Tayla Reynold’s mum is hearing impaired and it can be difficult for her to keep up with her girls. 9 year old Tayla has taken it upon herself to improve their communication by doing a sign language qualification.Tayla is now officially the youngest person in Britain to complete the Level 1 British Sign Language test. To pass the test Tayla had to learn 600 gestures in British Sign Language
The British newspaper the Telegraph reports that the little girl took the lessons with 14 adults during a 23 week course. Watching her mum practising in the mirror inspired the youngster to sign up for the course. Tayla’s younger sister Natasha whose eight years old is due to start the course this week.
Tayla is a very special little girl she has already appeared on ‘This Morning’, voiced a character in ITV animated show ‘Creature Comforts’ and she finished in sixth place in the international Linguist of the Year competition.
Tayla will start the level 2 course next month and if she continues to level 4 she could become a BSL interpreter.
Her mother, who operates the School of Sign Language in Blackburn, is quoted in the telegraph as saying:
“I’m extremely proud of my daughter and it’s wonderful to see her saying ‘I love you’ in sign language. When I was a young girl I was hard of hearing but there was no way that I would admit or except it. I didn’t want to be different so I would try to cover it up.Now with every person who passes the tests, we get closer to getting rid of the horrible label I had to live with, growing up deaf and dumb.”
A spokesman for society the British Deaf Association said:
“We would like to congratulate Tayla on achieving her BSL level 1 at such a young age.”
British Sign Language, used by the majority of Britain’s deaf population, has between seventy thousand and a quarter of a million speakers.
Great to know about her.
It’s amazing that girl in such a small age qualified language course.
I am getting jealous.