Fun with Abby and Alyssa ®,
An Introduction to Sign Language
By Don McNamara
This is the story of a grandfather venturing into a completely new area to try to make a positive difference in the lives of his two special needs granddaughters.
In June 2009, I was watching the planes depart Reagan National Airport from my apartment in Arlington, VA, and thinking about my career and personal life. I had spent nearly the past 30 years as a Special Agent within the U.S. Department of Defense. I recently returned from Iraq and meeting with agents there to discuss their operational needs and how I could help. For the past 2 years I lead an effort to organize several million documents stored in a dusty Government warehouse in Central New York. These documents involved the nearly $15 billion in cash the United States sent to Iraq to support the war effort. This amount of money attracted the efforts of criminals who saw this as an opportunity to get rich. My goal was to identify these criminals and help bring them to justice. We had initiated numerous cases around the world and were getting good results.
During my career I conducted and supervised criminal investigations both in the United States and abroad. These cases involved theft, corruption, bribery, accounting crimes, terrorism financing, and the illegal exportation of materials to Iran, North Korea and China. I was a first responder to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers. I combed through debris in lower Manhattan and on Staten Island. I’d taught self-defense and firearms for over 10 years. I had given and taken my share of lumps. I was a certified “tough guy”. However, nothing in my career had prepared me for the challenges in my personal life that had occurred over the past 2-½ years.
In January 2007, as we prepared for the February wedding of our son, Sean, my wife Regina suffered a cranial aneurism and died within hours. We had been married over 30 years and had just celebrated her 51st birthday. Sean’s fiancé had a child from a prior relationship, Alyssa, age 3. Five weeks after Regina’s tragic death, I became a father-in-law and grandfather on the same day. Due to medical issues, Alyssa is nonverbal, although she can hear. I noticed her difficulty in playing with hearing children who didn’t know sign language, as well as communicating with other members of our family.
In November 2007, my second granddaughter, Abigail was born. A few days after birth she was stricken by a virus that destroyed the motor control section of her brain. Her medical diagnosis is quadriplegia cerebral palsy. As time went on, it became clear that Abby, although she can hear, would be nonverbal like her sister Alyssa.
As I sat on my balcony watching the planes, I decided to do something to help the girls. I couldn’t alter their medical issues, but I thought perhaps I could alter how they interact with other children. I decided to write a series of books introducing American Sign Language (ASL) to all children so that they could communicate more effectively with nonverbal and deaf children. I decided to write these books even though I had almost no experience with ASL. I needed to learn ASL so I could communicate with my granddaughters. I purchased an ASL dictionary and several reference books and began teaching myself ASL.
After a couple of months, I called Liam Gooley, the son of a close friend, who had experience in graphics and illustrations. Liam and I worked together for the next 2 years to create the “Fun with Abby and Alyssa ®” books. In these books my granddaughters introduced ASL to early readers and preschoolers.
Each thematic book provides easy to follow illustrations and instructions for the various signs. The readers are encouraged to practice these signs with Abby and Alyssa. Each book also contains the ASL signs for the alphabet and numbers 1 through 10, as reinforcement exercises. The themes for the six books are: zoo animals, breakfast foods, colors, bedtime activities, school and family members. These topics provide a glimpse as to the variety of activities that can be introduced by the “Fun with Abby and Alyssa ®” books.
To this day Abby, Alyssa and I continue to learn sign language. The ability to effectively communicate adds to our relationship.My goal is to improve communication among all children. Every child wants to play with other children. There has to be a basic level of communication to enable them to interact effectively. I’m hoping the “Fun with Abby and Alyssa ®” books will provide that bridge in communication.
