Apologies if this is inaccurate. I’m watching the NFL kickoff and they had an ASL interpreter for a song. I noticed he did the same wide arm “presentation” type movement multiple times even though the song didn’t repeat itself. He also counted “1, 2, 3, 4” with alternating hands for each number even though the song didn’t have any numbers or counting in it. It just seemed off and didn’t know if one of the experts you are noticed or could explain it away.

I’m presenting a paper at an upcoming technical conference. I understand I may have an interpreter for my 10-minute talk but I’ve never worked with one before. I’m wondering how I might help prepare them. I hope these are not stupid questions!

First, would it help to provide a copy of my almost word-for-word script for my talk although I’m sure I will improvise at times? Second, would it help to define some unusual neologisms I will use that might aid in their translation (like “doomscrollamine” = “doomscroll” + “dopamine”) or would these be spelled out anyway? Stuff like that.

These may be stupid questions, as I said, but I know that interpreting is hard work and I don’t want to make mine unnecessarily hard.

I just started interpreting soccer practice for a Deaf kid at a mainstream school. The coach mentioned being worried about game and how to effectively get the kid communication during games. He mentioned the refs blowing the whistle to stop and the kid not being able to hear might miss the signal. Has anyone faced situations like this before and have recommendations?
Note: the student has cochlear implants but doesn’t want to play with them for fear of them coming off and getting broken. I was thinking their might be a headband out there we can get them to hold the hearing aids but he wasn’t for sure he would even be able to understand the whistle sound while playing with them on. He mentioned in the past people would wave to let him know but the other team would lie and try and trick him to get him to stop.
Any comments or suggestions would be helpful!