Hello Everyone,
My name is Diane and I have been a taekwondo instructor and coach for the past 8 years in Scarborough, ON. I have worked with students and parents with a variety of abilities, disabilities, and/or challenges. The past four years I have taught a young girl that is completely deaf but has cochlear implants so we have been able to communicate freely to date. Recently she has expressed an interest in the high performance (HP) division of our sport which she will be elidable for next year. Our sport rules say that when she is competing HP she can not use her hearing aids so we will need to find a way to communicate...ASL (and a little secret code ) She also does not know ASL yet. I am thrilled that the HP divisions have now added a para-athlete division for deafness so if she wants to, there will be a division that levels the playing field for her. I am excited to get a head start on learning to communicate with her in new ways as well as with so many others. While I am a newbie to ASL I do have a *some* abilities with the language. Additionally I recently started ASL on Lingvano which has been really good. I am hoping to find others that can help with real conversation practice and feedback.
