Many kids at Nansemond Parkway Elementary School have a new way of communicating. They wanted to more easily interact with cafeteria worker Leisa Duckwall, who is deaf. Last fall, students at the Virginia school began learning American Sign Language (ASL). The language is expressed by hand and body movements, as well as facial expressions.
It all began with teacher Kari Maskelony’s fourth-grade class. At lunch, the students let Duckwall know what they wanted by pointing to the food. Maskelony, who knows ASL, would often help out by signing to Duckwall what the kids were trying to say.
Then Maskelony got an idea. She would teach the kids how to sign for themselves.
“It’s important to me that my kids know how to communicate with everybody,” she explains.
Maskelony started out by teaching the kids how to sign the names of foods served in the cafeteria. Then they learned other words and phrases and the ASL alphabet. Before long, the kids were using ASL to have conversations with Duckwall. Inspired by the fourth-graders, more students and teachers at the school are now learning ASL.
Duckwall says that being the only person in the cafeteria who can’t hear was lonely. She wants others to know that the only thing deaf people can’t do is hear—but they can still communicate.
“The kids learning ASL makes me feel like they want me included, and that feeling is priceless,” Duckwall says.