Listening with Your Eyes [Paperback] [2003] (Author) Gabriel Grayson

This book has way more great information than I expected. I have found it difficult over the years to find reliable, clear, and fun materials for teaching ASL. This book contains lots of great information that helps a hearing person get a clue about the deaf community.

This book starts by telling you what Sign Language is. It talks about the history of signing, the "ups and downs" of being HOH and deaf. And, the detailed descriptions on how to make the signs that are presented in the book are absolutely outstanding. I highly recommend this book to any person interested in learning American Sign Language!

The book helped me to learn more about signing and to appreciate differences in languages whether written and spoken. The book is self-explanatory and gives clear illustration of the sign language through clear pictures.

I bought this book when I was learning sign language and now as an Interpreter I use it to teach others.
It has great pictures and wonderful memory aids to help you remember why the signs are done that way.
I would highly recommend it!!

This is the easiest, most well explained book I have found on sign language. It is simple and well broken down. I highly recommend this book for your first stepping stone into the world of sign language.

This is a textbook. It has many nice illustrations but is a textbook. I can see someone reading this with their free time if they really had an interest in the subject, but overall it's a textbook and an okay one at that.

the book was falling apart. The binding wasn't strong.
The book itself wasn't what it advertised to be. I was looking for something that didn't require a lot of reading ( for a student with low reading skills)

I had originally purchased this book to communicate with a deaf friend. The first time I read it I thought it was amazing- very complete, well-organized, the pictures are very helpful and the descriptions are easy to follow. It even gives you little pointers about how to remember the signs- like "rabbit" looks a little bit like a rabbit twitching its ears, and "girl" is like tracing the string from a bonnet! Well, this was the best guide to sign language I found and I was glad I bought the book.

Then, I recently started teaching my one year old son baby sign! I wanted to purchase dvd's but they were so expensive. I checked out a book at the library that wasn't nearly as good. There were a lot of signs I wanted to learn that I couldn't find in the baby book, such as "hear." (Do you HEAR the TRAIN?) Then I remembered I had my own sign language book, and I dug it out to re-learn the signs I had forgotten. Well I am impressed all over again! This book is so great, comprehensive, easy to use for a beginner and well organized. It is truly a gift that Gabrial Grayson grew up with deaf parents because he really understands how to bridge the gap between hearing and deaf people. I can't speak highly enough, I wish I could rate this book 100 stars. Every library should have this book.

A little bit about my background before I review the book: I am deaf, and I have many years of experience with ASL; hence, I know what I am talking about.

My hearing friend showed me a book entitled Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes. Upon a cursory glance inside of the book, I've found numerous errors. A lot of times, the pictures of the signs aren't what they seem to be. There are several intermediary steps missing. And for some of the others, they are dead wrong.

Like people will say, "a picture says a thousand of words," no amount of description for every sign in the book will fully explain it; only watching a person signing a word will help you to learn it. Learning how to sign correctly through socialization is the best way to become a fluent signer.

Beginner signers ought to take a look at Elaine Costello's Signing: How To Speak With Your Hands and then find an experienced deaf signer for further reinforcement. And everybody else, they can just laugh at Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes and discard it.

This book covers numerous "word groupings" in 17 chapters. Some of these groupings include, "Days of the Week & Time"; "School & Education"; "Descriptions,Thoughts& Emotions"; "The body& Health"; "Mealtime& Food"; "Home&Clothing"; "Numbers,Math Terms,Quantity &Money"; "Pronouns,People&Relationships"; "Actions"; as well as many more.
I especially like this book for the photographic illustrations. So far this is the only ASL book I have found with photographic illustrations.

With each word there are specific instructions for the proper hand shape, position, and movement to go with each sign as well as a visual reminder for memory. At the bottom of each page there is a photographic guide as a visual reminder of all the proper hand shapes that are used in all the signs for that particular page.

I would highly recommend this book for any with the desire to learn Sign Language.

Sign language is the third most common language in North America and there are numerous books on the topic - but none quite so visual and easy to comprehend as Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes: A Complete Photographic Guide To American Sign Language. Well over a thousand photos are used in this primer to the techniques, words and phrases of signing: photos which show not just hand motions, but body motions and facial expressions. Tips on visualization and memorizing signs complete the offering and make for a far easier coverage than competitors offer making this a core addition to any sign language studies reference collection.

Love the book, first borrowed it from my local library. The binding does tend to crack with much use, so I broke my book's binding and put all the pages in clear cover sheets in a 3 ring binder. Cost a little more but it was worth it because now I don't have to worry about destroying it and my book will last a lot longer. I found this book the most helpful in explaining how to do the signs as well as illustrating them in very clear photos. I highly recommend!!!

This book edges ahead of others in that it features clear photographs, has words listed topically, and explains deaf history and culture throughout the book. It is much easier to use than books with a "dictionary" layout. The author has the experience and backing to know what works. I highly recommend it.

Aristotle was searching for a man who could study for the sake of studying, who saw learning as an end in itself and who could inspire others with his thoughts.
In my friend, Gabe, Aristotle would have found his guy. A true Renaissance man who began his University curriculum as a Roman Catholic Divinity student, he enjoys and amazingly varied schedule of diverse careers, lifelong passions and seems to know every other person on the Planet.
As the hearing son of deaf parents, he learned how to sign before he could speak and once he learned how to speak, he has never stopped talking or creating a buzz in dozens of different areas of his many-faceted life. Thousands of his students in his New School University classes can attest to his formidable, yet playful intellect, charismatic teaching abilities and funny sense of humor. Gabe's intuitive insights and interviewing skills have elicited and illuminated the thoughts and feelings of hundreds of New School Roundtable and special courses guests, ranging from Muhammad dAli to Julia Roberts to Marcel Marceau.
As the principal court-appointed dactylogist of the NYC judicial system, judges, attorneys, physicians, and psychologists appreciate his clear, nuance-filled interpreting skills. Gabe has performed at the White House, United Nations, on Broadway, at Colleges throughout the US featuring his award-winning show "Reality or Illusion...Mind Over Magic?" Gabe's wonderful motivational magic show as the "Amazing Doctor Can-Do" is a delight for both hearing and deaf children.
Gabe's been a host and guest of hundreds of national and local radio and TV shows. He was executive consultant of the Emmy-nominated ABC Afterschool Special "Mom and Dad Can't Hear Me". He the chief sign language tour docent at the American Museum of Natural History.
Brevity is the soul of Life and Human Life is, or should be, an adventure in self-discovery, learning what talents one has and using them to their fullest. Gabe figured this out early in life. He continues to inspire all of us to take the great leap in personal evolution to "Have fun, to do good and to be happy". I am proud to count Gabriel as my dearest friend.

This book has quickly become one of my favorite sign language reference books. Though I prefer a dictionary when searching for a particular sign (Perigee and Random House are my favorites), this book is excellent for studying and increasing vocabulary. My favorite feature is that there are two pictures per sign in most cases. You can see how the sign starts and how it finishes versus trying to discern the motions from arrows in other books I've used. I also appreciate the selections throughout the book on deaf history, culture, technology, etc.

This is an excellent book that has very detailed photographs and descriptions for each sign. However, according to my ASL prof some of the signs in this book are misrepresented. For example, the practice of signifying gender with 3ps pronouns is not in use in ASL. This is a minor problem, but it could still lead to some confusion for someone studying without the aid of an instructor. A good thing about this book is that some of the vocab keeps popping up in later chapters. Great for review.

The book "Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes" is a great book for people wanting to start learning sign language. The photographs of the signs are very clear. I especially like the additional material throughout the book about Deaf Culture and history. I recommend this book and enjoyed reading it even though I have been a student of sign language for 5 years.

Talking With Your Hands, Listening With Your Eyes: A Complete Photographic Guide to American Sign Language
I am a beginning sign language student and this book has actual photographs of people demonstrating the signs. The descriptions are clear and the visualize comments with each sign help me remember them better. I think this is a totally awesome book.

very good book, very descriptive & educational about the history of sign language. within 2 days my siblings and i were speaking with our hands and even my godson (age 3) has caught on to some words.

This book was shipped fast and worth every penny. The quality was excellent - it was brand new. I had looked at buying the same book at Barnes and Noble the week prior and when I received this one, I couldn't tell the difference (other then about $11). Good buy