- Welcome back to my channel,
the best place for a new signers, intermediate signers,
and struggling signers.
In today's video, I'm gonna show you
the best ASL gifts that I could find.
So if you have been looking for a gift to give to somebody
that's an ASL student that you care about,
or have you been looking for gift ideas
so somebody can give them to you,
or if you really just want to treat yourself to an ASL gift,
because really you deserve it,
keep watching and definitely get excited.
This video was super fun to prepare for
because I got to spend lots of time looking
for fun things to buy, fun ASL gifts.
And then I got to treat myself with some of them.
I couldn't buy all of them for myself.
There are limits, but it was super fun.
And many of the gift ideas that I've found are created by
business owners that are deaf or hard of hearing.
So that's really fun and exciting.
If you know of any businesses that are owned by
a deaf or hard of hearing person,
and you think what they create, what they produce,
would make a fun ASL gift,
please leave it in the comments below
because I would love for us to find them
and share them and help each other.
And then if I get enough of them,
I'll definitely make a part two of ASL gifts
specifically focused on businesses
owned by deaf and hard of hearing people.
So let's get into the gifts.
Because I found so many delightful gift ideas,
I've broken them up into categories.
The first category is books.
In my family, books were huge.
Every holiday, every birthday we got books.
So I've got a lot of fun books to share with you.
And I'm gonna go as quick as I can through these
'cause there's a lot of them.
All right, the first one up,
"The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary."
Now, I have an entire video reviewing
all of the beautiful things
that I love about this dictionary.
I don't care if it says "Children's" on it.
This book is for anybody of any age.
It is the dictionary I tell every single one
of my ASL students to purchase.
Get it, get it, get it.
And then send me a thank you card. (laughing)
And now I have lipstick on my book, that's okay.
It's worth it. Amazing book.
I'm not gonna go into all the glorious details of it.
I have an entire video on it.
Trust me, it's perfect.
The next ASL dictionary that I recommend,
now, if you go out there onto Amazon and Barnes & Noble
or whatever your favorite book seller is,
you're gonna see a lot of ASL dictionaries.
And I'm gonna tell you,
there's a lot of ASL dictionaries that are not ideal.
I've got three here that I'm showing you today.
So just stick with these three.
If it's outside the three, don't do it, okay?
At least for now. (laughing)
As time goes on, I'll review more and more dictionaries
and let you know yes or no, okay?
But definitely stick to these three first.
So after you've done the children's dictionary,
then you can do this one.
I recommend that order because
this one is far less detailed.
You'll get a crap ton more signs in it,
but there's a lot less detail and explanation
and the drawings are more simple.
Now, in the children's one, there's much more detail.
You get synonyms and you get sentences
and pictures to go with it.
I just really like the explanations
in the children's dictionary better.
And then the Gallaudet,
the regular one is a really good followup one.
So make this your first dictionary.
Once you finish this one, then get this one.
Or once you've gotten some good ASL knowledge behind you,
then you can do this one, all right?
My third favorite dictionary, actually,
it's not my third favorite.
It's my second favorite dictionary.
Children's is first, then this one,
and then the Gallaudet one.
This, I have a video coming up here really soon
reviewing all of the other wondrous glories of this book.
I love you so much. It's so lovely.
Why I love it so much,
and this is the other dictionary I tell all of my students,
you gotta get this.
If you've ever learned another language beyond ASL,
like a spoken language,
you know they have like the reverse lookup dictionaries,
like, oh, he said this, what does that mean in English?
That's what it means.
Think of this as a reverse lookup dictionary.
What was that sign again?
Got it. It's in here.
It is so lovely.
And I really like it because it's very detailed.
You know I've talked about the ASL parameters,
that you have to know the parameters.
It lists every single parameter in for each sign.
And I absolutely love it. Absolutely love it.
I cannot recommend this dictionary enough.
Beautiful resource.
The next book is "American Sign Language for Kids".
101 signs.
And you'll notice that I wrote this beauty. (laughing)
But no, for real, I love this book.
This book is excellent for children
like three, four, and up.
And if you have babies, you can use this
to teach sign language to your babies.
This was created for parents and families,
grandparents to learn sign language
with their child or children.
So it's geared towards use with children.
So it has like memory tips to help your children,
learning activities,
how to introduce the signs to your child
and how to practice them.
And lots of other tips,
especially tips for children
and individuals on the spectrum.
This is an excellent way because
you have to be careful how you teach the signs.
You may need to do modifications for certain signs
that are a little, maybe, too complicated.
And you also need to be careful on the order
that you introduce the signs to them with.
So that all is all in here.
My six-year-old son during playtime,
no, I don't tell him to do this.
He just pulls out this book
and loves to look at the pictures
and figure out the signs on his own.
And so it's so cute. Absolutely adorable.
But your kids will love this book.
I know, I know, it's shameless,
but honestly your children will love it.
My children love it.
My six-year-old doesn't even know I wrote this
and he loves the book, okay?
What's really nice is the publisher came out with
a companion activities workbook.
I didn't write it,
but I know the publishing company is super quality
and I checked out the author
and she looks super, super neat.
So if you want the activity book,
make sure you get the lesson book first
and then get them together because they work together.
So check those out.
The next two books, ah!
Are other books that I've written as well.
"American Sign Language for Beginners"
and "American Sign Language Workbook".
These are super fun books to use.
This is a 30-day lesson book.
So it's like day one, do this lesson, learn these signs.
There's explanations for the signs,
there's memory tips and activities
that you can do to learn and practice your activities,
your signs, excuse me.
And it takes 30 days to go through.
Then the workbook is similar signs, some of them overlap.
And then there's some newer signs in here as well.
And this is nice, 'cause look, it's so nice and big.
I like bigger ones.
So the pictures are bigger, that you can see,
and there's actual workbook activities for you to do
like matching, fill in the blank, all that kind of stuff
so that you can really go, did I actually learn the sign?
Do I recognize the sign?
Because you really want to always make sure that
whatever you're learning you can actually use, right?
So there's all that stuff.
There's grammar and vocabulary in both of these books, tips,
deaf culture facts, all that goodness and stuff.
So I love it.
So you can get it independently,
but they do work really well together.
Then next book is called "No Night-Night". Super cute story.
This little girl does not want to go to sleep.
I love this book because it's written in English
and it has signs in it.
So as you have your bedtime routine with your child
and you read a bedtime story with them, or, I mean,
honestly, you can read the book any time.
But it's really cute because you too can read the story
and learn and use the signs as you go through the story.
So it's interactive, it's fun.
And you're also learning. Super, super cute.
The next book, I love this book.
I had a copy.
That's why I didn't order another one.
Because I was like "I have it,"
and then I was like, "Oh, I gave this away to somebody.
How rude of me to be so nice."
(laughing) I'm just kidding.
But I used to have it. I don't have it anymore.
But it's "Moses Goes to a Concert".
There's actually four books, I believe.
"Moses Goes to a Concert," "Moses Goes to the Circus,"
"Moses Goes to School," and then another one,
I can't remember which one it is, but so good.
It's written of the perspective of the child, Moses,
who is deaf and his adventures as a deaf child.
It's so neat. You learn signs.
You learn about his life. Really, really good storybooks.
Like, just good stories in general.
And then you get double learning.
You learn about what it would be like to be a deaf child
and you get to learn signs.
So super, super fun storybooks.
Then there's "Deafinitely Awesome: The Story of Acorn".
So cute.
So if your kid loves pets, specifically dogs,
and is interested in sign language,
this is such a cute book.
This dog Acorn is deaf and they don't know it.
So they figure it out and then they teach him sign language,
which happens all the time.
And it's so neat.
Remember when I was young,
what got me into sign language was "Koko's Kitten",
which I absolutely love.
It was a gorilla that knew sign language.
And I was just like, ahh!
'Cause when I was a child growing up,
I loved anything monkey.
So it was like monkey? Gorilla? Sign language?
Two beautiful things that I love so much
and I think were the coolest things?
So little storybooks, they might seem silly,
but they are super powerful.
You can definitely check out "Koko's Kitten,"
but "Deafinitely Awesome: The Story of Acorn," so, so cute.
Then there's "The Deaf Guy: A Wild Ride". So fun.
This is a comic book style book written by Matt,
oh, I don't know how to say his name.
Daigle? D-A-I-G-L-E, I think is how you spell his name.
I love him, I followed him for years.
He makes these like, comic book strips showcasing his life.
He and his wife and his child, he's deaf.
His wife is hearing, I believe his child is hearing as well.
It's just comic book strips that showcase their life
and the funny situations that they find themselves in
because of their dynamic.
It is so funny and it is a really fun way
to kind of get a sneak peek into other people's lives,
especially a person that's deaf
and married to a hearing person.
It's really neat.
So he took all of his comic books and he published them
in a book together,
and he published them altogether in a book.
So I definitely recommend checking out his book
and at the very least checking out his website
and his Facebook page,
because then you can see his comic books there.
Super, super neat.
And the last book is called "Deaf Culture:
Exploring Deaf Communities in the U.S."
This book is for a serious ASL learner.
I mean, I know you're serious,
but children may not be as interested in it.
It's not a storybook.
It's a educational nonfiction book talking about
deaf culture and deaf communities.
So really interesting and fascinating book
to learn about deaf culture.
There's a lot of them that are out there,
but I particularly like this one.
The next category is online resources.
Over the years I haven't really recommended
a baby sign language course because
so many times the instructors will modify an ASL sign
or they will create their own ASL signs.
Now, in your home, it's okay to do that.
They're called home signs where a sign that you can make up
or modify fits your family and your situation,
but it's not the same as going out
and then teaching it to people.
Many deaf families,
they have their own home signs that are used,
but nobody else is gonna understand that sign.
And it's not something that they like, no,
this is how you sign it.
They know that is for their home,
their family, their family culture.
So I've always been hesitant to recommend a resource
because of how often that happens.
I recently found a baby sign language instructor
that I really love.
Her name is Mary Smith.
And she teaches a course called Sign N Grow.
And she really sticks to ASL,
keeping it pure, keeping it correct.
So if you are teaching your baby sign language,
but the sign language needs to grow with you
as the child and you grow older and develop
and learn more sign language,
you won't ever have to go back and be like,
actually that wasn't the sign for this.
It's actually this.
So you don't have to worry about correcting anything
or changing the modifications that were made or realizing,
oh, that wasn't even a real sign, right?
So that's really good.
Especially if you family needs to learn sign language
and use it long-term,
or if you're very serious about using the correct version.
So if you or somebody you know in your life
is wanting to learn sign language, teaching their baby,
teaching their family, and that needs it long-term,
definitely check out Mary Smith's course, Sign N Grow.
If you or somebody you know
are starting to learn sign language,
then I recommend checking out my course, ASL Accelerated.
ASL Accelerated goes over the four phases
in the ASL launch formula,
where we build a really robust,
conversational vocabulary that you can remember,
that you can understand, and that you can use correctly.
Then we go over finger spelling,
really focusing heavily on receptive finger spelling.
So understanding that when people fingers spell to you
and making grammar an intuitive part of your signing.
We build our conversational skills.
We get you out into the deaf community
and have group practices.
So super fun.
So definitely check out ASL Accelerated
if you're serious about learning sign language.
Now let's get into the fun stuff.
I found this super cute necklace that
you can get your name engraved on
in the letters of the ASL alphabet.
Super cute, cute, cute idea.
People of all ages like this.
Children especially love having their name on things.
And I like having my name on things. (laughing)
It's probably all those years
of never been able to find my name on things as a child.
Who has Rochelle anywhere?
Nobody, I'll tell you. Nobody.
So if your child has a unique name or unique spelling,
definitely look at this because they will love it.
But if you're an adult and you like your name on things,
you can do it too.
I'm not wearing it right now,
but I actually have a necklace with my name on it.
So us adults like it too. Don't pretend. You like it.
Then there is this super cute key chain.
I don't know if you can see it.
I'll put a picture up on the screen if you can't see that.
But look at that cute key chain.
It's the ILY handshake, I love you.
In the deaf community we use this as like, Hey, goodbye.
In our pictures. So it's not just like, I love you.
It's not like a declaration of love.
It's kind of like this kind of like, aww.
Love you guys, you're so cute, bye kind of a thing.
So don't think if you sign this at somebody
you're declaring your undying love to them.
(laughing) You're not picking up randos.
It's so cute, this key chain.
I love it. I was gonna put it up.
I'm been waiting to film this video
so I can put it on my own dang keys,
'cause I didn't think he'd want to actually
see my keys at the same time.
Super cute gift.
So if you're looking for something small, this is perfect.
Now check out this mug, since we're on the ILY kick.
This is actually I really love you with the R handshake.
It's super cute because it has the I handshake
layered over the R handshake,
layered over the Y handshake.
So really cute. I love it so much.
And it's just kind of unique. It's a smaller mug.
It's not that big,
but they had a couple of other options
for sign language mugs, but I liked this one the best.
So check this cuteness out.
I found two other ILY necklaces.
One looks just like the key chain,
but it's on a chain and you can get it
in gold, black or silver.
So cute.
I had, actually, I had one of these growing up
all through high school I wore
and then my mom switched it over to my charm bracelet.
You know, when charm bracelets were really cool. (laughing)
But so fun.
I loved my necklace. I wore it every day.
I don't think I actually even took it off.
I think I just, 'cause it was silver.
So I was able to just keep it on there forever.
Now the next one is this cute shirt
that I've been wearing this whole time.
I don't know if you can see that,
but it finger spells be kind.
And it has the words written down here at the bottom.
The letters written down here at the bottom.
Super cute, if you, I don't know if you can see it,
but I'll put a picture up next to me
so you can make sure you can see it, but super fun shirt.
They have these in women's t-shirt styles and men's,
and then a couple of different colors,
but really neat shirt.
I like finger spelled words with a cute message.
And I love that it's all different races.
And I love the message, that it says be kind,
because we can all stand to be kinder to each other, right?
I found these really cute playing cards.
They're created by the same man, Matt Daigle.
I'm sorry if I'm saying your name wrong.
Matt Daigle, the author of "The Deaf Guy: A Wild Ride."
He created these fun playing cards
and he has two options, a blue deck and an orange deck.
So you can check those out.
If you're looking for a really random gift
or maybe a really small gift to give out
to a lots of children, lots of people,
or give them out as whatever,
I found these bright neon pencils
that have the ASL alphabet letters all over them.
So kind of random, but super fun. Kids like pencils.
I don't know why, but kids like pencils.
There's also this Willow statue of this little girl
signing love in sign language.
And I actually, I don't know where it went,
but I had this as a child or teenager.
And I really, I thought it was really neat.
So if you like the Willow statues
or if the person that you're buying a gift for likes these,
they will probably love the statue as well.
If you love these gift ideas,
be sure to hit the notification bell,
because in the next video,
I'm gonna be teaching you the parts of an ASL sentence.
If you want to learn more about ASL,
check out these two videos right here.