Video Examples
Video Examples from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Department
In a Total Communication environment, students can develop strong spoken language skills (depending on auditory access) while also becoming fluent signers. These skills allow students to communicate flexibly with a wide variety of peers and adults across settings, helping them develop confidence and cultural identity, build connections in both Deaf and hearing communities, and make informed choices about how they best express themselves and access communication throughout their lives.
This video is the first of a pair designed to demonstrate how students who use spoken language can also become fluent users of American Sign Language, making them truly bilingual and bimodal communicators. In this video, students communicate naturally in spoken English while expressing humor, opinions, and detailed ideas. The goal of our program is to provide equitable language learning opportunities in spoken and written English as well as American Sign Language, ensuring that communication is never viewed as “either/or.”
This video is the second of a pair designed to demonstrate how students who use spoken language can also become fluent users of American Sign Language, making them truly bilingual and bimodal communicators. In this video, students communicate naturally in American Sign Language while expressing humor, opinions, and detailed ideas. The goal of our program is to provide equitable language learning opportunities in spoken and written English as well as American Sign Language, ensuring that communication is never viewed as “either/or.”
This video showcases a student who is immersed in Spanish at home while learning written English and American Sign Language at school due to limited access to auditory input. The video demonstrates that Deaf and Hard of Hearing students can successfully develop multiple languages while engaging in complex academic conversations when they first develop a strong foundational language that is fully accessible to them. Regardless of which language a student accesses most easily, students can build strong communication skills, learn advanced concepts, and use multiple languages to support future academic and career success.
This video showcases a bilingual/bimodal student communicating with one of our native signing Deaf staff members and highlights our program's value of strong receptive American Sign Language skills for all of our students, even for students who have excellent listening and spoken language abilities. Families will see how fluency in American Sign Language allows students to access information through interpreters and communicate effectively with Deaf professionals and peers. These skills can reduce cognitive load and fatigue in general education settings by allowing students to process information visually as well as auditorily.
