NASHUA – The Adult Learning Center saw the sign: a need for increased sign language education in the community.

“The last I heard several years ago, there are 24 million hearing-impaired people in the United States,” said Rose Gavin, the newly appointed sign language instructor at the Adult Learning Center in Nashua. “It might be more, it might be less … [but] deaf people really appreciate it if hearing people are trying to communicate.”

In response to a rising community interest in non-verbal communication, the Adult Learning Center will offer a six-week conversational sign language course on Thursdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. beginning Oct. 17. The beginner-level class will introduce basic signing skills, such as the manual alphabet, to students, Gavin said.

“For the most part, I have hearing people in the class who have a co-worker that’s deaf and they want to be able to communicate with them, or a deaf relative,” she said. “It’s really rewarding when somebody comes back and says, ‘Oh, it’s the first time I was able to communicate with my 10-year-old grandson.’?”

Sign language enables communication with those who are hearing-impaired, non-verbal, and in some cases, autistic. The language’s versatility makes it uniquely valuable for students to learn, according to Gavin, who is self-taught,.

“There’s so much non-verbal, some autistic [individuals], kids that are non-verbal – all those people communicate with sign language,” she said. “It’s such a tool.”

The language’s popularity has risen in recent years, as more people are learning to communicate through signing, Gavin said.

“It used to be people were taking the class because it’s a beautiful language – that’s how I got involved,” she said. “Now, it’s a real need.”

While learning any language can be challenging, Gavin said, the benefits of sign language outweigh the potential struggles.

“I have so much experience with learning myself,” she said. “I have a lot of little tidbits for people to help them remember. They’re shocked that after one class they’ve learned how to spell, they’ve learned numbers, like 25 words – but they had fun doing it.”

Though Gavin’s class will be taught at the Adult Learning Center, she said she has taught sign language programs for all ages. Some of her oldest students have been in their 60s and 70s, she said.

“I’ve had people come with teenage daughters and teenage sons, and that’s fine,” she said. “The older they get, the harder it is to really learn. But if it’s continuing ed, they want to be there.”

In addition to the sign language course, the Adult Learning Center offers ESOL courses and Spanish classes, among other high school equivalency and continuing education courses. She said she is looking forward to teaching the sign language class later this month.

“I love the education part of it,” she said. “I love
helping people.”

The Adult Learning Center is located at 4 Lake St., Nashua. For more infomation about the Adult Learning Center and its courses, call 882-0069, or visit adultlearningcenter.org.

Emily Hoyt can be reached at 594-6402 or ehoyt@nashuatelegraph.com.