Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf

The visit to Sir James Whitney today was very interesting and really gave an insight to the deaf culture within the school. Even though I’ve done placements and am now working at Sagonaska, I had never actually been throughout the entire Sir James Whitney school before, so being able to see the different parts was very interesting. I have never really had a “tour” where someone was interpreting so I think that that was interesting as well but sort of confusing at times because I felt like I would watch the interpreter while she was talking most of the time rather than looking at Aaron who was actually the one who was speaking. I think that it’s because we’re kind of used to looking at the person who we can hear is talking so I find that it got a little confusing! I think that the way the deaf communicate and the way that they use certain things in everyday life within the campus is amazing. There are 3 Sagonaska Residences within the Sir James Whitney building and I always see the lights flashing when I cover shifts. I knew that the green one went with the door bell to let people know by sight that the door bell was ringing but I never knew that the blue one was for the phone so I found that another interesting thing to learn.

Since Sagonaska shares a lot of the spaces around campus with Sir James Whitney, I find it hard as staff to communicate with the deaf. I had always thought about taking an ASL course and being within the entire Sir James Whitney campus made me even more interested in taking a course. I decided to look up a little bit of sign language online and I found this video about how to sign colours in ASL.

 

Also,  Aaron was talking about how important it is for the deaf to be immerged into the deaf culture as much as possible from a young age. He also mentioned that he thinks that its beneficial to teach toddlers how to sign before they can talk I came across this video and thought that it was cute! The one little boy even teaches his brother how to sign properly.