Handspeak® is a sign language online, consisting of American Sign Language (ASL) online dictionary, ASL grammar, manual alphabet (fingerspelling) + numeral, and others: Baby Talk, International Sign Language, gesture, ASL storytelling and art.
Sign Language
How is a sign language originated, developed and evolved? Where does American Sign Language come from? What are the brain activities like when English and Ameslan people speak? The section "Sign Language" is the place to find information.
Dictionary
What is an Ameslan (ASL) word for "English"? How do you say "thank you" in ASL? There are thousands of words in the ASL dictionary online here.
Fingerspelling
How do you spell your name? Check out the Fingerspelling section.
Grammar
How does one form parts of speech (noun, verb, adverb, adjective and such) in ASL grammar? How is a ASL word modified (inflected) in a sentence? How are words arranged spatially in ASL? See the section "Grammar".
Baby Talk
Baby Sign has been a buzzword in the current trend. What is so special about it? Study finds that babies are not born with a blank slate of their brains when it comes to language. Sign language enables infants to speak earlier than speech language in the early stage of physical development. Perhaps, next generations will be able to speak both vocally and manually -- a matter of choice.
Art + Literature
Speech language can convey some sound effects. How about a language that can convey cinematic vocabulary like cinematic angle, zoom, speed, cuts, slow motion, and such? Sign language does. How does one express poetry in sign language? How do eyeing people perceive the world that is different from hearing people? See Literature + Art.
Benefits of learning sign language
Beside fun to learn, what might a person, who already uses speech language, practice sign language for? Each of speech and sign has its uses. For example, vocal-auditory speakers can talk through a door but visual-manual speakers cannot, whereas visual-manual speakers can talk through a window but vocal-auditory speakers cannot.
Sign Language
Sign language has been highly developed by fluent Deaf/Signers over the past centuries; ASL or Amelsan is the 3rd or 4th most used language in the U.S.
Baby Sign
Baby Talk, one of the hottest trends in child development, boosts lingual and intellectual developments. Infants can manually communicate needs long before they can first vocally talk.
Travel + Gesture
Foreigners and travelers can cross a barrier of language, using manual/vocal gesture for learners, International Sign for fluent signers, and other visual cues.
Sign Language Art
A sign language with its cinematic vocabulary adds a dynamic spice to the visual-spatial language arts, storytelling, and performing arts.
Animal Talk
Human interest in communicating with animals (and perhaps vice versa) has been around for a long time, via speaking, signing and/or painting.
Professions + Others
There is more to a sign language than thought what it can do. Eg. scuba diving, stock trader, firefighting, talking in loud discos, etc.
Fingerspelling
Doing a child's homework in spelling, a parent vocally speaks a word and the child spells out a word in fingerspelling. A teacher in spelling class may also uses fingerspelling with her/his the students.