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5 Benefits of Learning Sign Language

If you have been considering learning American Sign Language (ASL) but haven't yet signed up for classes, understand the benefits may motivate you to do so. Learning ASL can have many benefits for you as well as the people in your life and community. Here are five of the biggest benefits of learning American Sign Language: 

Communicate With More People

An estimated 70 million people around the world speak sign language as their native language, with many more deaf people learning sign language later in life. This means that once you learn ASL, you will suddenly be able to communicate effectively with a large number of people you weren't able to have conversations with before. You may find yourself making friends with deaf members of your community when you're out and about, or even gaining deaf people as customers at your business.

Help Your Family Members

If you already have deaf family members, they will be very pleased that you're taking the time to learn how to communicate with them. For many people, hearing loss happens gradually with age, and you may find that your older family members need to learn sign language as their hearing fades. If you learn ASL now, you will already be prepared when this happens, helping you guide your hearing-impaired loved ones as they learn ASL and effectively advocating for them.

Earn Extra Money

Once you become fluent in ASL, you may find you enjoy the language so much that you would like to become an ASL instructor or interpreter. This can mean anything from earning extra money on the side to forging a new and fulfilling career path for yourself.

Boost Your Cognitive Ability

Learning a new language has been demonstrated to boost your cognitive ability, helping you learn and retain information more easily. The process of learning ASL, while different from learning spoken languages, is just as challenging and can give your brain a similar boost. 

Train Your Dog

There are many videos online for teaching a deaf dog sign language-based hand signals so that you can train them to sit, come, stay, etc. without the use of spoken commands. Even if your dog can hear, some dog owners find that dogs naturally respond well to hand signals and body language.

By taking the time to learn ASL, you will have fun, gain a very valuable new life skill, and enjoy these benefits for yourself. To learn more, talk to educators like ASL DEAFined.


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