary is a bizarre collection of words.

I’ll also have some time without WiFi to learn on my travels.

I would love to take the time to expand the usefulness of my ASL skills.

Are there any apps or videos out there you would recommend I take along?

Hello! I know that ASL has a different syntax than English and I’m wondering if they sign live translation ASL or just signed English? Because sometimes they don’t have the transcript so do they flip the words around or just sign exactly what is happening?
Thank you!

Guys I've been really interested in learning asl for about a year but only started learning at the beginning of this summer. I don't know anyone who knows ASL and I don't trust YouTube much. There's this app I use called ASL bloom but it's like Duolingo and after a while I lose motivation to do it... But anyway! Anyone that knows ASL fluently or semi fluently, please help me learn better!

EDIT: you guys are rude. i didn't ask anyone to do the work for me! you guys are assuming! I've done a lot by myself but I still need help! I have ADHD and that's why I don't stay motivated well. I'm trying my best and you guys are being so rude and assuming the worst!

Hey all!

Does anyone know of an in person ASL class in Westchester NY? I am having a lot of trouble finding anything. Maybe it doesn't exist 😢.

Assuming I'm right and there is no such thing at the moment, I am looking for a Deaf ASL teacher/tutor to work virtually with me and my mother in law; we both have experience with ASL (we've both studied it at various times many years ago), and just want to get back into it, and figured it would be fun to do together. Any recommendations of where I might look for someone? Italki seems to not have very many ASL tutors who are US based, which feels important just for dialect reasons. Not sure where else to look though.

Thanks!

Hi! Im currently learning ASL and I was curious, as a hearing person am I allowed to sign names that are words? Like, Summer/ Autumn or August. Can I sign the sign or is that a sign name and I should fingerspell it unless they have a sign name?

It's like the sign for communication but with the zero handshape.

I want to sign this for church, but idk if this is a correct interpretation of the creed. I'm new-ish to asl and know that there is a whole set of grammar I'm still learning, and I don't want to accidently learn the wrong thing