Hi, I'm Ashley and welcome to American Sign Language! In this video,
we're going to learn about a language that doesn't use your voice at all,
American Sign Language. We're going to start with the 26 letters of the alphabet.
Are you ready? Let's get those fingers moving and get ready to sign. Let's go.
Sign language is a way to communicate using the hands and different parts of the body
like body language and facial features. It's an important way for people who are part of the deaf
community or people with a hearing loss to be able to communicate. Most people who use spoken
languages communicate by making sounds with their voice which are understood by the ears,
but people who use sign language they make signs with their hands and it's understood
by the eyes. There are many famous people in history who were deaf including Ludwig
Von Beethoven a famous German composer, and Helen Keller a famous American writer who was
actually both blind and deaf. There are many different sign languages throughout the world
and you don't have to be deaf or have a hearing loss in order to use sign language. There are
many parents today who are teaching their babies sign language because it's been proven that it's
faster for babies to pick up and understand being able to sign before using their voice.
Learning this new language will help you to communicate with an entire community or culture
that you may not have been able to communicate with before including maybe your baby cousin!
Let's start learning the letters of the American Sign Language alphabet. When signing,
you want to use your right hand mostly with your palm facing out, and this is to form letters or
words. Sometimes you can produce an entire word with just one sign like the word happy. Some signs
or words do not have an official sign like many names unless somebody from the deaf community
gives you a sign for your name. Your name must be spelled out with what's called fingerspelling. So
my name is Ashley. A, S, H, L, E, Y. That's how I would spell my name. Are you ready to learn
the alphabet and maybe you can start spelling yours or other words to communicate? Let's go.
Let's start with the letter A, looks kind of like a lowercase A. Next,
we have B. Bring your fingers up and your thumb in. B. Next, is C. Again, like the letter C.
Then we have D like the lowercase D. Then E. Scrunch your fingers down and your thumb in.
E. Now let's review what we've learned so far. A, B, C, D, E. Great job! Let's keep going.
Okay, now we have F. Just like the okay sign. Next is G, you take your first finger and your
thumb and you face them out. G. Then we have H, just adding one more finger to the G. Next
we have I. Take your little finger pointing straight up waiting to be dotted. I. And now J,
just take that I and swoop it down in the shape of a J. J. Okay, let's review those. F, G, H, I, J.
Okay this is a tricky one. K, sort of looks like a lowercase K with your two
fingers split going up and your thumb coming up between them. K. Alright, here's a simpler one,
L. Do you see it? L. Now we have M, three fingers going over your thumb kind of like the three humps
of a cursive lowercase M. M. Next we have N, just two fingers going over the thumb like a
lowercase N. Now here's an easy one. You ready? O. Okay, let's review these. K, L, M, N, O.
Let's keep going. Okay, here we have a few more. Let's go with P, it's like the letter K,
remember with our two fingers up and the thumb in the middle, just bring it down. P. Next,
we have the letter Q. Remember like the G, only we bring those fingers down. Q. Next,
we have R, like you're really hoping something good will happen. R. S,
tighten up your fist like a letter A only the thumb is in front. S. And T,
the thumb is hiding under that first finger. T. Let's review. P, Q, R, S, T.
Okay, don't give up now, we're on our last set! You ready? Here's the letter U, two fingers going
straight up. U. Now split those two apart to make the letter V. Can you guess this one? W. Next is a
little tricky. The letter X you scrunch that first finger down and lay your thumb in front. X. Now we
have Y, looks like the letter Y with our fingers and our arm going down. Y. And last one, you
ready? Z. You just take your first finger and make it in the line of a Z. And that's it! Let's review
those. U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. And that's it, we've learned them all! Now be sure to practice what you
learned, study real hard with our online games and quizzes, and remember to always be clever.