The Gallaudet Children’s Dictionary of American Sign Language

This was so amazing that I barely have words. But since part of this whole Netgalley thing is to find words I'll try.

I have tried so many of these books, some have been better than others, but this one is the best that I've ever seen. I know that as a Dictionary this is supposed to be more of a reference type of book, and yet, I found myself going from page to page to page and suddenly I was very near the end. It was just... amazing.

I shouldn't be surprised since it is the --Gallaudet's Children's Dictionary..., and yet, still... five stars isn't quite enough for this book.

I got this advanced galley through Netgalley on behalf of Gallaudet University Press.

This is a colorful reference book kids will end up reading for pleasure, too. It includes fingerspelling, hadshapes, and an A to Z assortment of common signs.

This is such a high demand topic in my library. I was excited to look at this book Clear pictorial instructions for signs along with information about regional differences (the ASL version of an accent, I guess) led me right to my fall book order- it's on the list!!

If students are serious about learning American Sign Language, this book will point them on the right path. It contains a plethora of words with pictures that illustrate their meaning in addition to the sign for each. The book is also very colorful and attractive. There is also an alphabet chart for hand-spelling and instructions for how to use the book. Very informational.

The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary of American Sign Language is a wonderful resource for beginning ASL users. The art work is engaging and the diagrams easily understood. The usage sentences for each word humorously connect the artwork together with usage and definition.

I learned some basic ASL in my late 30's after becoming friends with a deaf man. I even took classes to improve my communication skills. Unfortunately, I never excelled at ASL and regret not having learned at an earlier age.

When my daughter was in first grade she was required to have a children's dictionary. It was designed similarly but not nearly as interesting as The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary with the artwork being less engaging. In third grade she fell in love with ASL because she had a teacher that sprinkled her lessons with ASL. A starter dictionary such as this would have fostered that love at an even earlier age. This dictionary would have been a perfect introduction to both the English and ASL Languages.

Personally, I would love to see this dictionary be the standard in all beginners classrooms. If this dictionary was used in all beginner class rooms the language/communication barrier that many deaf face would be reduced greatly. Children love activity and I feel that learning words in this fashion, coupling them with sign, would only reinforce the rudimentary understanding and use of language.

Fabulous book to help children learn sign language. . Well done with information shared about sign language and the illustrations that go along with each word.
This is a book that my primary students will be using as they learn sign language in the coming year.

Colorful and well formatted for easy perusal, and locating signs by English words, alphabetically. It's difficult for anyone to learn ASL/signs from a book since it's a visual-spatial language that requires precise movements, and that is not completely possible to convey in a book. However, the signs pictured have illustrated movement signals that are helpful and about as clear as you can get in 2D format. I truly believe this would be a great resource for ASL students that are in classes learning the language and then sometimes needing a reminder for vocabulary signs as they learn more ASL and sentence structures etc. But for the average hearing person or child with no background in ASL whatsoever, it might be challenging to recreate signs with just this dictionary, not mention proper syntax and conversational ASL. Even so, it's still one of my favorite signing dictionaries.

I have recently become very interested in American Sign Language and have been making an attempt to include appropriate signs during fingerplays and rhymes that I use with my babies and toddlers that come to my weekly story times. I have NOT taken a class in ASL and have been self teaching via the internet and YouTube videos as I went along. I was able to receive this title through NetGalley and quickly went through it. It is extremely thorough and easy to understand. All the movement and hand positioning is clearly pictured and clarified many words that I was struggling with personally. It is most definitely a necessary purchase for most libraries and a must have for anyone trying to learn basic signs.

As the mother to children whose speech is affected by CP, I'm always interested in new books on signing since my children use both sign and verbal utterances to communicate. The book begins with a basic why and how to of ASL and quickly moves into fingerspelling. It explains nicely the use of facial expressions. We then move into the dictionary part, and oh what a treat this is! As I work with my girls it is often a challenge to quickly find the word I want to teach them, and here they are in alphabetical order! The illustrations of the word are clear, colorful, and eyecatching while the illustration of the sign is done in an almost shadow effect in black and white. I love it! There are over 350 pages and most common words that *I* was looking for are included. The book's description says there is a dvd that goes along with this book though it wasn't included in my digital version for the book review. I likely will purchase a paper copy of this one to keep in my reference library!

My son is deaf, and I would have loved having this book when he was growing up. The pictures are beautiful, especially compared to other sign language books on the market. I highly recommend this book to parents of deaf children and anyone else who wants to learn American Sign Language.

Great set of instructions and explanations for parents and older kids. Simple drawings of signs, simple layout. It would be a great book to have at home or in the classroom.

How did I not know about this book? As a teacher, I have used sign language to teach my hearing students. I discovered that if I taught them how to finger spell a word, they would learn to spell the word faster than if I just asked them to learn their spelling words. I also use sign language as a way to get there attention without having to yell or say the same thing over and over. I will be buying this book as soon as I finish this review!

This ASL dictionary is very well done. Great images and vocabulary words to ensure the true meaning of the word and sign. Great book to replace an older edition.

Over the past couple of years I've become extremely interested in learning American Sign Language (ASL). All signed languages are fascinating and extremely useful. I was really excited to be able to explore this dictionary and use it to further my studies of this beautiful language.

The dictionary shares information about ASL, the deaf community, and the different between Deaf and deaf. It was all extremely useful. After these first pages of information it gets right into the dictionary portion, which shows illustrations explaining the hand movements that make up a certain word or phrase.

While I think the dictionary is extremely helpful and the illustrations very well done, some of them were more difficult to understand. It can be hard to understand certain signs from an illustration because the movements are hard to depict in a drawing. Since there is a version with a DVD, I'm sure that helps for clarification.

This is an excellent resource to include if you're learning or teaching ASL. I found the information to be very helpful with my studies and look forward to furthering my knowledge.

Fantastic dictionary of sign language!

I studied American Sign Language when I was in high school with some friends, and I also studied sign language for a year when I got to the university. I love sign language! I love the beauty of the motion. I love the grammar! And I always talk with my hands as I’m speaking. Sign language feels so natural to me. An ASL children’s dictionary would be a great addition to my home library.

When I saw a chance to review the Gallaudet Children’s Dictionary of American Sign Language on netgalley.com, I jumped at the chance to review it. As the title states, it is geared toward children, and I must say I simply love the way it has been set up. It is a bright, engaging, and helpful dictionary.

Keep reading for my review or check out my mini-review vlog on my Facebook page.

For each word chosen to be included in the dictionary, the word is in bold on the left side of the page and the synonyms for that word if included are listed smaller underneath it. The page then has an illustration to describe the word and a sketch of a child signing it. There is an extensive introduction and details about how American Sign Language works as a language (i.e., grammar notes!) to help parents who may have purchased in hopes of teaching ASL to a non-verbal child.

My daughter, who is almost 4 years old, loved flipping through the pages. She too loves sign language. We began to watch Baby Signing Time and Signing Time when she was quite young. Given the fact that I talk with my hands and sign language is so natural when talking to a non-verbal child, I’ll have to say she’s been imitating and signing along with me her whole life! She loved finding pictures that appealed to hear and asking what the sign was.

One thing I noticed in just few minutes of reviewing this book with my daughter was that my daughter was learning synonyms and making connections. This is also a great book for learning context and vocabulary to those not even interested in learning ASL for practical use!

The digital review copy of the ASL Dictionary was beautiful on my tablet: bright colors, bright and clear pictures, and also easy to understand hand sketches for the signs. But because I was so interested in this book, I also found a physical copy so I could see how it appeared in hardback format. It is even more beautiful in real life. The cover is designed with a hologram on the top that changes as you move the book. Perfect for a language that has such obvious motion. The pages in the book are full, and because the pictures and pages are so colorful, it is delightful to look through.

Finally, the extra special bonus is that there is a DVD-ROM that one can put in the computer to see people actually signing these words. That is, if the pictures don’t seem clear enough. The pictures are very clear, but let’s face it, seeing a person signing is always the best choice for learning ASL!

The Gallaudet Children’s Dictionary of American Sign Language is an absolutely excellent reference for parents who are seeking to learn sign language to teach children, whether those children are autistic, deaf, or nonverbal for any reason. It would be great for the teacher seeking a resource for her students to use. And as a mom of children who enjoy sign language and as a person who knows sign language in general, I look forward to adding this to my home library, so that my children can browse through it and enjoy learning new signs.

I really enjoyed The Gallaudet ASL Children’s Dictionary and I highly recommend it to anybody who is interested in finding such a dictionary!

Note: I received a digital review copy of the text from the publisher for review consideration.

So when A was 6 months old I started teaching her sign language it wasn't much just a few words that I knew to sign. I stopped when she fully started talking around 1-1 1/2 I wish I didn't though as I think she would have loved to sign a whole lot more.
Then I saw this book on NetGalley and I loved that it was for children that would totally work to teach A. Now I believe this book would be better for some in the form of a hardback or paperback so the pictures will be bigger to see.
I sat with A and we started working through the pages and signing she was having a ball learning signs. I think this is a great book to have and teach kids how they can sign and if they come across someone who is deaf or hard of hearing they can maybe communicate with them or at least try. Some of the signs were hard to see to sign them so I would just look them up online and got it down. I do believe I will be looking into buying the book to have on the shelf so I can teach myself and A a little bit more. I also enjoyed how it is in alphabetical order and there are more than just a few words in it. I was thinking that they would only have a few words per page but no there are tons of it and it was awesome plain and simple. Now it not only has how you sign but what word you are signing and pictures to go with it which is neat. It says there is a DVD included but I did not receive one with the digital copy. Overall this was a great book to learn from and one I highly recommend.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1574330737?book_show_action=false

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R31T9PKZXI9AI2?ref_=glimp_1rv_cl

Amazon.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R12HUM90HK6Z0N/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Booklikes: http://anauling.booklikes.com/post/1355322/netgalley-children-reviews-the-gallaudet-children-s-dictionary-of-american-sign-language

The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary of American Sign Language is a great resource for children and parents, students and teachers. As a parent, it is a great reference for teaching my son fundamental signs. Plus as an elementary teacher, this dictionary is a great resource for introducing and utilizing sign language in the classroom. Students can avoid disrupting other students when asking to use the restroom, get a drink of water, etc. by using sign language when they need something.

This dictionary is an easy to use guide with fun illustrations for the meaning of words and clear illustrations for how to sign a word.

I highly recommend this resource for both parents and teachers!

The Gallaudet Children's Dictionary would be a fabulous addition to any family's library. This beautiful full-color dictionary shows very clearly how to create over 1,000 signs. A DVD is included, but as I reviewed the e-book version I did not receive that, so this is just a review of the book.

Each page is beautiful. Most pages have three words, some at the beginning and end of a letter section have two. Included with each word entry is a sentence, picture, and clear demonstration of how to create the sign. Some words include synonyms as well.

What is great about this particular dictionary is that even if you have a child that is not reading yet, they should be able to mimic the pictures for signing while associating it with the illustration. I think this makes it one of the best resources for young children who are interested in signing whether out of curiosity or necessity.

In addition to the fact that children can use this easily, I think this would be highly beneficial for adults just beginning to learn as well. The directions for how to sign are very clear with each color illustration having a second black and white overlay with it to show motion and direction. Besides in-person instruction, I've yet to see another book as clear.

I would highly recommend this particular book to any family looking to learn the basic words in sign language.

This is a great ASL dictionary for beginners, both children and adults. Lots of words and illustrations. The black and white signing illustrations/diagrams are clear and helpful.

This was wonderful for the kids to see sign language where they can understand it. Really enjoyed the pictures that help them understand sign language.

This book will be the perfect fit for my classroom. My students love learning sign language to communicate with friends and family. Love this beautiful book!

The illustrations and basic background on the use of ASL will make this a book useful to young and old readers wanting to learn some introductory signs and the fundamentals behind the use of signing to communicate.

I also think this would be a great book for kids with no hearing problems to help develop a sense of understanding of ASL and reduce the stigma of the hearing-impaired as being different or strange which can lead to bullying.

I wanted this book to show to a few of my cousins who are not as familiar with sign language as I am. I learned it in school at their age, however, I recently discovered that they were not being taught it at all. The book had easy to follow instructions, demonstrations, and information that they liked and had fun learning. It was quite fun for me as well. They look forward to revisiting this book each time they visit.

Excellent reliable resource. Would recommend adding this to your library.