SCHOOL in sign language

This word entry contains a ASL sign for "school", a video of "Dora" kid signing "school", and narrative related words.

School is a place where you go to learn the three "R" -- reading, writing and arithmetic.

ASL signs for SCHOOL

Learn how to sign "school" in American Sign Language.

Definition: An institution for educating children; any institution at which instruction is given in a particular discipline.

Pronunciation (sign description): Dominant flat hand (handshape), palm down (orientation) above non-dominant palm-up flat hand (location), taps twice on the non-dominant palm (movement).

Learner Tip: ASL students sometimes confuse SCHOOL with PAPER or sometimes mispronounce it as PAPER.

Kid signing "school"

In an early one-word stage, for some parents and caregivers "school", "book", and "paper" can be mixed up without contexts when their early productions look similar.

The video shows the bilingual ASL-speaking kid signing "school". She associated a yellow bus with "school".

Related signs

Wouldn't it be a dream to go to bilingual school where everyone -- STUDENTS, TEACHERS or INSTRUCTORS, and STAFF speak ASL or another signed language everywhere on campus and in classroom? It's where you can find at bilingual DEAF SCHOOLS, NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) and Gallaudet University.

Some high schools, COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY offer ASL COURSES where hearing people can take lessons to learn American Sign Language, Deaf studies, Deaf culture, linguistics, in the United States and Canada (or other signed languages in their countries). Even better, IMMERSION in Deaf community can be a natural EDUCATION in conversational ASL for hearing learners with Deaf people.

In Deaf education, BILINGUALISM is the most efficient and natural approach for deaf students.

Other school-related vocabulary: elementary school, graduate school, junior high school (or middle school), preschool, residential school where many deaf children resided in the past, private school, GRADUATION...

Minimal Pairs

All the same except for handshape: IMPOSSIBLE.

All the same except for movement: PAPER, CLEAN-UP.