Rotary learns benefits of sign language
Chambless learned sign language while attending Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
By Bill Shrum
March 14, 2014
STUTTGART
“Sign language is the fourth leading language used worldwide,” Ja Chambless, director of Pattillo School in DeWitt, told member of the Stuttgart Rotary Club Tuesday.
Chambless learned sign language while attending Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
“My instructor was deaf and he was also the postmaster,” Chambless said. “I learned a lot from that class.”
Chambless explained that the majority of parents of deaf children are hearing and verbal parents and do not know sign language.
“Sign language is for people who speak,” Chambless said. “It is a way to communicate with deaf people.”
The use of sign language is very popular and used in day cares and facilities such as the Pattillo School to communicate with non-verbal children as infants and toddler before they begin talking, Chambless said.
“I teach the basic things using sign language such as stand, sit, go, stop to the little ones,” Chambless said. “I used it on my own kids.
“Deaf people give you a sign name, which matches your characteristics,” Chambless said. “That is done when they get to know you.”
The Arkansas School for the Deaf, located at 2400 West Markham St. in little Rock, is a leader in the field of deaf education with students from all over the state of Arkansas.
“There is a school in Little Rock (the Arkansas School for the Deaf), since around 1850 that teaches deaf children how to sign,” Chambless said. “They also have classes for adults.”
The Pattillo School is a child care facility for all children and children with physical and developmental disabilities, similar to that of Easter Seals in Stuttgart.
For more information on the Pattillo School, call (870) 946-1606. To learn more about the Arkansas School for the Deaf call (501) 324-9506.
SOURCE:
http://www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/article/20140314/NEWS/140319631