During the March 2021 school holidays, excited children and parents were drawn into the world of storytelling in Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) at four public libraries – Ang Mo Kio, Toa Payoh, Bedok and Jurong West.
The well-known stories of The Sleeping Beauty and The Little MatchStick Girl were told in Singapore Sign Language. The children were curious to find out that the storyteller is deaf and used sign language to tell the stories, aided by a hearing interpreter. The kids also learnt vocabulary signs found in the stories and definitely took to it! One even asked for the sign of the word ‘handsome’ as she was curious to know this after learning the sign for ‘beauty’.
Due to the pandemic and social distancing rules, the storyteller wore transparent face mask so that the audience could see his facial expression easily. Facial expression, as they discovered too, is part of sign language!
By James Ong, SADeaf
sadeafsignal.com 