ASL Numbers For Dummies

When I first started this project, I planned to learn numbers in week 2, but then found it would be more beneficial to learn signs that were more applicable in daily life. I also assumed that number signs would just be the equivalent to how we show numbers with our hands already. However, as I've been learning more signs, I've realized that a lot of signs look like how we would show certain numbers with our hands already. So this week I decided to look into numbers in ASL and found out they are a lot more intricate than I thought.

Since I have been using a lot of videos and apps, I also wanted to try something new this time. I used the site "dummies - Learning Made Easy" (you know, like all of those books "___________ for dummies"). The page I found was called "American Sign Language For Dummies Cheat Sheet".

When signing numbers 1 through 10, palm orientation is especially important. For numbers 1 to 5, your palm should be facing you, and for signing numbers 6 through 10, your palm should be facing the person you are talking to.

There is also a video on their page that shows a few numbers above 10.

After looking through their page, I wanted a bit more information about signing numbers that were higher than 10. I also wanted to keep in the same "theme" of looking at webpages rather than videos, so I used wikiHow, "How to Count in ASL: Number 0-100". This website was nice because it showed a photo of each sign, as well as a description underneath each picture of how your hand should be oriented and any movements you have to make, like for example 26:

What I found interesting is that numbers all the way up to 30 have their own sign, but after 30 you just sign the 2 base numbers quickly one after the other. Like for example, 36 would just be the sign for 3 then for 6.

It was really interesting to use this type of resource after solely looking at videos (including on the apps) for most of my learning. It's nice that there was a lot of pictures involved, but it definitely was harder for me to feel like I actually got it using this method.