The Kids of Deaf Sense: Language Experience Books... or Blog!

This is an example of a Language Experience Book. This beginning is more complicated as my son who is 8 was doing the 'writing.' Language Experience books can be just pictures, pictures with one or two words or one sentence for the little ones. You will see this later on in our post. The point is to DO an activity that engages your child, Take pictures, and then write about those pictures. The finished product should be something that your child can look at over and over and 'read.' Even if he or she isn't reading the actual words, it is the act of reading that creates confidence, builds print recognition and expressive language. In the beginning, I am translating what my son tells me in ASL into written English, modeling for him what his ASL looks like in English.

Our Trip!

We went to Portland, Oregon. There's my sisters, and my brother. Mom took this picture of us. Dad was making silly faces behind Mom's back. That's why my baby has a puzzled look on her face, and how I remembered Dad making a silly face.

Do you know why 1/6 of the bridge is raised?

If the bridge didn't raise up, a big tall boat would crash into the bridge and could sink! And it could destroy the bridge too. This means if people were trying to get home and had to cross the bridge, they couldn't go and they might get lost going another way.

Mom took a picture of us for our blog.
We didn't know we would make a blog post until later.

The geese are standing on the grass above the dock. That is why there is a brown pole behind them. My sister wanted to pet the geese, but Mom said, "No! They are wild geese!"

*You'll notice in this next passage, the writing changes. This is my 8 year old writing now. When I correct written English of Deaf children, I do so carefully; a little at a time. I pick one or two concepts to focus on and that's what we correct. Today we focused on some conventions: quotations (that we learned a week ago and that he wanted to attempt in written English on his own), and making sentences out of a really long run on. This helps to build confidence while teaching the grammar.

NEXT DAY,
MORNING

At Multnomah Falls, we walk to bridge. We are decide who go high or down. My two sister are want to down because my Baby are cold and my other sister cold too. So my dad are said, "your two sister come down with me you and your brother go with your mom go to the top."

Later I are scare to go high, on the 6 of 11switch backs. Mom said,"Wait to 7 of 11 then will stop." When we arrived at the 7th, Mom ask me, "Do you want more?"

I said ,"yes i want more until end."

Mom said," Let's go!"

There was a small cave in the side of the mountain!

It was 1/4 mile from the bottom to the bridge. We hiked 1 mile up to the top of the mountain and then 1/4 mile more down hill to the top of the waterfall. Then we came back down, fast. Mom said, "Don't run!" I asked, "Why?"
Mom said, "There's no railing, if you fall, you could fall all the way down the mountain."

I said, "It's ok. We can run and see what happens."

And I jogged with control, but Mom think I really ran, but I didn't.

Here we are at the top of the fall!

This is the view looking down!

How many miles did we hike altogether?

on the way up 1 2/4 and 1 2/4 on the way back down...

The answer is...3 miles!

I made it!

This is a view of the falls from the Bridge.


This is the view from the top.

                                                          AFTERNOON

                                                               FISH EGG GORGE

At this point, it was my daughter's turn (she's 4). She wanted to do the typing, so we kept things brief. She is learning a lot about names right now and I made that a focus of her writing. The hope is that as the child re-reads the experience book, words are learned, experiences re-told and world knowledge is reinforced and expounded upon. We are working on expressive language, telling stories and practicing reading!

A plant in the pond.