Sign It! was born out of necessity. The creator is a 50 year old cabinet maker with a progressive hearing loss. While taking ASL classes, he searched in vain for a teaching tool to help him and his wife practise ASL and increase thier vocabularies, and subsequently developed Sign It! to fill this need.

   The Sign it! board game which includes a board a rule booklet and markers for six players, provides instruction for learning 824 signs. The game also comes with a copy of "Signing Illustrated" :The complete learning Guide, a 258 page illustrated and indexed reference book.

You can play a fun, new game that can help you learn more signs. It's called "Sign It." This board game was created by Michael McCoy, a hard-of-hearing man who is gradually becoming deaf.
Erika Geiger, a HIP Kids Advisory Council member, tried out this game with her hearing father and brother. Erika is fluent in ASL and says, "This is a great game for deaf kids who know sign language to play with hearing friends and family. I plan on playing "Sign It" with my grandmother who wants to learn more signs. I already played a game with Dad. He's a pretty good signer, but he learned some new signs, too. Of course, I beat him."

Erika's younger brother, Paul, really likes the game, also. "It makes learning signs fun. The time goes by really fast, and by the time you get to the end of the game, it's surprising how many new signs you've learned."
The rules in "Sign It" are similar to those in the game, "Chutes and Ladders." You roll a die. The number on the die tells you how many squares you move. Then you pick a card from the "Sign It" pile. Each card has eight words each written in a different color. You sign the word that matches the color of the square you have landed on.
If you sign the word right, you get another turn. If you're wrong, the next player gets a turn. The first person to reach the last square is the winner.

New Board game Making Waves for ASL Students

DeafNation

How could a small project, used to pass the time during adversity, evolveinto such a sucess? Michael McCoy can answer that by pointing to his creation called, "Sign It!" a board game that fosters interactive learning of American Sign Language (ASL).

It all started as a type of therapy for McCoy. Six years ago McCoy was diagnosed with otosclerosis, a degenerative ear disorder that causes damage to the stirrups in the inner ear.Otosclerosis can cause hearing problems and possibly complete deafness. Rather than wait around for the inevitable McCoy resorted to action: he decided to take up ASL.

McCoy signed up for ASL 101 at The Canadian Hearing Society, with his friend Nora, who wanted to participate in the learning experience. They believe that if McCoy does lose his hearing, it would be much easier to communicate with her in ASL.

McCoy completed all the classes that The Canadian Hearing Society had too ffer. However, government cut backs closed the 301's second and third sections. By about half-way through ASL 103, McCoy started looking for a productive interactive ASL learning tool to help Nora and him self increase their ASL vocabulary and to practice the ASL signs they had learned.

They hoped that they would find a selection of books and videos, but these offerings did not offer any interactive aspects of learning ASL. Then it dawned on McCoy, the answer to his learning dilemma was an interactive ASL game.McCoy drew up a dozen different board ideas before deciding on one.

He saw to it that "Sign It!" was suitable for beginners and yet still fun and stimulating for the more advanced learners of ASL. That compromise drew interest from ASL learners across the board. Market demographics surely was in McCoy's corner. Today the "Sign It!" ASL board game has been faring very well in the market. The Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf is using it as an ASL interactive teaching tool. The Canadian Hearing Society made it a regular stocked item in the technological devices store. Recognition came last month as the Canadian Hearing Society, on behalf of Micheal McCoy, made "Sign It!" into a demonstration feature at the Canadian National Exhibition's Queen Elizabeth Building.

As for future products McCoy is currently working on an interactive Compact Disc (CD) version of "Sign It!". though completion is still a wayoff. McCoy feels it may benefit people from both hearing and deaf worlds learn together and also especially those who need to develop confidence before learning in hands-on experience situations.

"Sign It!" has its own piece of the internet at the URL Address:http://www.spectramall.com/sign-it/ Look for the SignIt! link on DeafNation's Deaf Links Section of DeafNation's WWW Site at the URL Address: http://www.deaf-nation.com/

Recently a group of CHS staff had the opportunity to play the new Sign It!game created by Michael McCoy. The game was originally designed for fun. Toplay, each player rolls the die picks a card with an assigned English word, andthen shows the group a corresponding sign. Michael soon realized that it couldbe marketed as a fun learning game for people with all levels of ASLproficiency. This recognition was born out of Michael's necessity to learn signlanguage. He has Otosclerosis, is now hard of hearing and is becoming deafened.When Michael took sign language classes he studied by using flash cards. He later invented a game board on his computer.

When we played Sign It!, our group of players varied from novice signers to interpreters to native signers. We started off playing the game strictly by the rules provided, although Michael McCoy stresses that the rules are included asguide lines only. Many variations of the game can be played, depending on theplayers' skill levels. Our group had the benefit of having a deaf person involved to inform us of the signs that are more prominent in the deaf community.

Initially we believed that the format would unfortunately lead to a onesign/one English word equation. But we discovered the opposite was true. The game led to a discussion of the semantic variations that exist in both Englishand ASL.

Sign It! is a fun learning tool that can help learners increase their vocabulary by provoking great discussion and debate regarding the use of ASL variations for English concepts. Michael is considering a CD-ROM version of thegame, which would include facial expressions.

It isn't often that I come across a product that I enjoy as much as I enjoyed playing Sign It, a board game using American Sign Language. Together with a group of people, with skills ranging from basic to advanced, we tested our knowledge and had fun doing it!

The game is setup reminiscent of Trival Pursuit, with color coded squares.Each person gets a token (I was the elephant) then rolls the die. As expected,what ever the number you rolled...that's the number of spaces you moved. Thecolor of the square is the color you look at on the card. Then you sign that word.

Colors are catagories such as feelings, communication, locations, and more.On the card next to the words are page numbers for the accompanying book where you can find the appropiate sign. The game can be purchased with the refference book, "Signing Illustrated" by Mickey Flodin, wich includes well drawn illustration, clear directions and even little reminder hints to help you remember new signs.

Michael McCoy, the creator of Sign It, has allowed for freedom in the way the game is played. The "rules" are included, but Michael stresses that they are not hard and fast rules. Rather they are guidelines to get you started.

One of the best things about this game is its flexibility. It is anexcellent practice tool for anyone who is learning or has learned American Sign Language. When we played, we also practiced our finger spelling skills, including receptive skills. Depending on the skills you have or want to work on, you can tailor the game to your needs. You can develop your own rules while you play.

I highly recommend Sign It if you are looking for a fun way to practice your signing skills. For beginners or advanced students, I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy paying it.

To place an order for Sign It! select either the US or Canadian order form, print it out, fill it in and then mail it to us with your payment enclosed.

Return to the main page.