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Posted by Laurie
on 7/29/2002, 3:54 pm
If you have ever had the experience of trying to teach sign for augmentative purposes, but there isn't alot of expertise or enthusiasm from the teaching personnel in the classroom, I've got the software for you! I stumbled into Instant Immersion American Sign Language Software by Topics Entertainment. It is available in a 4 cd set. One cd is Hypersign Kids which you may already be familiar with. It has video sign clips with a child voice and PCS symbols. Signs are divided into different catagories and can be chosen in a "turn the page of the book" format to be learned. There are several matching and tic-tac-toe games for fun and repetitive recognition of signs. Sign Link is the second cd which is more of an adult dictionary program where you find the word you want to see the sign clip for alphabetically. The third cd is Personal Communicator, which I found the most exciting to build signing fluency. You type in the sentences which you want to have signed and the video clip of the person signs it for you! You can save your sentences to have the student practice on his/her own, and can even choose whether or not to have the functor words included. The four cd is called Signing Avator Friends. It has several computer generated teens on it from which you can pick and then they sign a conversation with you and ask you questions. This is obviously a higher level program, as you have to be able to read their signs (although text is included). It's very high tech in that you can adjust the position of the computer generated person so that you can change the angle from which you view the signs. Most importantly, this gem of a 4 cd set was only about $25.00. I found this early in summer while surfing the internet and can't remember exactly which software vendor I purchased from, however you may be able to find the distributors from the parent company www.topics-ent.com. Also, check software sites that have foreign language software as this company has a whole series of "InstantImmersion" software.
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