8-Year-Old Girl Learns Sign Language In Order To Greet Her Deaf Delivery Driver With A ‘Good Morning’

May 31, 2021 by apost team

In this incredibly adorable video from earlier this month, an 8-year-old girl named Tallulah from Ashton-Under-Lyne, in Greater Manchester, learned sign language to greet her deaf delivery driver, Tim Joseph. Amy Roberts, Tallulah's mother, captured the beautiful exchange on video back in June of 2020 and posted it to her Twitter. While sign language is not often taught in schools, this little girl brought it upon herself to learn it on her own time to be able to communicate with driver Joseph, who delivers them packages as a Hermes company employee.

Although many people use sign language as their primary method of communication and first language, it is not widely taught in schools across the world. This often creates challenges for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, as others are not educated on how to communicate with them properly. Because every language has its own nuances, sign language is not universal, even among dialects of the same language, such as English.

Rather than having one universal English sign language system, it is often regional or broken into different sign languages via vernacular. According to gov.uk, 11 million people in the United Kingdom are deaf or hard-of-hearing, and 151,000 people are users of British sign language (BSL). However, very few non-deaf people are BSL users. Despite this, 8-year-old Tallulah took it upon herself to learn how to greet her delivery driver Tim Joseph in BSL in order to make him smile.

Read on to learn more about sign language, and see this adorable exchange and act of kindness. 

Globally, many countries offer lessons for sign language as a form of further education. However, in the United States and the United Kingdom, learning sign language is not mandatory for a child's education.

In order to raise awareness and help deaf children, as the BBC reported, there are even some who advocate that sign language should be mandatory for elementary school students. But as of now, sign language remains undertaught in elementary schools around the world. However, according to the BBC, one school in the UK, Blanche Nevile School in north London, is trying to change that. Deaf children at the school are helping their peers learn British sign language (BSL), along with Highgate Primary School. The two schools partner so that hearing and deaf children can learn alongside each other and break down barriers and stigmas associated with deaf people. One student, Faiza, said:

"If children learnt more sign, it would mean I'd try to play with them more. Communication would be easier. If my hearing friends didn't sign, I would feel lonely and sad."

One of the teachers involved, Mr. Barrow, said:

"I feel so passionate about this - growing up with deaf parents, I have seen the struggles and barriers of communication between them and other people. If we can teach kids some of the basic signs, such as directions, money et cetera, it would make a big impact on a deaf person's life."

However, although sign language isn't widely taught in educational institutions, many children and adults take it upon themselves to learn the language so they can better accommodate others who are deaf and hard of hearing. 

apost.com

Despite the lack of sign language taught in schools, one little girl from the United Kingdom decided to change all this and learn sign language anyway. Tallulah, an 8-year-old child from Greater Manchester, started to learn British Sign Language by herself to communicate with a delivery driver, according to Metro.

It was after some days that Tallulah learned something surprising about Tim, their regular delivery driver. During the lockdown that was enacted to reduce the spread of coronavirus, Tim Joseph started to deliver parcels to Amy's house once a week. Thus, Tallulah and her family came to be familiar with their usual delivery man. Eventually, Tallulah realized that their everyday delivery man was completely deaf.

She decided to study some sign languages on her own time so that she could communicate with Joseph a bit easier. One day, as Joseph was doing his usual job, Tallulah surprised him with a newly learned skill. Metro added that Tallulah signed "have a good day" to Joseph when he stopped by her house to make a delivery.

This act has enabled the two to form a very strong friendship over the past few weeks. In a short clip from Tallulah's mother, posted on Twitter, Tim looked overjoyed as Tallulah signed a message. After a moment, Tim signed back to her, teaching her how to sign "good morning, have a good day." After sharing the clip, the video has received more than nine million views and numerous positive responses. It's genuinely heartwarming to see such initiative from Tallulah, and the gesture surely brightened Joseph's day. 

What do you think of this inspiring video? Do you know any sign language? Let us know and pass this heartwarming video on to your friends and family members to brighten their days.