Click a word - all . all gone . angry . baba . bad . ball . big . bird . black . blanket . blue . boat . book . bottle . bye bye . car . cold . come . computer . daddy . diaper . dirty . do . does . doggie . drink . face . family . get . gimme . give you . go . going . good . green . happy . hat . he . head hurts . hello . here . hey hey . hold . hot . hug . in . into . it . light off . light on . little . mad at . ma . ma's ma . maybe . me . mine . more . my . myself . nana . night night . no no . nose . off . oh . other . pants . pa . pee pee . pick up . play . pretty . puu puu . put down . read . red . right . sad . see . she . sleepy . thank you . there . them . they . thirsty . throw out . titi . TV . uh oh . uh uh . upon . us . want . white . wrong . yes . you . - - - Short Stories - - -.

Infant Sign Language

How to DOWNLOAD this whole folder to your computer.

Go to SITE

Why You Should Learn Infant Sign Language

Infant Sign Language (ISL) will help you to communicate effectively with young children. It is based on the fact that very young children can communicate more easily with signs than they can with spoken words. This is because they have better control over their arms and hands at an early age than they do over their lips and tongue. Therefore, from about the age six months to about the age of thirty-six months they can use signs more effectively for communicating than spoken words. When you teach your children this ISL you will help them to be happier because they will be more able to fulfill their daily needs. They will be healthier too because you can tell them what to do and not to do at an earlier age. Also, they can learn spoken languages sooner and better because they have had this previous experience with symbolic communication. In adults it has been discovered that vocabulary is the single most accurate measure of a persons general intelligence and that is probably true with children also. We know that the average speaking child can say about one word by the age of thirteen months but some signing children can do fifteen words at 12 months. Thus, teaching your infant to do these signs will help them be happier, healthier and functionally more intelligent during the most important years of their lives. Acquiring the habit of learning good habits is the most helpful thing a person can ever learn. Those are wonderful gifts to give your child.

This ISL web page is designed to help normal hearing adults learn the signs necessary to communicate effectively with normal hearing children who have learned to sign. The on-line moving pictures, accompanying this web page, shows ISL sign movements more clearly than the still pictures or a paper print-outs but after viewing the video a few times the paper print-outs will be sufficient, as a reminder of what you have seen. There are some little stories at the end of the web page which will help you to remember the signs. The page is designed to be printed out so you can have a copy of the page around the house as a helpful reminder. Also available for ready reference is a poster with 60 signs which you can put up at some handy location such as your refrigerator. If you speak a language other than English you can replace the spoken word accompanying the sign with the proper word from your personal language. A small space has been left in the print-outs for you to write your language's word beneath the ISL sign.

The Learning Sequence

making random sounds and movements,
looking and listening to what interests them,
imitating their mothers' sounds and movements,
imitating their mothers' duplicated sounds and movements,
attaching meaning to the duplicated items they (the infant) are observing,
learning and linking meaning to some two-part words,
learning and linking meaning to especially emphasized words,
making some compounded single words like gimme,
learning some word pairs,
speaking in simple two-word sentences,
speaking in multi-word sentences.

The signs chosen for this basic sign language are similar to the signs used in adult sign language but they have been slightly redesigned and selected to be more easily formed by very young children. In spoken speech the usual sequence for an infant to learn language is to begin by babbling sounds and by babbling random movements. Children inherently do some random movements similar to signing so it is natural and easy to teach your infant how to sign by linking their movements to something that interests them. Within a few months of birth there is a period of mimicking the sounds they hear their care givers making. This is followed by a period of copying their care givers repeated syllables and movements. Repeating syllables and movements is a way we adults innately use to emphasize the intended verbal parts. We do this repeating of words to isolate the special communication words from the background noise and from the other non-essential words that we are using. For example the adult word ma becomes repeated and becomes ma-ma and pa becomes pa-pa and those repeated syllables become the childish forms of accepted adult words. We will use this repeated form only so long as it takes the child to recognise and use these first words and then move on and use the singular adult forms of ma and pa. After a child knows several of these double-spoken words they move onto other words that are not duplicated but are stressed in some consistent way. In English we tend to append the sound eee to new words to set them apart from background noise. For example the adult word for dog becomes dogeee and the adult word for cat becomes kitteee. The same is true for signed language: first there are random movements, followed by the imitating of mother's movements, then copying her duplicated movements, then attaching meaning to these duplicated movements to interesting things with sudden frozen gestures. It is where the infants attention is placed when the word is spoken or signed and not what you, the adult, are looking at or pointing to that is critical to the childs learning. It isn't until a child is almost two years old that you can consistently change there focul of attention to a remote object by looking at it or point to it. That is why it is so important, at the beginning, to do the sign gesture two times in immediate proximity in both time and space the the refered to thing so as it emphasizes the fact that this is a meaningful content filled action associated with that thing. Also it is important to have the objects readily available when talking or signing about them so the sign and the thing it is related to are seen together.

Infants have trouble with complex coordinated two hand signs and most adult signs use both hands to form signs and special finger movements which are also accompanied by facial and bodily gestures. It's too much for a baby to grasp! These complex coordinated movements are common in standard adult sign languages but, with this Infant Sign Language these complexities have been reduced to an absolute minimum. This Infant Sign Language is similar to an adult sign language but it is done, in the beginning, with one hand only and that hand is used as if it is wearing a thick glove. Once you know a few signs and are familiar with this suggested teaching method you can begin. The first signs that an infant needs to learn are designed to be the easiest for them to form. Also, the vocabulary in these lessons is limited to about one hundred of the most useful signs for early learning. About the time the child has learned that many signs, they will have achieved control over the more difficult to acquire speaking skills and be well along in their transition into the more widely used spoken language. As part of the design strategy these lessons are made easy for adults to learn because they will be the ones teaching the infant. At the end there will be a few infant level short stories to help you and your infant learn ISL quicker and better.

Some Suggestions For Helping A Baby Learn A Language

Place the baby at about arm's length with the object of the lesson between you.
Look at the baby's eyes and make sure the instant before you begin to speak or to sign a lesson word the baby is looking at the object.
If their attention is elsewhere move the object into more direct alignment between you and the baby and its view of the object and wiggle it a bit to draw their attention to it.
When their attention shifts to the wiggling object, bring the signing hand smoothly from outside of their visual attention into close proximity to the lesson object and do its gesture sign and say its spoken name.
Return the relaxed hand half way to the remote position and then bring it back to close proximity to the object and repeat the sign and its spoken name.
Make sure the baby eyes go back and forth between the object and the sign two times, that is four seperate eye fixations.
Hold it for just a moment then return the hand to your relaxed position and don't move it for a few seconds but smile and say praisefull things.
Whenever the baby makes any gesture that is remotely like any sign immediately copy their gesture yourself ... two times.
If the child does any standard sign immediately repeat the sign properly two times and produce the object and do the sign again. (This immediate copying of the infants gestures is for recognition of their signing and not so much for the content to which the sign is to be related to on this first exposure.)
Show pleasure with a smile, a good baby coo, and a Thank-You sign.
If possible, have the actual object with which the sign is about to be associated readily at your hand to display when you or the baby uses this particular sign the next time.
For example if you are teaching the sign for bottle be sure to have a bottle in and out of your hand and the child's hand repeatedly while the sign for bottle is being formed.
But, if you are teaching a sign for dog and the child signs bottle imideately produce a bottle and do its sign two times and show them a bottle.
As the childs vocabulary increases try and have all of their vocabulary items within your reach but remote from the child so as not to distract them.
Say and sign the words two times while touching the referred to object or doing the event action.
Repeat these sign routines only two or three times and then do something else that is fun for the baby and wait for a minute or more before doing another sign the baby doesn't already know.
If the baby's attention moves on to some new thing, immediately adjust your attention and signs to that new thing and give that new thing its proper sign and object.
Whenever a baby signs anything respond appropriately and sign Thank-You.
In later lessons start signing with some signs the baby already knows.
Show them a sign, pause, and then show them the object and ask them to do the sign.

The First 30 Signs

Here is a list the first words that children typically learn in spoken English. It is a good starting point for learning signed words too because these concepts have been proven to be useful by the children themselves. Some seemingly non-useful words like doggie or elephant may be helpful a little later because they are so unique and give the child something quite complex to observe which is inherently interesting. Those signs may not be as useful as "Change my diapers." or "Gimme a bottle of milk." but they are fun and easy to learn.

Note: Clicking the big - NAME - found beneath each picture will show you a BIG 1,000 kilobite movie of the sign and the clicking the small - name - will show you a compressed 20 kilobit version. You may double click directly on the movie screen to see the movie again. You may have to use your browser's Go-Back function to return you to this page.

MA - ma - Point the open hand, index finger to the ear lobe with the elbow low, pause briefly and then stroke halfway down the side of the jaw and pause a moment.
---- Hint: Female signs like MA and SHE start beside the ear lobe. The open hand is friendly. A deliberate movement with a pause indicates that it is a sign and the palm facing the center indicates that it is a person sign. See also MA's-MA.
---- Help: These first words should be spoken and signed two times and then a pause for recognition and perhaps do it again. Thus MA becomes MA-MA with a pause and then MA-MA again.
.
PA - pa - The vertical open hand with the index finger at center of the forehead moves forward and down a bit with a pause at the end.
---- Hint: Male signs like PA and HE start at the center of the forehead. See also PA's-Pa.

---- Help: At first these signs will not be recognised as relating to things but will simply be copied as gestures in themselves. Infants inately copy sounds and gestures. If you consistently do a given gesture at the moment that some particular thing is presented then they become associated together at thus the gesture becomes a meaningful sign. But, things presented at the same time but not linked with purposefull attention become associated much more slowly therefore make sure the eyes of the child shift back and forth from the object to the sign two times. .
BABA - baba - Pointing the tip of the index finger open hand palm to the bridge of the nose from below and moving forward and down a bit with a pause.
---- Hint: The hand to the center of the face it seems is the most self referential of hand made signs. See also ME.

---- Help: This is the word baby but the child is going to pronounce it BABA so that is the way it has been written. .
TI TI - ti ti - Closed fist with the thumb extended to the mouth with the elbow held low.
---- Hint: A natural thumb sucking gesture for nursing that is typically made by an infant but in this case it is standardized into a sign. From an early age use this sign two times just before nursing the baby. It is similar to DRINK which is learned later. Notice the elbow is held low for TITI but in all color symbols the elbow is held high as in MAGENTA.

---- Help: This is a very useful word for a nursing child to learn because then she can soon learn to ask for what she wants. .
BOTTLE - bottle - The horizontally cupped hand is holding an invisible bottle at chest height. The thumb curls around horizontally.
---- Hint: This is the general sign for bottle, cup or glass and its liquid contents. Thus the early sign for milk or juice. See DRINK
.
DRINK - drink - The BOTTLE sign is brought up to the corner of the mouth and the palm is then raised vertically.
---- Hint: The motion is similar to raising and holding an invisable bottle or a cup at the mouth while drinking.
.
NANA - nana - Hold the open fist with the finger to the thumb and the arm half way extended in front of the shoulder with elbow held low towards the tummy.
---- Hint: An infant pronunciation of the word banana. It is final the portion of the word banana that a baby will typically pars out and pay attention to because it is doubled. The sign for banana looks like a hand holding a banana. When showing the infant the banana sign remove the fruit while leaving the hand in the shape of the sign. It is similar to TI TI which is held touching the lips, and BOTTLE which is held out from the chest and to the dark dull MAGENTA color sign which is held with a high elbow.
.
NIGHT NIGHT - night night - The flat hand held against the eyebrows with the elbow held high and then pulled down over the eyes.
---- Hint: The hand is in the SEE position and moves over the eyes and creates darkness.
.
MORE - more - The up-cupped hand at tummy level with arm half way extended is moved up and sideways from tummy level to shoulder level with a closed fist.
---- Hint: A stack of stuff is being placed in the hand and held. (When teaching this it might work to place some objects in the hand and move them up each time. Do this a couple of times and then do the same words and gestures but without the object in the hand.) Similar to BIG but with a closing hand to show keeping.
.
UH UH - uh uh - Flat open hand held palm out in front of the mouth and pushed out and down a little.
---- Hint: This sign appears like pushing food offered by the mother away from the mouth. I am full. Similar to NO NO but closer to the face. In this very early usage this sign actually means something more like NO MORE FOOD.
.
NO NO - no no - Flat open hand held palm out with the arm half extended in front of the chest and then pushed out and down a little.
---- Hint: Pushing something away from the body. I don't want it. Similar to UH UH but well away from the face. In this very early usage this sign actually appears to be pushing a dog away. See also: Yes
.
GIM-ME - gim-me - The hand is held palm-up at arms length and is pulled toward the chest.
---- Hint: An object is being pulled toward oneself. Same sign as GIVE YOU but moved toward the chest instead of away. Palm up is the general sign for objects.
.
PICK UP - pick up - Arm fully extended with vertically arched hand thumb up and lifted from below shoulder height to full height and paused.
---- Hint: This is the natural gesture just before picking up a baby. When the baby makes this natural gesture, sign it two times and pick them up. This method associates the sign and the action in the childs mind. Perhaps follow with a HUG sign and action.
.
PUT DOWN - put down - Fully extended arm vertically flat hand thumb up just below shoulder height and brought down below the waist height and paused. See also GREEN which looks similar but the hand is closed into a fist.
---- Hint: Similar to PICKUP, but moving down.
.
DOGGIE - doggie - The hand pats the hip.
---- Hint: A common gesture given to dogs when calling them.
.
THANK YOU - thank you - Palm up on the lips brought smoothly forward down and fully extended toward the person begin thanked. Similar to HELLO but from the lips.
---- Hint: Passing a kiss on the palm to the loved one.
.
DIRTY - dirty - The hand spread open like a claw under the chin is pushed across the chest to the far side.
---- Hint: Something dirty near the mouth is being pushed away. Similar to UH UH. The head naturally turns away. The claw shaped hand in any position is a general sign for bad as in ANGRY .
.
DIAPER - diaper - Clawed hand facing down and bounced upon the diaper area.
---- Hint: The generalized bad sign touching the problem thing. This sign is actually saying, there is something bothering me in the diaper area. See PEE PEE.
.
HEAD HURTS - head hurts - The clawed-fingered hand to the annoying place and taps.
---- Hint: The spread clawed hand is the general sign for bad and it can be placed wherever the annoyance is indicated. See also BAD.
.
SLEEPY - sleepy - The open hand held palm outwards touching on the opposite side of the face.
---- Hint: Like one is sleeping on the hand. Perhaps tilt head and close eyes as part of the sign to help indicate sleeping.
.
BLANKET - blanket - Closed hand at tummy and the hand moves up to top of chest.
---- Hint: A hand gripping a blanket and pulling it up to the chin.
.
YES - yes - Open palm held vertically facing out with the arm about half way extended and bring the palm toward the chin a little.
---- Hint: The open hand is a generalized term for goodness and pulling something toward oneself is also a generalized term for goodness also up is good. One doesn't need to learn these things, as generalizations, only the formation of the individual signs themselves.
.
GOOD - good - An open palm held vertically facing out and starting at the YES sign ending at the YES sign but with the hand closed into a fist implying permanance.
---- Hint: It is a YES that is held firm. It is also similar to the HAPPY sign but finishes up further and away from the body.
.
GO - go - Point the index finger straight forward palm toward the center at half arm extension and then move it to full extension pointing out.
---- Hint: Moving the pointing finger away from self to where the referred to person should move towards. This sign follows the person, place or thing hand orientations. See also COME.
.
COME - come - Pointing index finger toward the person and pulling it toward the self.
---- Hint: Hooking finger to something and pulling it towards oneself. See also GIMME.
.
HEY HEY - hey hey - Hand open facing forward at the touching the head, move out and back bumping the head with each hand oscitation.
---- Hint: Waving the hand to get attention to say hello and get recognition to ones self. Bumping theside of the head brings their attention to ones person.
.
HELLO - hello - The palm down hand at the top of the head brought up, forward and out.
---- Hint: A more formal greeting after getting attention with the Hey Hey. The Hello is as if raising the hat in an old fashioned greeting.
.
Hug - hug - Bring the vertical open hand across the chest to where fingers are holding around the upper arm.
---- Hint: A natural gesture like hugging a baby to ones chest. Hug. See also PICK UP.
.
BYE BYE - bye bye - Hand open facing the departing person at full arm extension at shoulder level, move up-open and down-close a bit .
---- Hint: Patting the other person away. See also GO.
.
ALL GONE - all gone - From the byebye sign position leave the hand open and turn it towards ones own face out at half arms length.
---- Hint: The object goes out of sight with the BYE BYE sign and the open hand holds nothing.

Those few signed words may get you through to where the child is speaking enough to make his needs known out loud.

The primary source for the frequency of word use by children is from a list found at: http://aac.unl.edu/VLN1.html

30 More Useful Signs

Here are some more signs that you should be familiar with and if your child randomly gestures one of them you can immediately copy their gesture. After a few back and forth repetitions with the child attach the sign meaning to it by having the object of action readily available and repeatable. These words will make the child's conversation more fluid and specific to their needs. Remember to use the sign again after a few minutes and again about an hour later. Gestures the child makes spontaneously are easy for them to learn and then it is a single step to associating it with something useful.

ALL - all - Palm outward over opposite shoulder sweep across the chest and all the way around and back to the holding position palm in.
---- Hint: Scooping all the world and holding it to ones self in ones hand.
.
SEE - see - Hand flat palm-down held steadily against eyebrows while looking at the object.
---- Hint: Eyes staring off to distance with eyes shaded to see better.
.
BALL - ball - The arm is extended to the side and the hand spread vertically then swinging sharply across to the other side.
---- Hint: Hitting or throwing a ball.
.
PEE PEE - pee pee - Closed fist held out and waved back and forth and tapped at the bladder.
---- Hint: This is like the HEY HEY pay attention to me sign but tapped to the bladder.
.
DO - do - cupped palm down hand left to right, back and forth a few times.
---- Hint: The hand is doing something like pushing a toy car.
.
RIGHT. - right - Same as the YES sign except that it is completed with a closed gripping hand.
---- Hint: The good yes-material is brought to ones self and gripped in this near to one's self position.
.
WRONG - wrong - The same as the NO sign except that it is completed with a closed gripping hand.
---- Hint: The bad-material is pushed away from self and held in that position.
.
MAYBE - maybe - Open palm held vertically facing out with the arm about half way extended and bring the palm toward the chin a like a YES sign and then back out toward a NO sign two times.
---- Hint: Moving half way to the NO then back to the half way to YES position, two times. The concept maybe is like bouncing half way from yes to no and back again.
.
HAPPY - happy - Palm pointing up stroking chest upward maintaining close contact with the chest.
---- Hint: Represents a good feeling inside because the hand is still touching the chest. The GOOD sign can be done immediately afterwards as an affirmation of the goodness felt.
.
SAD - sad - Palm pointing down stroking chest downward with thumb maintaining contact with the chest.
---- Hint: Emotions are depressed, if the hand is cupped the emotions are very sad and if the hand is clawed one is painfully sad and angry.
.
BAD - bad - Clawed hand palm down under the chin pushed down a bit.
---- Hint: The generalized bad sign is the clawed hand in this case the hand is also negatively pushing virtual objects away from the self.
.
ANGRY - angry - Clawed hand pointing down and moved up and down sharply at chest level.
---- Hint: Generalized anger sign out in space.
.
MAD AT - mad at - Clawed hand jabbing sharply in the direction of the thing causing the anger.
---- Hint: Attacking the nasty thing with the sign.
.
GET - get - Open hand held vertically with arm extended then brought to a fist at the chest.
---- Hint: Like the sign GIM ME but with the hand held vertically instead of palm up and closed at the completion of the sign. Grabbing someone out of thin air. This sign has the person, place or thing hand position potentials.
.
MINE - mine - Open hand held horizontally with arm extended and then brought into a fist at the chest.
---- Hint: Like the sign GIM ME but with the hand closed at the completion of the sign. This sign has the person, place or thing hand position potentials.
.
THROW OUT - throw out - Fist held to chest then moved sharply down and out ending up with clawed hand down and out.
---- Hint: The completed get sign followed by throwing down and away.
.
GIVE YOU - give you - hand palm up moved away from chest to arms length.
---- Hint: The opposite of GIMME sign. This is the give you something.
.
PANTS - pants - Closed hand moved from thigh to the waist.
---- Hint: Putting pants on. This may also be used for putting diapers on.
.
LIGHT ON - light on - Raise the fist to full arm height above the WHITE position and then lift the thumb up.
---- Hint: Light-bulb pops ON abruptly. While you teach this sign turn the light ON with the switch. Do the sign and turn ON the light. Compare to LIGHT OFF and WHITE. While holding the LIGHT ON sign, closing the thumb into a fist position means to permantize the sign. In this case it means leave the light ON. The signs that are above their natural full color position indicates that it is a light emitter. A white light bulb is whiter than WHITE and a neon red is redder than RED.
.
LIGHT OFF - light off - Raise fist to the LIGHT ON position and then lower it to the tummy height BLACK position with the thumb still extended, then lower the thumb.
---- Hint: The ON light-bulb moves through greys to OFF and things move into BLACK and so to OFF. OFF is the same as black but it is made permanent with the closing of the fist.
.
HE - he - Point the index finger to forehead and move down and out a bit.
---- Hint: This is like Pa Pa but making the male sign with a singular pointing index finger. See also SHE and THEY.
.
SHE - she - Point the index finger to the ear lobe and stroke the jaw forward to the chin.
---- Hint: The female sign like Ma Ma but with a singular pointing index finger like HE.
.
ME - me - Point the index finger with palm to center to the bridge of the nose from below and moving forward and down a bit.
---- Hint: The concept of the self, as the thing in control, begins between the eyes, with the hand and the hand eye coordination manipulating external reality. See also US or we.
.
YOU - you - Point the index finger palm to the center straight at the person being indicated and drop it a bit.
---- Hint: All singular pointing index fingers are pointing at the thing referred to and when it refers to a person it is palm to the center. See also THEY.
.
US - us - Point the index finger and the middle finger, palm to the center, to the nose and drop it a bit.
---- Hint: Signs using two index fingers are referring to plural forms of a single finger reference. See also ME
.
THEY - they - Point the index finger and the middle finger palm to the center at the center of the forehead and then point to the people.
---- Hint: Signs using the first two fingers are referring to plural forms. The plural of HE is they. Use the SHE to the ear lobe if the group is all females.
.
IT - it - Pointing the index finger palm up toward object and if the object is out of sight then give a little hop forward and up to indicate over there and out of sight
---- Hint: The palm position indicates whether people, place or things are being indicated. If the palm is vertical and pointing toward the center then the reference is to people like the PICK-ME-UP sign or HE. If the palm is up, it is like HOLDING some object, and the reference is to some thing like IT. If the palm is down it is like having dropped some object to ground and it is referring to some place, like an object has fallen from the hand to a place THERE .
.
THERE - there - The palm down with the index finger pointing at the location and if the location is out of sight hopping the finger up a bit at the end of the arm extension.
---- Hint: .
.
HERE - here - The palm down and pointing the index finger straight down with the arm only half extended and moving down.
---- Hint: A natural gesture of pointing to where one is located. See also THERE. .
THEY - they - Point index finger and the second finger palm to the center and stroking the location of the people referred to.
---- Hint: Referring to a group of people requires the group identifier which is two fingers. See the single other person which is HE.
.
HOLD - hold - . The open hand at chest level is then closed.
---- Hint: The hand takes hold of the it, person, place or thing.

Word Comprehension for speaking children averages about: 12 at 1 year, 50 at 1-1/2 years and 90 at 2 years.

These charts are from http://epwww.psych.ox.ac.uk/babylab/research.html The Oxford Baby Lab. .

Word Production for speaking children averages about: 1 at one year and, 4 at 1-1/2 years and 65 at 2 years.

You will have to play with your child using these signs for them to learn them so while you are talking with your infant remember to use signs as much as possible. Your child may have some special interest, in animals, or cars, or toys and you should help them by learning the signs for that special interest. You may find them on the list below. By the time they are ready for more advanced signs they will probably be able to use these more complex standard signs. When your computer is on-line you can find almost any sign in just a couple of clicks from the alphabetical list below.

Some Signs For A Two Year old.

After a child has quite a few of the simpler signs they may develop a need for some more difficult ones. Here are some signs requiring more dexterity.

HOT - hot - .
---- Hint: .
.
COLD - cold - .
---- Hint: .
.
IN - in - .
---- Hint: .
.
INTO - into - .
---- Hint: .
.
MY - my - Fist held a bit out in front of the chest and then brought to the chest.
---- Hint: Like the end position of the sign for GIMME but brought fully to the chest to indicate ownership.
.
NIGHT - night - .
---- Hint: .
.
NOSE - nose - The index finger pointing at the nose with the palm down and the elbow held high.
---- Hint: All of ones body parts are indicated by the index finger touching them with the elbow held high.
.
MYSELF - myself - The index finger pointing at the near cheek and then circling the head rather largely and pausing at the starting position pointing at the face.
---- Hint: Similar to the other self referring signs but pointing at the face and then including all of it by circling it. Like the all inclusive sign for ALL.
.
FACE - face - The index finger touching the cheek and then circling the face just including eyes and mouth and pausing at the starting position pointing at the face.
---- Hint: Similar to MYSELF but keeping the index finger close in to the face. .
UPON - upon - Open hand palm down at chest height comes down upon the back of the other hand held at belly height and pauses.
---- Hint: The other hand represents a table and the active hand comes down upon it and rests there for a moment.
.
OFF - off - Open hand palm down resting on the back of the other hand at belly height and then lifted a palm width or lift more for emphasis.
---- Hint: The opposite of the sign for upon.
.
OTHER - other - .
---- Hint: .
.
PRETTY - pretty - The flat open hand starts with the index finger on the chin then circles face and ends with the finger tips on the chin.
---- Hint: Much like ASL sign for pretty but with the hand in the friendly open hand position rather than clawed.
.
READ - read - Do opening the book sign then move right index finger along left flat-open hand fingers.
---- Hint: Open a book and the finger represents the eyes reading along lines of text.
.
TV - tv - Hand held at arms length and the fingers wiggled and the arm pulled back at the end.
---- Hint: Television is similar to the light-bulb sign but with the arm held straight out in front at arms length.
.
COMPUTER - computer - Hand held at arms length fingers wiggled like TV and then are dropped down a bit with the fingers still wiggling.
---- Hint: Like the TV sign but the hand is lowered to the keyboard.
.
HAT - hat - Bring arm up deliberately and then pat the top of the head sharply two times.
Hint: Putting a hat on and securing it with a tap.
.
THIRSTY - - Bring the BOTTLE hand thumb into the open mouth but don't tip it up.
---- Hint: Liquid brought to the mouth but not drunk implying lack of liquid.
.
UH-OH - uhoh - Open palm facing down out from the chest moves towards the floor.
---- Hint: Open hand implies that I am good but the thing went down.
.
GOING - going - .
---- Hint: .
.
OH - oh - .
---- Hint: .
.
PLAY - play - .
---- Hint: .
.
WANT - want -
---- Hint:
.
CAT - cat - Finger and thumb pinch a whisker and pull it to the side.
---- Hint: Mimics pulling on a cats whisker.
.
BOAT - boat - Open hands held on the diagonal like a book sign and bounced forward three times.
---- Hint: The hands represent a boat bouncing forward.
.
BOOK - book - Open hands held vertically together and then rotated to the diagonal positions with the little fingers still touching.
---- Hint: A book being opened.
.
BIRD - bird - First finger and thumb open and close while pointing out from the mouth.
---- Hint: This is the generalized bird sign and you can droop it down for a turkey waddle, or use two fingers for a bigger billed duck.
.
CAR - car - Two fists held in front of chest revolved around heart.
---- Hint: This is an imaginary steering wheel being rotated.
.
BIG - big - Both open palms held vertically a short distance apart at stomach then both are raised diagonally to shoulder level.
---- Hint: Symbolizing growing bigger.
.
LITTLE - little - Both open palms held vertically at shoulder level and brought diagonally down to the tummy a short distance apart.
---- Hint: A big thing shrinking to a small thing.
.
A - a - .
---- Hint: .
.
DOES - does - .
---- Hint: .
.
PUUPUU - pupu - - .
---- Hint: At this age this sign is covered with Peepee ok.

Some Infant Short Stories For Adults

These short stories use several signs, related in some way, in an easy to learn sequence. They are designed to help adults learn ISL, but the infant is expected to learn only one sign at a time. You can use these logical sequences in your child's presence but you should only double-sign the word which you are trying to teach them at the moment. .

Hey-Hey, Hello, Da-da, Ma-ma, Baba. - hey-hey, hello, da-da, ma-ma, baba. - The open hand moves from the hey sign, to hello, to papa, then to the baby sign. -
---- Hint: A friendly open hand from the attention, male, female and baby positions.
.
SING - sing - .
---- Hint: .
.
- - .
---- Hint: .
.
- - .
---- Hint: .

Signs For Colors

(Tech:)

BLACK - black . - The signing hand (the right hand) is closed into a fist with the tip of the thumb held vertically at navel level and with the arm half extended.
---- Hint: All color signs are done with a fist shaped hand, with a thumb up and with the elbow held high. Compare to WHITE and GREY. Notice that white, grey and black, are all located in a vertical column the same distance from the body.
---- Tech: The Hex color for black = #000000 because it has all three colored light sources (RED-GREEN-BLUE - RGB) turned to 00 which equals full OFF.
.
WHITE - white . - Closed fist with the thumb extended up. The top of the thumb is exactly on the horizon with the elbow held high and the arm halfway extended.
---- Hint: Compare to LIGHT OFF and BLACK and LIGHT ON. If the thumb is then lowered into the gripped fist position it means hold the light in the ON position.
---- Tech: The Hex color #FFFFFF has all three R-G-B light sources turned to full ON.
.
red - red . - The fist is closed with the thumb extended vertically and it is placed close in front of the opposite shoulder. The top of the thumb is seen as on the horizon from the eye.
---- Hint: Compare to GREEN and BLUE. The three full intensity R-G-B colors are in the same horizontal plane with WHITE.
---- Tech: The Hex color #FF0000 has only the RED light source turned full on and the GREEN and BLUE light sources are turned to full OFF.

---- Tech: The colors seem to be arbitrarily placed but in fact they are logically located, because when a single color such as RED is fixed in space all of the other colors fall into a logical position.
.
green - green . - The fist is closed with the thumb extended vertically and the arm is extended to the full out position directly in front of the eyes.
---- Hint: Compare to WHITE and BLACK.
---- Tech: The three primary additive colors, (R-G-B = Red-Green-Blue) are placed on a horizontal plane at eye level as is WHITE at the center. Hex color for Green is #00FF00
.
BLUE - blue . - The fist is closed with the thumb extended vertically and it is held above its own shoulder to the horizon with the arm held elbow high.
---- Hint: Compare to RED and GREEN.
---- Tech: The Hex color for Blue is #0000FF
.
YELLOW - yellow . - The fist is closed with the thumb extended vertically to the horizon and it is held arm half extended from the opposite shoulder.
---- Hint: Compare to RED and GREEN.
---- Tech: In additive colors, such as you see on a computer screen, YELLOW is made up of RED and GREEN. Yellow Hex=#FFFF00
.
CYAN - cyan . - The fist is closed with the thumb extended vertically to the horizon and it is held arm half extended from its own shoulder.
---- Hint: Compare to GREEN and BLUE. .
---- Tech: Cyan is made up of equal amounts of Blue and Green it's Hex color=#00FFFF
.
MAGENTA - magenta . - The fist is closed with the thumb extended vertivally to the horizon and it is held with the tip of the thumb just at the eye.
---- Hint: Observe that purple is darker and bluer. Compare to RED and BLUE. .
---- Tech: The color Magenta is made up of equal amounts of Red and Blue it's Hex number is #FF00FF
.
GREY - grey . - The fist is closed with the thumb extended vertically and held just half way along the vertical column between WHITE and BLACK at the level of the xiphoid process.
---- Hint: Black, white and grey all have equal amounts of the three primary (RGB) light emitting colors (Red-Green-Blue).
---- Tech: Hex color for GREY is #AAAAAA which is half way between Black Hex=#000000 and white Hex=#FFFFFF
These colors are the half way to black and are for deffinitional purposes and you are not expected to learn them but just to know that they exist and have been defined.
Dark Red . . . . . .
Dark Yellow . . . .
Dark Green . . . .
Dark Cyan . . . . .
Dark Blue . . . . .
Dark Magenta . . .
.
COLORS - colors . - The signs for all colors have the hand closed into a fist with the thumb extended vertically and the elbow held high. It is unfortunate but for this color system to avoid confusion it is necessary to declare the right hand as the signing hand. After you know the positions of the basic colors you can specify any color in between them by moving your signing hand away from it toward where the nearby color you want is located. Thus, by starting at one of the standardized fixed location colors and moving a little you can make a good approximation of the location of any intended color. Ultimately with these precise definitions all colors have a precise locations. The defined colors are: Red-Green-Blue- -Yellow-Cyan-Magenta and White which are all on the horizon line from the eye to the tip of the thumb. Directly below them is the second group of colors with fifty percent color intensity, Dark-Red Dark-Green Dark-Blue . Dark-Yellow Dark-Cyan Dark-Magenta and in the middle Dark-White which is Middle-Grey. They are all located with the little finger on a horizontal plane at the level of the xiphoid process. It is the little hard lump a hand width above the navel. Directly below these is a plane with the tip of the thumb at the level of the navel where all of the additive colors are at zero and appear black.
If you start at one of the R-G-B colors (or any of the defined basic colors (and slide a bit toward the grey center column the color indicated becomes more neutral grey or if it is moved more toward white it becomes more pastel. Starting at red and moving toward the center will make your color pink. If you moved your hand a little from the fixed red location toward the fixed yellow location the color indicated would be orange. If then you move from this orange position down a little the color indicated would be brown. Alternatively you could start at Dark-Red and move half way to Dark-Yellow and achieve the same position which would also be Brown. To make a color lighter move toward WHITE and to make a color darker move toward BLACK to make a color less intense move toward GREY. Or if something looks black but spectral reflections are green you could start in the Black position and move back and forth to Dark-Green. This oscillation indicates the uncertain shimmering that you get with most cars painted with metallic glitter paint. All of this color theory is a bit technical but it is necessary for definitional clarification. All you really need to know is the hand locations for the basic colors and the rest follows automatically.
---- Hint:
---- Tech:

============================== ===============================

More Advanced Signs For Family and People

This system for identifying people and family members uses a logical arrangement of positions similar to that used for colors. In this case it begins with the most easily formed and earliest terms such as

Ma Ma

Pa Pa

MA's MOTHER - ma's mother - The signing hand does the Ma Ma sign and without a pause at the chin moves the hand to behind the ear and pauses.
---- Hint: This means mothers female parent. There is a slightly different sign for PA's MOTEHR the fathers female parent.
---- Tech: Each of these family relationship signs begins at the forehead for a male and at the earlobe for a female and then moves through to the family relationshp position of the refered to person. Compare to MA's SISTER and PA's SISTER and MA's BROTHER and Pa's Brother. Using this system all of the family members can be precisely identifyied.. .
.
FAMILY - family . - The signing hand starts with the father sign and then goes up and around the whole head and pauses at the starting father sign.
---- Hint: Symbolises including all of the family relationships. Compare to ME and THEY. .
---- Tech: .
.
BLACK - black . - The signing hand .
---- Hint: Compare to WHITE and GREY. .
---- Tech: .
================================
A DICTIONARY of American Sign Language from Master Tech

-- Click Here --

For a Google - search of current Infant Sign Language

-- Click Here --

Some After Thoughts And Links

Here is an adult language lesson named -- Taxi Baby -- which is an experiment in adults learning a foreign language based on concepts similar to the way a child learns a language.

Finger Spelling In ASL

Liability disclaimer statement: These Probaways contain new and unique information that has been created, tested and retested by me alone. You must approach these findings and materials very carefully as your results may differ greatly from my experience and I can offer no recompensation of any kind for any injuries.

email me

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.