How Do The Deaf Speak?

Well, while writing anyways. I'm writing a story and the main character is deaf and he and his parents use sign language to communicate back and forth but on the other hand, people who aren't deaf in the story use regular speaking methods. With the "Quotations" and all. Well, how do I write something out if the boy is using sign language. He isn't actually speaking so I can't use quotations. So what should I do to that bit of dialogue? At first, I was italicizing it but now I don't know what I should do. Any suggestions? I'm sure someone has done something like this before. Ir should I just italicize it as I was before? All ideas and tips are welcome!


This isn't completely confusing, is it? Gosh, I hope not.

Well, if I was writing the story, I would say he mouthed the words while moving his hands or something like that.

I know, I've tried that much but I can't use that like a million times in a story. I think there should be a national way to get the message across that, 'hey, this kid is talking with his hands and not with his lips' or something like that. I'll try it again. Who knows, third times the charm, right?

Replace the tags and quotes. What I'd do in that case is only add in a "movement tag" for the first little bit, using single quotes to tell readers what he said. Rather quickly, people will realize that the guy's speaking with his hands and we won't need the tags all the time.

It would look something like this:

'I'm alright,' I signed slowly.

That would probably be a tag later on, once we're completely used to him signing everything instead of speaking. Something that might be earlier on in the story is:

I quickly moved my hands to communicate, 'Don't be silly.'

Both of those aren't the best examples, but you'll probably come up with something better. Just keep in mind that the only place you really need to worry about confusion is the very beginning. Readers will catch on soon enough what's going on, and then you can treat it more like normal dialogue.

Hope this helps!

~Rosey

Oh, nice idea. I'm going to try that. Thank you! Great idea, really. I never once thought of that. I feel dumb now but good thing we have you. Thank you Rosey. This one story was working my last nerve.