Sign Language Honor

The Pathfinder Sign Language honor is often a Pathfinder's first contact with a language made of hands, face and body. There is no single sign language for the whole world, which is why requirement 1 asks for the sign language of your own country. In Brazil, that language is Brazilian Sign Language, known as Libras (from the Portuguese Língua Brasileira de Sinais), recognized by Law 10.436/2002, and it is the example this guide uses. Those who finish the honor can fingerspell their own name, greet a Deaf friend and understand why Libras has its own grammar.

The complete Sign Language honor requirements are in the catalog under code AM-014; here they are summarized, with no answer key. Including a Deaf member in the club is covered in the guide on the Deaf Pathfinder and sign language; this text is about the language itself. Data checked on October 6, 2026.

🤟What is the Pathfinder Sign Language honor?

The Sign Language honor has the code AM-014 and belongs to the Missionary and Community Activities honors. According to the catalog, it was created in 1978 by the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and sits at level 1, with no prerequisite.

It suits any Pathfinder, especially in Units with a Deaf member. It opens a sequence: the Advanced Sign Language honor (AM-018, level 3, from 1991) requires this one, and the Sign Language Interpreter honor (AP-051), created in 2012 by the South American Division (SAD) in the Vocational Activities area, requires the advanced one.

Honor profile in the Desbravai catalog, checked on October 6, 2026.

📋What are the Sign Language honor requirements?

There are six requirements, and the sixth has three items. Almost everything is hands-on and shown to the instructor, so searching for an honor answer key helps little here.

The classes and the signs call for a fluent instructor; the article on who can sign off on an honor explains who is allowed to evaluate.

Summary of the AM-014 requirements in the Desbravai catalog; check the full text with your instructor.

🗣️Is Libras, Brazilian Sign Language, a real language?

Libras is a language, and Brazilian law confirms it. Law No. 10.436 of April 24, 2002 recognizes Brazilian Sign Language as a legal means of communication and expression and describes it as a linguistic system of a visual-motor nature, with its own grammatical structure. The same law states that Libras does not replace written Portuguese: Deaf Brazilians live with both.

The Libras handbook from the accessibility course of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), published in 2019, describes Libras as a visual-spatial language: the message comes from the hands, the body and the face and is received through the eyes. Word order is flexible, and the most common one, according to authors cited by Fiocruz, seems to be topic-comment: first the subject, then what is said about it. Gender has no word ending: to mark female or male, signers add the sign MULHER (woman) or HOMEM (man).

It is not universal either. According to the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), cited by the United Nations (UN), more than 70 million Deaf people worldwide use more than 300 sign languages, which the UN defines as fully fledged natural languages. Libras is Brazil's; the WFD speaks of national sign languages, which is why requirement 1 asks for the sign language of your country. There is variation even inside Brazil: according to a 2021 report in the newspaper Estadão, the color green has different signs in Rio de Janeiro, Paraná and São Paulo. And a 2023 study in Cadernos de Linguística, from the Brazilian Linguistics Association (Abralin), cites research that found only 29% similarity between the vocabulary of Libras and that of Terena Sign Language, an Indigenous sign language.

Libras has a history too. According to Espaço, a publication of Brazil's National Institute for Deaf Education (Instituto Nacional de Educação de Surdos, INES), the country's first school for the Deaf grew out of the initiative of the Deaf French teacher E. Huet and opened in Rio de Janeiro in 1856; the official founding date is that of Law 939, of September 26, 1857. The language used there, now recognized as Libras, has a strong French influence and was carried to the other states by former students.

✋What are the 5 parameters of sign language in Libras?

Signs in Libras are made of smaller units, the parameters. Brazilian research, starting from the book by Ronice Müller de Quadros and Lodenir Karnopp (2004), describes five: three first described by the American linguist William Stokoe in 1960, while studying American Sign Language, and two added by later research, according to the Abralin study.

Changing a single parameter can change the meaning of a sign, the same idea as "cat" and "bat" in English. Fiocruz shows that GOSTAR (like) and NÃO-GOSTAR (don't like) differ in hand orientation and movement, and that questions with ONDE (where) and COMO (how) need the facial expression of a question.

The parameters help with item 6a. Compare a Libras sign with a common gesture, such as a thumbs-up, and check whether there is a fixed rule, a vocabulary shared among signers and a change of meaning when one parameter changes. Then explain it in your own words.

Parameters according to Quadros and Karnopp (2004), cited by Abreu (Abralin, 2023) and Fiocruz (2019); abbreviations as used in Portuguese.

🔤How do you learn the fingerspelling alphabet and numbers in Libras?

The manual alphabet, also called the fingerspelling alphabet, is used to spell letter by letter. Fingerspelling (datilologia, in Portuguese) comes in when a word has no sign, such as names of people and streets, brands and scientific terms, according to Fiocruz, which treats the manual alphabet as a borrowing from Portuguese. Real conversation happens with signs, so much so that requirement 5 forbids fingerspelling the songs.

Numbers change shape depending on their meaning: cardinals, quantities, ordinals and money values (Felipe, 2007, cited by Fiocruz). Cardinals are used for phone numbers and house numbers. Agree with your instructor on which forms count for requirement 1.

For requirement 3, Fiocruz points out three typical beginner mistakes: turning the palm toward yourself instead of showing it to the reader, jumping from one letter to the next in jerks, like punches in the air, and mixing up letters with similar shapes. A drill for your Unit:

• Fingerspell your own name slowly, palm facing your partner, until it comes out without thinking.
• In pairs, one person spells short words and the other writes down what they read.
• Start the stopwatch only when the letters are clean.

In the Deaf community, each person usually receives a sign name, given by another Deaf person, which works like a baptismal name, according to authors cited by Fiocruz. Do not make one up for yourself.

🧏What is the difference between deaf and hard of hearing?

For item 6b ("deaf and hard of hearing" in the English catalog; Brazilian law uses the term deficiência auditiva, hearing impairment), the law is a good starting point. Decree No. 5.626 of December 22, 2005, which regulates Brazil's Libras Law, gives two separate definitions. One describes the Deaf person through their visual experience of the world and through Libras as an expression of their culture. The other defines hearing impairment by testing: bilateral loss, partial or total, of 41 decibels or more, measured by audiogram at 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 Hz.

Fiocruz adds two views of deafness: the clinical one, which treats it as an illness waiting for a cure, and the socio-anthropological one, which sees the person through their linguistic and cultural difference. Explain to your instructor how they relate to the decree. The guide on how to include a Deaf Pathfinder shows what this means in the club.

In the preliminary sample results of the 2022 Demographic Census, released in 2025, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) estimated 2.6 million people aged 2 or older in Brazil with a hearing disability: those who reported a lot of difficulty hearing or no ability to hear at all, even with a hearing aid; about 543,800 said they could not hear in any way. Studies cited by Fiocruz indicate that about 95% of deaf children are born to hearing parents.

🏫How do you prepare the visit to a school that works with Deaf students?

For the item 6c visit, go prepared. Since 2021, Law No. 14.191 has included bilingual education for the Deaf in Brazil's National Education Guidelines and Framework Law (LDB), with Libras as the first language and written Portuguese as the second, in bilingual schools or classes, regular schools or hubs, starting in early childhood education. Decree 5.626/2005 also provides for Libras interpreters in the classroom at federal educational institutions.

Schedule the visit through the school's administration and go with your instructor or a counselor. Children study there: do not photograph or film the students.

Suggested script for item 6c, based on Brazil's Law 14.191/2021 and Decree 5.626/2005; outside Brazil, swap Libras and Portuguese for your country's languages.

🎵How do you get the classes, the 150 signs and the two songs in sign language?

Start with the instructor. Decree 5.626/2005 provides for the training of Libras instructors and gives priority to Deaf people in those courses. In the church, Adventist Possibility Ministries, to which the Adventist Deaf Ministry (Ministério Adventista dos Surdos, MAS) is linked, had 26 free Libras courses in Brazil and an online school with 517 students, according to the Notícias Adventistas portal in October 2025. Ask your Conference or Mission which class is closest to you.

Organize the 150 signs by theme: greetings, family, numbers, colors and words from church and club life, such as prayer, Bible and tent. With your instructor's permission, record the classes to review at home.

In the two songs, everything is in signs. Work out the translation with your instructor, because Portuguese word order does not always work in Libras, and rehearse with facial expression, looking at the audience. Brazil's National Day of the Deaf (September 26, Law No. 11.796/2008, the same date as the official founding of INES) and the International Day of Sign Languages (September 23, proclaimed by the UN in 2017) are good dates to perform.

The mistakes that slow the honor down the most:

• Learning only from videos. A fluent instructor corrects handshape and movement on the spot.
• Forgetting your face. Without facial expression, a question loses its meaning.
• Practicing only sending. Requirement 3 also tests reading.

When you are ready, check the complete Sign Language honor requirements in the catalog and schedule the evaluation with your instructor. Next comes the Advanced Sign Language honor, which asks for a conversation of at least two minutes with a Deaf person.