We recently connected with Laura Blum and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Laura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents who know little about hearing loss or American sign language (ASL). The first few years of a person’s life (0-3 years old) is a critical period in cognitive development when the brain is making over 700 synapsis connections a second! Mapping the brain for important life skills like language. These parents struggle to provide a language rich environment for their deaf/hard of hearing children during this most important time of development. Language deprivation and language delays sadly are a serious problem in the deaf community that negatively effects educational outcomes and future employment opportunities. As a nationally certified ASL interpreter (over 25 years of experience) with a degree in Early childhood education, I wondered what could be done to help these families build language with their babies?
I reached out to the early intervention program in my state that currently supports these families. I asked, what was one of the challenges for parents with deaf/hard of hearing children? Language is naturally learned as families spend time together yet these parents that want to learn sign language are discouraged that they can’t read books with their babies. Even a simple baby board book is too hard to translate, because of their limited ASL vocabulary. Parents really want to enjoy books and bedtime stories, but this snuggly pastime seemed impossible.
As I thought about this issue, I realized that when any book is translated in ASL, the rhymes and word play are lost in translation. I wondered- can a baby board book be written in English to RHYME when signed in ASL? Happily, YES! You can write a book that is simple to sign for parents new to ASL and rhymes in ASL -offering deaf children’s books that are as fun to read in ASL as traditional children’s books are fun to read in English. I spent a month writing a handful of books.
You might wonder how something can rhyme in sign language? A rhyme is really a repetitive pattern. In spoken languages that rhyming pattern is sound, but in signed languages a rhyme is a repetitive pattern of a handshape/movement of a sign.
I partnered with the Deaf community and started About Love and Language 501c3 to create these Simple to Sign books. Each book is illustrated by a Deaf artist. For parents new to ASL, each book has a QR code they can scan and watch a video to learn the signs from a Deaf mentor as needed.
Deaf children love these books and parents are delighted to find, learning ASL in rhyming pairs helps them remember the signs. We get emails from parents encouraging us to create MORE books all the time. We currently have 6 books. One parent shared, ” My little girl was born deaf, and we were introduced to your books not too long ago by our PIP Language gal. She LOVES these books more than any of the other books.”
Our books are also enjoyed by other families whose children aren’t deaf. 1:5 children in American will have a language delay. We have heard from families with children who are non-verbal because of Down Syndrome or Autism, that also enjoy our books. We are delighted to fill this need and offer resources that help parents build bonds of love and language, as they enjoy sharing books together.
Laura, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I grew up attending a school mainstreamed with Deaf students. From the age of 11 years old I had deaf friends and was conversational in ASL. I started interpreting when I was 14 years old, at church. Growing up I never thought about becoming an interpreter. I went to Brigham Young University and was drawn to Family Science emphasis in Early Childhood Education as a degree. I did take all the ASL classes offered at BYU, but there were not enough classes to qualify as a minor. The final course was Interpreting, and our professor encouraged us to take the state certification test. I did and was surprised I passed! Interpreting turned out to be a professional that fit with my goals to balance home and family. It is very flexible. I have enjoyed working as an interpreter these last 25 years, yet I started looking for more. As an interpreter, you provide a bridge between two languages without adding my own opinions, advice, thoughts etc. I am a very creative person and wanted to find a job that I could use and develop my other talents. That was why I reached out to my local early intervention organization. My next chapter in life I wanted to use my talents and I listed three things on a piece of paper. I was good at ASL, I had a degree in Early Childhood Education, and I timidly added I one day I hoped to be an author- but I didn’t know how or what I would write. I truly feel God helped me find my purpose for the next phase of life.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
Traditional publishers were not interested in my books. While they are written in English- they don’t rhyme in English. Rhyming in ASL has been around for centuries but only known in the Deaf community so these books might seem odd to those who aren’t familiar with ASL. To make these books a reality I needed to find funding to self-publish them on my own. I found a great organization, Utah Humanities that likes to support underrepresented languages and populations. I called and told them about Simple to Sign books and they awarded me funds to hire Deaf Artist to create the illustrations for our first two books. That was such a blessing, yet just one small piece of the puzzle. Once I had sample books- I started a Kickstarter Campaign. It was a grueling month of blasting social media channels announcing these books. It was very awkward- because I did not really have social media before my campaign. I was very outside my comfort zone. My campaign to raise funds was not doing well. We were only half funded with only a few days left to raise money needed to get the books published. Thankfully Rachel Coleman the creator of Signing Time- saw my project and she ordered and shared the project with her followers. With her support- we reached our goal!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I am not very computer savvy. I had a volunteer who willingly offered to format the videos for each book. I was busy working with the Deaf artists and trying to learn how to format the books. When it was time to send the files off to the printers- I needed the QR code that would link to the videos. But the videos were not ready. To make our deadline for orders before Christmas- I could not postpone sending the files to the printers. So, we set a new deadline for the videos, and I published the books without the QR code. (I just left a space- and the plan was- we would put a sticker of the QR code on each book.) The volunteer promised the videos would be done by the next deadline.
One day, I was coming home with my arms laden with groceries and the inside garage door to our kitchen was locked. That was odd- but instead of standing at a locked door waiting for someone to answer- I thought, “I will just walk around to the front door- that I know is open”. As I took this long detour, I had a distinct impression that I should use this same mentality when I hit a roadblock with the books. Instead of standing at a “locked door” frustrated or mad- don’t waste time, quickly find another solution. Long story short- when it was time to ship the books out, I had a garage full of books and I still did not have the videos! The volunteer texted and said as hard as they tried, they could not edit and make the video. I was speechless.
The locked door experience came to mind, and I remembered, “don’t waste time at a locked door, find another way to make it happen.” I got on my knees and prayed to find the unlocked door to my problem. I started googling “How to edit a video?” I didn’t know my computer had the software on it and I could do it myself! Lots of prayers, binge watching YouTube videos and problem solving, the next morning I had the videos needed and the QR code stickers. It was a miracle I was able learn so much in such a short period of time and fulfill orders on time.
Contact Info:
- Website: aboutloveandlanguage.org
- Instagram: @rhymeswhensigned
- Youtube: Rhymes When Signed
Image Credits
Personal images taken from my phone, Laura B Blum