New in town

[Amo_Angelus]

I have wanted to learn BSL for many years now, but up until recently I have only ever picked up a few words and never really made the time to sit and actively learn it. I am a hearing individual but I also have ADHD and one of my "quirks" if you like, is that although my hearing is near perfect, I simply don't process the words. As such I have always been treated as though I'm either ignorant or hard of hearing, neither of which is true. I actually learned to semi lip read to try and combat this...whatever it is. Well I'm in my 30s and I now have a daughter who I am pretty convinced has ADHD too. She has all the problems I do and that includes being perfectly able to hear but not actually hearing the words. Her own language skills are incredible and when she hears the words her understanding is spot on. But you can tell that she's hearing your voice and not processing the word. It's quite difficult to actually explain so maybe you know what I mean and maybe you don't. 

I always wanted to teach her BSL as I believe it's a skill everyone should be taught, but she didn't seem really interested in baby sign classes so we stopped and never got around to it again. This Christmas though I've noticed more and more that I'm signing to her in busy rooms. Not BSL, but our own version. Today in a shopping centre with a brass band playing she broke down in tears because she couldn't "hear" me. She could hear me, she just couldn't distinguish my words. So I calmed her down and signed while speaking what I was trying to communicate with her and the look of relief just from being able to understand what was being said... it broke my heart that she was struggling so much. But as we both have near perfect hearing, it was never even considered for me and it's only because of personal experience that I know she could benefit. So that's my goal. I want to learn to sign so she and I can communicate properly with each other and others around us. As well as to include others with hearing difficulties who need to sign.