Deafinitely Communicating at Arizona Fall Fest
During this segment, we chat with Germaine Graham, a bilingual, American Sign Language/English speech language pathologist passionate about raising awareness on the importance of language access for deaf and hard of hearing children and common myths/misconceptions surrounding deafness. Germaine is the owner of Deafinitely Communicating, a mobile private practice providing speech and language services to deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing children across the valley. Take a listen as Germaine shares some facts that might surprise you, key takeaways, and common misconceptions related to sign language and deaf children. To learn more about Germaine and the work that she does visit deafinitelycommunicating.com
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 While American Sign Language is becoming more and more popular,
00:03 it is still so important to provide accessible language acquisition skills
00:08 for those who are deaf and hard of hearing.
00:10 Jermaine Graham of Deafinitely Communicating is here to tell us more.
00:13 Jermaine, thank you for being here today.
00:15 Thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here.
00:17 Oh, we're super excited to have you and learn a little bit more.
00:20 So, start us out by telling a little bit about what Deafinitely Communicating is and what you do.
00:25 So, I am a speech-language pathologist,
00:27 and Deafinitely Communicating is the name of my practice.
00:31 We are a mobile private practice providing services for deaf and hard of hearing children
00:36 and their families across the valley.
00:38 Oh, wow. That's so cool. And I love that it's Deafinitely Communicating.
00:42 You kind of used that little pun in there.
00:44 But, you know, this is a very serious situation,
00:46 and you do everything from meeting initially, helping with the diagnosis,
00:51 all of that, to therapy, to the training, all of that.
00:55 Yes. Not the diagnosis, but I do come in and provide consultative services,
01:00 help to do evaluations, specifically looking at speech and language skills
01:04 for deaf and hard of hearing children.
01:06 And what got you into this specific side of the field, working with children?
01:12 Honestly, I have no idea, but the first deaf person I met was in high school.
01:18 I was working at McDonald's, and I met my first two deaf individuals.
01:22 And that kind of piqued my interest in learning American Sign Language
01:25 and I love children, so putting that together.
01:28 But as an SLP, I did not know that I could work with the deaf community.
01:32 So I learned that in my process going through school.
01:35 That is really, really great.
01:37 And I know you work with children of varying ages, starting as young as babies, correct?
01:42 Yes, correct.
01:44 So this is something that you can start really, really young and continue on throughout your life.
01:47 Absolutely. Starting very early, actually, with babies is very, very important
01:52 because of that language development, that access to language that babies need
01:57 and that support that families need as well while they're raising that child.
02:01 And that's another thing that I know you do.
02:02 You work not just with the child or the individual, you work with the family as a whole.
02:07 Absolutely. When you, if you imagine, you know, receiving that news and kind of not expecting it,
02:13 you need that support, you need that encouragement that everything's going to be okay,
02:17 that person to come alongside you to help you figure out how to communicate with your child
02:22 and to reassure you that all is well.
02:25 You know, that kind of gives me chills because I'm a new mom
02:27 and I was looking at some of your Instagram posts about working with children
02:32 and I'm sure that is a very surprising and maybe can sometimes be a sad thing to hear,
02:38 that kind of a diagnosis.
02:39 So the fact that you come alongside them, you empower them to not only,
02:44 the children to be able to speak themselves or communicate themselves, but the entire family.
02:48 That's really, really cool.
02:49 So for someone like me who I don't really know that much sign language,
02:53 I think I know some basic things like, thank you.
02:56 Tell me a couple of things that maybe everybody out there,
02:59 a couple of sign language words or even letters that everyone should know.
03:06 Well, you should know for sure how to introduce yourself.
03:10 So start with the alphabet, the manual American Sign Language alphabet.
03:14 And then also emergency signs, you know, it's nice to have conversational signs,
03:19 but in the event of an emergency, so this is the sign for help.
03:23 Okay. Yep. That's a good one to know.
03:24 Help. Yep. Or hurt. Those two fingers. Hurt. Yep. Hurt.
03:29 In and up. Okay. Hurt.
03:31 Just this way. Hurt.
03:32 Oh, just this way. Gotcha. Hurt. Okay.
03:34 In the general area that you're hurt.
03:36 So headache, stomachache, I hurt my knee, those kind of things.
03:40 And then, you know, hello is the same. Hello.
03:43 I love goodbye. You know, those are the same kind of things that we naturally already do.
03:47 Well, those are really great things to know.
03:49 And I know that you will also be out this weekend at the Fall Fest with Local First.
03:53 You're going to have a table. People can walk up.
03:55 They can learn a little bit more information about you.
03:58 Maybe even see some of this material here.
04:00 Is this all stuff that you will be working with this weekend?
04:02 These are products that I use that specifically I brought because they are produced by deaf individuals.
04:10 So all of these materials are from deaf businesses, deaf entrepreneurs, and people from the deaf community.
04:17 So really to spotlight. I love that.
04:20 Spotlight those businesses. Very, very great.
04:22 Well, thank you, Jermaine. This was really, really great.
04:24 Go see her this weekend at the Fall Fest.
04:26 And you can find more information on her website at deafinitelycommunicating.com.
04:30 All right. Thank you so much. Thank you.
04:33 [End of Audio]
04:34 [Silence]