I’m referring to the television show that originally aired on ABC Family (now Freeform) from 2014 to 2017. It features two teen girls who are accidentally switched in the hospital at birth and sent home with the wrong parents. One girl discovers the mistake in high school from a school lab project with a blood test.
She finds her biological parents who, in turn, have been raising the other daughter as their own. I became interested in the teen/family drama because one of the daughters is deaf in the show and communicates using ASL (American Sign Language). The show introduced me to a lot of deaf culture, different aspects of the deaf community, and a ton of ASL.
I’ve been taking ASL off and on for about 2 years now. Watching “Switched at Birth” at the beginning of my lessons was helpful in picking up common words, proper techniques for finger spelling, and general knowledge. I’m about to start the series again, now that I’ve got a few years under my belt. I’m hoping to understand a lot more of the signs and also absorb a lot more than I did the first time.
Are you taking lessons or learning anything new right now? Let me know in the comments.