I don't want to come across as ignorant, and please excuse my lack of knowledge on this, but...
I've noticed that a number of adoptive parents are learning and teaching their children ASL (American Sign Language). Why? If any of you are or will be doing this, can you please explain it to me? I can understand, perhaps, if it's an older child...but if the child has no real language capabilities yet why start ASL?
If you'd rather email me about it, go for it and click the link in my sidebar. If you have any articles about it, please pass them along.
***Well not much of an update, other than to say a sincere thank you for the comments and emails, especially from the BTDT A-parents, I appreciate it. Please keep them coming. :)***
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16 comments:
I think it's because that it's much easier to learn the sign for "more" than to teach them to pronounce the words "more".
Our kid learned it from daycare. But, all she learned was "more" and then she quickly went to comprehending English.
It's a helpful bridge, but I can't explain parts of it. i.e. if they don't understand English, how can you use English to teach them the physical symbol for more?
Chicken-or-the-egg, sorta.
We only taught Kieren "more" and "all done". The speech pathologist at a FCC meeting told us not to teach her any more. It seems that some kids come to depend on signing and won't speak. Kieren is very delayed in speech, as in 10-12 months delayed! Our speech therapist is giving us other ways to work with her. (Too long to explain, just see my blog for more info.) As for why teach them sign in the first place: some kids (IMO, older ones OR it's really the parents) feel frustrated by not speaking and use sign to ease that frustration. A friend's daughter has been in speech therapy for 6 months. She can do 50 signs, but she still has not improved her speech. This is one of those great debates.
It's easy to teach ANY baby sign language while you're teaching them English. And it makes communication so much easier for them since they can sign while attempting to speak and are much more likely to be understood.
Today, my two and a half year old (adopted at 14 months) had her hands full of chicken nuggets and wanted more so she said "more" and signed with her FEET! Such a little nut!
:)
Donna
Our blog: Double Happiness!
I plan to use some "baby signs" but not the full fledged ASL. I've seen great sucess with several of my friends who've used it. The thought behind it is that children have the ability to communicate much sooner than their brain develops their verbal language. By giving them a way to communicate it makes them much less frustrated and both of your lives a little easier. Not nearly as many meltdowns.
I experienced this first hand when I was very very sick and hooked up to a ventilator for 12 days. I was unable to talk but still needed (wanted) to communicate. It was maddening! Of course, I was heavily medicated so not much of what I was communicating made sense anyway. LOL!
We only taught a few signs as well as others have mentioned. Sugarlips did not talk as early as other kids. I figured that it was because she switched from hearing Cantonese to English at 8 1/2 months. Signing a few things really helped us reduce some of her frustration with communication. I can fax you a sheet of common signs if you'd like. Email me. christie_mamacita@yahoo.com
I LOVED signing with my daughter and will do it with my baby boy as well. It cuts down on their frustration levels and gives them the ability to communicate even before they can talk. It also helps them developmentally and studies have shown they talk sooner as well!
We signed with Sophia as well. She was 8 months old when we got her. Although is she talking a mile a minute now she still likes to sign! It helped her let us know what she needed while trying to learn a new language.
I am interested in this topic. I do not know anyone close who is doing it so I am intrigued to hear what others have to say.
Keep smilin!
I'm a teacher of deaf and hard of hearing kids, and plan to sign with my own kids. It does create a bridge for language, as physically, for a baby, it's easier to use hands rather than the muscles, etc needed for speech. Parents I know who have signed with their hearing kids (Parents fluent in ASL) report that their kids can sign/communicate very well, and then when they get older, they switch to speech. The bottom line - it's quicker and easier to talk than to sign. If your child doesn't make the switch, there is likely something else going on with their speech development, and a visit to a speech pathologist is prob. in order.
Cari
Hmm, I don't really know what to think about it. I know that Eli was a late talker and our pediatrician told us that we had to require him to ask us for what he wanted or at least come close to repeating the word. No pointing and no gestures were to be allowed. And it worked, his language skills grew.
Baby signs saved our sanity. Annslee learned quite a few signs (the correct ones) and then has a lot of them that are "hers" They are consistent but they aren't the correct ones. Now to get her to say the word instead of just the sign we make a game of it ..we say "hands behind your back" and she will attempt the word. She is a late talker and the signing kept all of us from being frustrated. I don't think it has impeded her speech but we really don't know. She didn't qualify for therapy b/c she was off the charts ahead in her social and motor skills...go figure.
It's a fantastic bridge between language and action. There might be a language barrier or kids just
don't understand and do not have the skills to pronounce certain words yet, but they can and will quickly pick up on small actions for their words. I've used it for all 3 of my boys and all of our foster kids that we had were from Spanish speaking homes, it is a quick link to help them understand your words and will cause much less frustration within them.
I have been thinking about signing - the benefits of it.
Thanks for gathering all sorts of info on it!!
I've used ASL while I also speak the (english) words to my son since he was about 5 months old. It was (still is!!) a LIFESAVER before they can talk. Eli will say a lot of words, but 'please', 'water', 'food' and 'milk' are still hard for him. If he couldn't sign them, there would be a lot more frusteration happening in our house (and there is enough as it is!). He speaks the same, if not more, than other boys his age, so I don't think it slowed him down verbally at all. HTH!
I ditto Krista's comment, exactly. Children that age are capable of understanding and knowing what they want to communicate to you, yet they lack the vocalization skills at that age. The signing acts as their way to speak to you in the interim. All of my children will definitely at least learn a few basics, and I'm certain it will save us all a lot of frustration in the long run!
I wish I could teach it to my cats :oP
I have always wondered this too! I'm interested to hear what others say. Will you do an update post?
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