Herald Schools

Lynbrook student helps write book about sign language

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While learning the signs for a variety of animals in her American Sign Language class, Lynbrook High School freshman Christina Franco decided she wanted to write and illustrate a children’s book to teach younger students ASL. She and her ASL teacher Elaine Miller then spent about three months writing the book, “Ben’s Boat Trip,” which they presented to students at the Lynbrook Kindergarten Center on May 30.

“I feel that it was a great thing to show them and have them understand that there’s another language,” Franco said of the experience.

Franco has been hard of hearing since she was 2. In school, all of her teachers have to wear FM systems, assistive listening devices that are accessories which connect to a sound source and transmit to a hearing aid or cochlear implant audio processor, so that she can hear their instructions. And, she said, she often has to ask people to repeat what they say.

“It’s hard for me to hear everything,” Franco said.

Franco has been taking ASL classes for the past three years and intends to take it again next year. “It was a great opportunity for her to show what she learned this year,” Lynbrook High School Principal Joe Rainis said of Franco’s presentation.

As part of their lecture for kindergarteners, Franco and Miller taught the students the signs for the animals featured in the book, which is about a beaver that gets lost in Florida and has to find his way home. Franco then signed the book as an interpreter and Miller read the book aloud. The students listened intently and tried to mimic the signs as Franco presented.

“They followed every detail of Christina’s signing,” Miller said.

At the end of the presentation, Franco signed the song “Wake Me Up” by Avicii, then the students showed off their sign language skills and performed a song that they had been practicing.

“It felt great,” Franco said. “It was so much fun.”