Victoria visits us for Deaf Awareness Week

Wow, what an inspirational lady Victoria Lessing is!  She is totally deaf but conversed with us perfectly even though we didn’t hear her speak.  Ellie commented, “I want to hear what she sounds like”.
She introduced herself...

 

Victoria’s family came with her and she was very keen to introduce her husband, Adrian, also deaf and 2 year old son who could hear but was able to communicate with Mum and Dad by signing. He could also speak Russian and English!  And lastly, Victoria’s delight in her wee baby girl was very evident by her expressions.

Chrissy had taught us to say, "It's nice to meet you" in signing, which we greeted Victoria with - she was impressed and showed her appreciation with many smiles and much animation.

She arrived with a popular story, ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ and told it using signing and expression. 

We quickly learned signing for 'bear', 'beautiful day' and so many more.

 

We’re going on a bear hunt

 

We’re going to catch a big one

What a beautiful day

 

We’re not scared.

 

Uh-uh!

 

 

Thick oozy mud

 

We can’t go over it

 

 

 

We can’t go under it

 

We’ve got to go through it

Squelch, squerch

 

 

 

Children and teachers alike were captivated and fully engaged.  It was wonderful!

Next, she showed popular colours and demonstrated the signs for them.
Black   

 

All in all, it was a very positive experience, the whole encounter gave us a new appreciation for our hearing and we are highly motivated to continue our sign language journey because ‘Signing’ is recognised as an Official Language of Aotearoa.

 

Documented by Karen.       12th May 2014