Jessi's Secret Language Read Online Free PDF Page A

too?” I asked.
    â€œWe all do,” replied Mrs. Braddock. “It’s the only way to communicate with Matt, and we don’t want him left out of anything.” She turned to Haley. “You better be the assistant teacher, honey,” she told her. “Why don’t you start by finding the American Sign Language Dictionary ? We’ll lend it to Jessi for a while.”
    Haley ran off and Mrs. Braddock continued. “Before I begin showing you actual signs, I should tell you a little about teaching the deaf, I guess. One thing you ought to know is that not everyone agrees that the deaf should communicate with sign language. Some people think they should be taught to speak and to read lips. However, in lots of cases, speaking is out of the question. Matt, for instance, is what we call profoundly deaf. That means he has almost total hearing loss. And he was born that way. We’re not sure he’s ever heard a sound in his life. He doesn’t even wear hearing aids. They wouldn’t do him any good. And since Matt can’t hear any sounds, he can’t hear spoken words, of course, and he can’t imitate them either. So there’s almost no hope for speech from Matt. Nothing that most people could understand anyway.”
    â€œAnd lip-reading is hard,” I said. “I experimented in front of the mirror last night.”
    â€œYou’ve been doing your homework,” said Mrs. Braddock approvingly.
    â€œHow come everyone wants deaf people to speak and read lips?” I asked.
    â€œBecause if they could, they’d be able to communicate with so many more hearing people. Matt, for instance, can only communicate with us and with the teachers and students at his school. None of our friends knows sign language and only a few of our relatives do. When Matt grows older, he’ll meet other deaf people who use sign language, and maybe even a few hearing people who can sign, but he’ll be pretty limited. Imagine going to a movie theater and signing that you want two tickets. No one would know what you meant.”
    I could see her point and was about to ask why the Braddocks had chosen signing for Matt, when Mrs. Braddock continued. “We’re not sure we’ve made the right choice, but that’s the choice we made. At least we’ve been able to communicate with Matt for a long time now. Most kids take years to learn lip-reading and feel frustrated constantly, even at home.” Mrs. Braddock sighed. “Some families,” she added, “don’t bother to learn to sign. The deaf children in those families must feel so lost.”
    Haley returned with a big book then and dropped it in my lap. “Here’s the dictionary,” she said cheerfully.
    I opened it to the middle and looked at the pages in front of me. I was in the K section. The book reminded me of a picture dictionary that Becca used to have.
    Key was the sixth word under K. I saw a picture of two hands — one held up, the other imitating turning a key in an imaginary lock on the upright hand.
    â€œOh, I get it!” I said. “This looks like fun.”
    â€œIt is sort of fun,” agreed Mrs. Braddock. “But there are several thousand signs in there.”
    â€œSeveral thousand !” I cried. I knew there were a lot of words in the world, but I hadn’t thought there were that many.
    â€œDon’t worry,” said Mrs. Braddock. She took the dictionary from me and closed it. “Right now, I’m just going to teach you a few of the signs that Matt uses the most. When you’re at home you can use the dictionary to look up other things or things you forget, okay?”
    â€œOkay,” I replied, feeling relieved.
    We were just about to start when the front door opened and a little boy came into the livingroom. I caught sight of a van backing down the Braddocks’ driveway.
    â€œWell, there you are!” cried Mrs. Braddock, speaking with