Try this activity with your afterschool group this week.
Begin a conversation with your group about how some people with disabilities use other parts of their bodies to communicate. "How do you communicate without words? Many people who are deaf use their hands to communicate. They use signs and they also spell out words using a special alphabet called the fingerspelling alphabet."
Click here to see the fingerspelled alphabet.
Try the activity below, which will inform and sensitize the children to the beauty and creativity of this language used by someone who is different than they are.
Fingerspelling Bingo!
To reinforce the fingerspelling alphabet you can play this game:
1) Take index cards and cut 5 slits, half way down the card
2) Choose someone to create the fingerspelling letters with his/her fingers
3) If your card has that letter, you fold over the flap and cover that letter
4) When all 5 letters are covered you yell out BINGO or you fingerspell it in the air
Click here for more information on children's sign language books, which you can find in most book stores and libraries.
