A dab hand at sign language
While most 5-year-olds are still getting to grips with counting and the alphabet in one language, a Palmerston North girl has taken it upon herself to learn them in sign language as well.
Since discovering sign language on video tutorials from the YouTube Kids site about a month ago, Mila Bardell has been teaching her mother, Chelsea Bardell, and friends.
Mila said she started teaching herself to use it because she loved to learn and thought it was ‘‘really cool’’.
‘‘I’ve learnt the alphabet, the numbers one to 10, colours and animals.’’
When she has a spare moment at school or home she’ll practice new words; recently learning how to say donkey, snake and lion.
Next, Mila wants to teach herself how to sign numbers from 11 to 20 and the signs for ‘‘happy’’ and ‘‘hello’’.
Sign language is New Zealand’s third official language, and is celebrated with an awareness week from May 8-14.
Mila’s mother had no idea that she had taken up sign language, and was surprised to learn her daughter had discovered it on an iPad, rather than from her teacher.
‘‘She’s taken such an interest in it. She was so excited to show me. Her memory is incredible,’’ Bardell said.
Mila has been learning American sign language from YouTube Kids, but it is quite different to New Zealand sign language.
Bardell looked for New Zealand sign language tutorials online but found the range was limited and unsuitable for children. ‘‘I will definitely show her New Zealand sign language and explain to her the differences between the two.’’
Deaf Aotearoa general manager Victoria Manning said there were significantly more American sign language tutorials online.
New Zealand was still developing its own resources, but three weeks ago, a new online course called Learn NZSL was launched, Manning said.
The website was targeted at adults, but some of the tutorials were easy to follow for children, she said.
Manning thought it was fantastic that Mila had taught herself sign language and she encouraged everyone to learn the basics.
‘‘It shows your respect and it engages deaf people more.It’s similar to if you’re going somewhere and you just speak one or two sentences of Maori.’’
Manning said all schools should be teaching basic sign language skills to help people communicate and also to stop discrimination.
Sign language added to the richness and diversity of the country, Manning said.