Language Play

Hands Land educational resources were developed by Deaf native signers and educators from Deaf families who found joy in using visual-based rhymes and rhythms throughout the day. This is great for young deaf babies. 

Nursery Rhyme is a traditional part of early learning, playtime fun, and parent/teacher and child interaction. Adding American Sign Language turns nursery rhymes and kids' songs into the interactive singing game. Teachers, early childhood professionals, parents, and kids can play them at home or at school.

ASL poetry is a literary form that evolved from the art of sign-language storytelling. Like English oral poetry, signed performance poetry uses the conventions of repetition, rhyme, alliteration, rhythm, and meter to construct linguistic patterns that add emphasis, meaning, and structure to word forms.

One of the fun and special traditions enjoyed and shared by the Deaf Community is signing stories using Number or Alphabet hand shapes. In these stories, various hand shapes do not stand for the numbers and letters themselves but are used as signs or gestures to convey concepts.

Personification in sign language involves using the storyteller's body part to represent an object in the story. It encourages creativity and performance. It helps increase the art of the sign language. 

Typically a song or poem, the performer expressively performs a sign language version of the lyrics. Whereas singing uses pitch, tone, and emotions to convey expressions, sign singing relies on the performer's hands, body, and facial expressions.

Visual Vernacular is a unique physical theatre technique, with elements of poetry and mime, primarily performed by Deaf artists. This powerful storytelling style combines strong movement, and iconic signs, with gestures and facial expressions, to capture the world in all its visual complexity.