The teacher who talked to me about using ASL in her classroom was keen to differentiate what she did from the simple sign=word approach used by some. "Baby~signing" is gaining popularity for hearing children. It seems to be the sign=word system, but I haven't looked into it yet.

My daughter belongs to a large high school with many deaf students, and she was able to take a one year credit course in ASL last year. I think it's the only high school in Ontario that offers the course. She got an award for the highest mark in her grade ~ but they only offer it as a one~year course...I hope that some day she might want to continue with it.

Thank you to all who responded on this thread! Look forward to reading more if there's more to be shared....

~b.w.