“Hi! This is Chase.  When I was a little boy I did mime signs a lot to my grandmother.  It was hard to communicate with her.  But I tried and tried and tried.  I still try.   So that’s what’s you have to do.  Who says mime signs are very hard? All you have to do is DO THEM.  Yeah that’s all you have to do.   Like drinking water, all you have to do is put your hand up and pretend you’re drinking water.  Some mime signs are REAL SIGNS.  So try them.  It’s super fun.  That can help you talking to deaf people and it is sometimes funny.”

 

Chase is right! Mime signs are fun!  What I love about them is they make sense.  It’s a great way to give your sign to English vocabulary a boost (over 300 mime signs are listed on this website) and to introduce your family to signing.

The mimes are organized A –  Z on the drop down menu.  On each page there is a video showing the mime signs as well as a written description of the mime gesture.  The specific handshapes used to make the sign are included in each description as well as other English words that can be used for the same mime sign.  Try not to worry too much on getting the handshapes just perfect!! With expression, doing what comes natural, and saying the word as you mime it, communication will most likely be successful!

If your family or loved one is saying “signing is too hard to learn”, make a game of it one night after a family dinner.  Ask your loved ones gathered around the table how they think they would sign  “telephone”  or “brush your teeth”.  I did this one night with my daughter-in-law’s family.  It was so much fun.  They were all amazing and just about every time, just by doing what came naturally, made the mime sign.