So I am going to be going to school for Physical Therapist Assistance and I wanted to learn sign language since I was little. I’ve known people when I was younger that needed signing. So I was wondering how often do you really use sign language? I thought it would be something really good for me but people keep telling me and asking me “how many times are you going to need signing as a PTA”? So was wondering how much do you use signing as a PT and/or PTA? Thanks everyone for your time!
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It depends on where you work. If you do pediatrics you may use it. I used to work at a school for children with developmental disabled children and we signed the basic things all the time.-eat drink, bathroom, all done, more, thank you, animals, colors, etc. If you interested it would not be a bad thing to learn. I would also encourage you to take a language such as spanish etc. Different area of the country, have different needs for different languages. PT and PTA who are bilingual make about 33 percent more than those that are not in my experience.
We actually had a PTA who also knew how to sign. She’d see maybe 1 or 2 patients a year who needed this service. If you work for a hospital based deparement, nearly all hospitals have contracts with sign language interpretor.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a wonderful skill to have. If you live in an area where there is a large deaf community, you will be likely to have a lot of referrals through that community…but for my friend, she’d used it, but only 1 or 2 times a year.
Learning how to speak any foreign language that is prevalant in your area would be beneficial.
its physical therapist assistant. Ive been working for over a yr in the field and have never encountered it. but it will depend on where you live. If you want to learn ASL go for it, it definitely wont hurt.