Carissa Martos

Hi, I’m Carissa!

I’m Hard-of-hearing, used to be an ASL interpreter, and am now a Teacher of the Deaf. I’ve also been a Master Signing Time Instructor for over 10 years. I grew up with Signed English, since my mother was a Speech/Language Pathologist, and there were Deaf people in our world in Southern California. When I moved to Berkeley for college, though, I lost most of my sign, since I wasn’t using it. I didn’t have any close Deaf friends, though, so I wasn’t concerned.

Then, kids were born. My daughter had a speech delay, but my son was born with the bones of his skull prematurely fused. This has meant 4 brain surgeries and a heart surgery before he was 5. His doctor told us he was never going to speak, and both a nurse at the hospital and my mother told me that he should learn sign (since, as the nurse put it: “Speech isn’t important. Language and communication is important.” My mom just asked, “his hands work, don’t they?”).

So, having just completed my English degree at Berkeley, I went back to school to learn to sign. My kids weren’t particularly interested, until a friend gave us a single Signing Time DVD. I caught them playing with a ball, and signing BALL, on the stairs, and asked where they’d learned it. “From the Orange lady on TV.”

I joined an interpreter program and became and interpreter because that was the only place to access higher level ASL, and after about 5 years, went to WOU’s Deaf Education program to earn my MS in Education. I graduated then completed an MA in history in order to help make history/social studies more visual, especially for Deaf kids. Eventually I started Engage Ed, LLC as a way to work with teachers and families to best approach teaching their DHH children.

Since then, I’ve worked as an Associate Director for the academy, as well as for the Signing Time Foundation. I also went to Ghana with Rachel, Aaron, Leah, my husband and a few others to do some work at the Deaf school there. It was quite the experience.

As far as classes go, they are rare, as I only teach with a Deaf professional or adult team. I know that cultural aspect was an important part of my learning, and I want to provide it to my students, as well.