By Daniel Wilson

November 08, 2024

In a typical classroom at Sacramento State, the words “poop,” “diaper,” “bathroom” and other potty language are seldom heard.

But this is not a typical classroom.

“Promoting Rich Accessible Language at Home: An ASL Class for Families of Deaf Children" is a course for parents of kids to age 5 that explores Deaf culture and teaches age-appropriate American Sign Language (ASL).

The curriculum is based on “ASL at Home,” a book written by Sac State ASL and Deaf Studies program coordinator Leah Geer and Razi Zarchy, a lecturer in Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSAD).

“There are no similar curricula and there are no similar classes designed for families with Deaf and hard-of-hearing children that focus on daily routines,” Geer said.

The class provides parents of young children an opportunity to learn age-appropriate ways of communication in a supportive environment and benefits Sac State ASL and CSAD students preparing for careers working with Deaf populations.

Since its launch in 2021 as an online-only course, the class has served roughly 120 families. Geer and Zarchy teach four or five sections online each year.

This fall, the class is being taught in-person for the first time thanks to a Research Enhancement Support Grant (RESG). Geer and Zarchy are exploring ways to make the in-person section permanent.

“The in-person and online modalities reach different populations,” Zarchy said. “In our online classes, we have had many families who say that they feel isolated and don’t know any other parents or family members of Deaf or hard-of-hearing children in their area. The classes are a great opportunity for them to meet other people like themselves.”

The RESG provides select faculty with funding for research or other projects aimed at expanding their fields and promoting student success. Participating parents will also be surveyed about their experiences after completing the class, with the results used to help make these types of courses more effective.

“I definitely, really love this class. It's been incredibly helpful. It's a really great resource for the community because, you know, it's offered to the Sacramento community, but you don't have to be a Sacramento (State) student.” -- Dharia McGrew, parent in the ASL for Parents of Deaf Children course

The class is specifically designed to serve the unique needs of parents who have small children at home who are learning to communicate in ASL. Participants learn and practice signs for potty language and phrases associated with bedtime, feeding, bathing and other activities.

“ASL at Home courses cover high-impact signs centered around daily routines common in young children’s lives,” Geer said. “The focus of these classes is infant- and child-directed language while the focus of Sac State courses is adult-to-adult communication.”

Geer said the types of phrases taught in Sac State’s ASL classes, such as “Hi my name is...” and “It takes me 15 minutes to get from home to work,” don’t work for small children who have very different needs and require significant repetition in their communication.

“They need to see sentences like ‘Your diaper is dirty,’ ‘Why don’t we go change you?’ ‘We should get you a clean diaper,’ ‘Your diaper is dirty and you’re uncomfortable,’ ‘Let’s change your diaper,’ ” Geer said. “Notice how many times I repeated the word ‘diaper’? That’s how young children learn.”

During a recent class, parents broke into small groups to work on signs and talk about the challenges they’re facing and how best to communicate in specific situations. Geer also shared information on how to find resources in the community.

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One group worked with Zarchy on how to properly communicate with their child about going to the bathroom and avoiding an accident. Zarchy explained that context matters and demonstrated how to properly use the same sign in different ways, depending on the situation.

For parents, the class is a valuable resource.

“I definitely, really love this class. It's been incredibly helpful,” said Dharia McGrew. “It's a really great resource for the community because, you know, it's offered to the Sacramento community, but you don't have to be a Sacramento (State) student.”

Michael Enrico, another parent taking the course, said teaching children to communicate while they’re young is vital.

“Early childhood intervention is so important,” Enrico said. “It helps them learn and then also get integrated with the language. If we as parents can do that, we're able to pass that on to our kids. That really just helps their intellectual growth in those early years.”

The ASL for Families class is a collaboration between the colleges of Education and Health and Human Services. The course is free, and parents who sign up do not need to be enrolled at Sac State.

Parents receive free childcare provided by Sac State ASL students during class, which is held weekly in the Maryjane Rees Speech and Language Clinic in Folsom Hall.

The course doesn’t just benefit parents. Sac State CSAD students who are considering becoming speech-language pathologists take the class and assist parents as part of their coursework.

“This is great practice for our graduate CSAD students to coach parents in a supportive environment,” Zarchy said, adding that ASL students also benefit greatly from caring for the children.

“Some of them are considering careers working with Deaf children, so this is giving them some experience with children to help make decisions about their future careers,” he said.

Along with offering an opportunity for parents to learn to communicate with their children and to teach their kids to reciprocate, Geer said the class also provides an environment of support.

“In addition to learning ASL, (the class teaches) specific techniques to encourage language development and types of cultural wealth learned from Deaf adults who are experts in navigating the hearing world as Deaf individuals,” she said. “Like child-directed language, this is not taught in other classes. This class is an opportunity to ensure, to the best of one’s ability, that their child has an accessible language-rich environment at home.”