ROBERTSDALE, Ala. — Cheray Bixler had to learn sign language. In a hurry.

“My mother explained that we were adopting a baby and I was all excited,” said Bixler. “Then she told me the baby had some problems. The baby was deaf.” I don’t know what to think about that. That was a big, ‘Huh.’”

Bixler explained that her mother, Diana Bixler, had already signed the family up for sign language lessons.

Bixler added that shortly after that conversation, she saw two people signing to each other, and was on fire to learn this new way of communicating.

“I saw and held my sister, Kynsy, I could tell something was funny, it seemed like she had cotton in her mouth,” recalled Bixler.

After the sign language teacher stopped coming by, Bixler decided to keep learning sign language on her own.

While playing with her sister, Bixler discovered by chance that Kynsy had some hearing. Their mother took Kynsy for more treatment, and while Kynsy communicates mostly via sign, she does hear some sounds with hearing aids.

Signing was still the order of the day in the Bixler home, and Cheray wanted to learn more. Bixler found others to teach her.

That led to her taking more classes, and eventually, she became a teacher’s aide at a New York school for the deaf at 14. She started teaching American Sign Language at the age of 14.

“I was going there (to the school) for more classes,” said Bixler. But, the school had other plans. They needed a teacher’s aide and Bixler was elected.

“The teacher took me aside and told me that in her room, everybody signs,” said Bixler.

While Bixler did plenty of signing at home, with her sister, signing for somebody else, with a lot of teachers around was something else.

“I was willing to jump in and get both feet wet,” said Bixler. “By the third day, I was signing songs.”

Bixler became very attached to one of her charges, a young girl. She says she cried when she graduated.

Bixler went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and is working on her certification to become a sign language interpreter.

Since she earned her degree in 2003, she says she has been “:taking care of children, doing some kennel work for a friend, and teaching sign language on the side. Bixler moved to the area with her family in 2005.

“You are never too young or too old to learn to sign. There’s never an age too early and there’s never an age too late,“ said Bixler, adding that she has had younger than two years of age and her oldest pupil is in his or her middle 60s.

One youngster stands out for her,

“The child was 2 years old and learned to sign, The mother took the child for cochlear implants and while the child can hear and speak now, we are still working on signing.”

But Bixler says she got a chill when the child said “Hi ‘Raye” to her .

“Three months ago, the child couldn’t speak,” said Bixler. “We are doing both speaking and signing now.”

To contact Bixler, call 978-8441.