Teaching Your Toddler to Communicate with Sign Language

[kb2]

I've known people who teach their kids "please" and "thank you" signs and they basically become the signs for "I want that" and "I got what I want". And the parents think they are special and polite. But a baby has no concept of polite, they just understand that they are communicating/getting what they ask for.

Ah, that makes sense. I was associating those words with another step you have to learn--it seemed confusing to teach a kid how to make a request and require them to make a request politely at the same time. Like teaching a kid the word for "milk" and then one day not giving any milk until they signed "Milk, please." But it makes sense if the words are used to mean something other than just politeness--it would be easier to teach "Milk, please," than "I'm feeling a bit peckish and would really enjoy some milk right about now." It also makes more sense if you're signing in full ASL sentences or trying to expand vocabulary--it's just that Michelle only listed eight phrases, so I wondered how it got into the top eight.

[BlackHawk]

Okay, I teach sign language vocabulary to children. American Sign Language does not delay speech.

http://www.signingtime.com/resources/si ... -research/

I repeat, again and again, to parents I teach, that ASL does NOT delay spoken word any longer than it would be delayed otherwise. There just isn't evidence to support a delay for the sake of ASL. There just isn't.

Editing to add:

I always teach please and thank you within the first 8 signs. Why? Because the parents seem to want it. Very few have questioned that to me. I start with milk and more, and by signs 7 and 8 are typically please and thank you.

[Bloo]

I teach preschool to children who have developmental delays, so I work pretty closely with one of the SLPs in our school. Signing can't harm language development. It just can't.

I have one little boy, age three, who came in understanding everything and following commands, but exhibited no expressive language at all. I started using simple signs with him while saying the words. He signed a little in a day or two. Once he was comfortable with that, he started saying the words. I praised his efforts all along the way and he seemed so proud of himself.

[Katiebug]

Both our pediatrician and an acquaintance who is an experienced SLP confirmed for us that teaching signs to babies/children does NOT negatively impact speech development. In cases where there is a speech delay, that delay was going to happen regardless and signing offers a usable means of communication for those children while they work on developing speech skills.

We used Baby Signing Time and still use Signing Time with our daughter. A friend who is fluent in ASL and is a certified ASL interpreter/educator of the deaf told me that in Signing Time the signs themselves are correct ASL vocabulary, but the actual stringing-together into phrases and sentences usually follows spoken English grammar and not ASL grammar (as the presenter is saying/singing the English words, she's signing the ASL signs simultaneously). This is actually something called Signing Exact English (SEE). My friend said it can be very difficult to sign in ASL while speaking in English because of the differences in grammar/sentence structure, and it's very common even for parents and siblings of deaf children to use mostly SEE or individual ASL signs when communicating using sign language. She had no philosophical issue with a hearing child chaining together ASL signs with spoken English grammar; it's kind of expected, developmentally!

[Antigone]

I used to have this kind of job; teaching hearing parents of deaf children sign language. I used to have to un-teach them certain signs taught through "BABY SIGN LANGUAGE" since the sign meant something else in ASL, and that "something else" usually meant "vagina". It was fun seeing their reaction, especially if they were fundie (one of them had fundie lite grandparents, who were signing THAT word. Ha!).

Sev didn't start signing til he was 20 or 21, after he lost his hearing; I was raised with ASL and English, and Russian from my great-grandparents. Sevy herself started signing at 4 months (more, milk, etc) and now cannot shut up at all, both verbally and in sign. The more familial support I see, the more success I see. At least, that has happened from my own experiences as a teacher, parent, spouse, and also as a person with hearing loss. Kids are different, and you never know what you will get.

I'm curious, can anyone tell me where I can see Michelle interacting with the kids using sign? I'm curious and I wonder what signs she chooses to use (can't remember if that was addressed upthread, sorry!).

[mockingbird]

My mom used signs with my brother and sister. My sister ended up being very speech-delayed so that helped. My brother loved construction vehicles so he had a whole made-up vocabulary describing the different trucks.

[GiGi_41]

I taught both if my foster babies sign..and I would send flash cards along with them for visits with their parents...

My thought was that they only saw them for 1 hour once a week so any thing that would help with communication would be awesome.

But the refused to participate because they said their children would never learn to speak.

[Cannelle]

I used some signs with my son when he was a baby. He never did the signs himself (when he was about 5, he was diagnosed with some fine motor control problems and I'm wondering if that's why; he also never, ever held a bottle by himself. He's ten now, and other than terrible handwriting and having a hard time using silverware, he's perfectly normal), but he sure as heck understood them when I did them.

Case in point: we were in church one day, back in the days when we used to go to church, when he started getting fussy (he was...about eight or nine months at the time, I believe). Just as he started getting upset, it was time to sing, so he wasn't able to hear me talk to him. It dawned on me that he might be hungry, so I signed 'hungry' to him (like I always did before I fed him, asking, "Are you hungry?"). Oh MY. He started bouncing and kicking and got ALL smiley. :lol: He wolfed down that bottle. So signing REALLY came in handy for us, especially at that particular moment.

[Evilbad]

My fundy brother and SIL are into this. Sadly their little one is now past two and still mostly communicates in signs (a very limited amount, which is all her mother taught her). They greatly encouraged me to teach my children this way, but it wasn't for me. Interestingly, my children have been more talkative/had a wider vocabulary at the corresponding age to their daughter's current age (mine are older, so it wasn't at the same time). But, I believe that children all develop differently, even within the range of "normal," so I'm not judging their daughter nor saying that she wouldn't be talking this *little* even if she hadn't been taught the sign language. It just is what it is.

Yeah signing has nothing to do with the fact that your kids talked sooner, and it smacks of "parenting: you did it wrong and I did it right" even if you claim that's not what you're intentions are.

[thekate]

I'm curious, can anyone tell me where I can see Michelle interacting with the kids using sign? I'm curious and I wonder what signs she chooses to use (can't remember if that was addressed upthread, sorry!).

I think it was the episode they go to NY to visit the black evangelical family and sing in the park. They were on the subway or something for the actual signing bit.

[thetabmeister]

Yeah signing has nothing to do with the fact that your kids talked sooner, and it smacks of "parenting: you did it wrong and I did it right" even if you claim that's not what you're intentions are.

Whether or not I did do it right, I was merely pointing out that I tried teaching signs to my kid, it didn't work (he wouldn't learn or I was unable to teach), and he still talked pretty soon. That's all I'm trying to say. Thanks for judging my intentions :)

ETA: Re: the other posts about signing and its correlation to delayed speaking: I'm not convinced that a child wouldn't, under some circumstances, choose to not speak for some reason or another, having a primitive form of communication being one possible reason. It seems a bit of a generalization to say that all children who learned to sign and subsequently delay speaking wouldn't have spoken until then anyway. How do you really know? They always had that signing training. Just saying.

[Conuly]

You would know by taking a large group of children, dividing them into groups based on whether their parents used any signs with them or not, and then seeing which percentage of each group had delayed speech. If the numbers are about the same, which they do seem to be, then it is safe to assume that signing does not delay speech. Or if it does delay speech for some children it advances it for others and the two cancel each other out, but that seems unlikely.

This is pretty simple.

As far as having a primitive form of communication goes, all children have that. It's called screeching. And then they have another primitive form, called "not knowing very many words". They inevitably outgrow it.

[GiggleOfGirls]

Anecdotally: Of my three, all learned about the same amount of signing and only one was delayed in speech. She's also the one whom we later found out to be on the spectrum. So, I'm guessing that being on the spectrum had more to do with her delay than the signing did, given that one other spoke early and the third spoke at the average age-expected time and neither of them are on the spectrum.

[Mama Mia]

I don't understand why everyone is so obsessed lately with when a child learns to speak. Some kids are early talkers, some are late - most are in the middle. The vast majority will be communicating just fine by the time they are in school.

Every damn thing regarding children has become so competitive ! In the recent crop of young children in my family at 2 years old one of them was still mostly speaking single words, not a huge vocabulary of them, and stringing together a couple of 3-4 word phrases. On the other end his cousin was speaking in complete sentences using hundreds of words. The rest were somewhere in-between. The mom of the not-very-verbal child was freaking out.

A year and a half later and they are all on roughly the same level as far as language. Fluent, can hold a conversation with family members - mostly but not entirely understood by strangers. The main difference is that the early talkers just talk all the time. Some people are like that.

[bekkah]

In one of my education classes, we had a discussion about this. I think the interesting thing was using cued speech(its signs to represent the sounds of the english language) and encourages reading in children. ASL teaches signs so its very interesting.

My parents taught me sign 20 some years ago. The SLP recommended it. If they didn't do it, I would have been n/v till 4. I think they made a controversial decision at the time, not a lot of research and it still sparks debates.

It eliminated frustration for the both of us. I still got frustrated with using language till I was about 10. I wasn't great at expressive and I am better at it now. I wonder if they taught me at 4 months instead of 3 if my language would be better. Its really interesting I was a great reader and always scored higher, they always chalked it to ASL.

[Turtle]

I don't understand why everyone is so obsessed lately with when a child learns to speak. Some kids are early talkers, some are late - most are in the middle. The vast majority will be communicating just fine by the time they are in school.

Every damn thing regarding children has become so competitive ! In the recent crop of young children in my family at 2 years old one of them was still mostly speaking single words, not a huge vocabulary of them, and stringing together a couple of 3-4 word phrases. On the other end his cousin was speaking in complete sentences using hundreds of words. The rest were somewhere in-between. The mom of the not-very-verbal child was freaking out.

A year and a half later and they are all on roughly the same level as far as language. Fluent, can hold a conversation with family members - mostly but not entirely understood by strangers. The main difference is that the early talkers just talk all the time. Some people are like that.

I agree that plenty of parents are crazy obsessive and competitive over when their babies or kids reach milestones or start talking. But not all parents who are worried about their kid's speech delays are being overly obsessive or comparing their kids. Being able to communicate can drastically reduce frustration. If a young child can't use their words/signs to let you know what they want, they end up crying, pushing, ect to get their point across.

[dawbs]

I agree that plenty of parents are crazy obsessive and competitive over when their babies or kids reach milestones or start talking. But not all parents who are worried about their kid's speech delays are being overly obsessive or comparing their kids. Being able to communicate can drastically reduce frustration. If a young child can't use their words/signs to let you know what they want, they end up crying, pushing, ect to get their point across.

It's also an area where early intervention CAN be key, depending on the delays.

My kid, when she turned 2, was on the 'low end of normal' for her spoken vocabulary. The doc and I agreed that she probably didn't need intervention but were keeping an eye on it (then she waited just long enough to have me worry and, overnight, had a vocab explosion :roll: ).

There are some therapies that can help a LOT and are really good.

(and speech delays can also help clue people in on other delays a child may be experiencing)

It wasn't that I needed her to be the best smartest baby in the world...it's that I dealt w/ years of speech therapy and the frustration of not being able to form words in a way that people could understand them. If taking her to speech therapy was deemed to be good for her, I'd be taking her to speech therapy.

[Bloo]

I think people are also more aware of the idea of the window of language acquisition, and it makes them nervous. Also, the increased autism awareness adds to it.

[boysmom]

I agree that some people get competitive and others think that their early speaking kids must be gifted, etc. It's really only important in that if the delay is enough, early intervention with speech therapy can make a big difference long-term. It's most effective if started as early as possible. But definitely some kids will talk a little later and others a little earlier and most will be just fine in the long run.,

[Nothing2CHere]

I have to admit, reading this thread has me freaking out a little bit, because my baby is now 8 months old and I've been doing a few ASL signs with him since birth but have yet to see him repeat them to me. But I also haven't been signing religiously to him each and every day. A few years ago I took some sign language classes, so I already had a limited sign vocabulary and the way I've been "teaching" him sign is that if I think of it, I'll use the signs as I'm talking to him if I happen to be saying a word I know how to sign.

[Turtle]

I have to admit, reading this thread has me freaking out a little bit, because my baby is now 8 months old and I've been doing a few ASL signs with him since birth but have yet to see him repeat them to me. But I also haven't been signing religiously to him each and every day. A few years ago I took some sign language classes, so I already had a limited sign vocabulary and the way I've been "teaching" him sign is that if I think of it, I'll use the signs as I'm talking to him if I happen to be saying a word I know how to sign.

I think 8 months is a little on the early side to be signing back. He might start to recognize them though, so he's learning them. My kids started signing back around 10/11 months. We just did 5 or so signs, and I think it was worth the effort in terms of lessening frustrations.

[Nothing2CHere]

I think 8 months is a little on the early side to be signing back. He might start to recognize them though, so he's learning them. My kids started signing back around 10/11 months. We just did 5 or so signs, and I think it was worth the effort in terms of lessening frustrations.

Thanks for the input, Turtle. I was reading posts on here about babies signing at 5, 6, 7 months and thinking, "Eeep! What am I doing wrong!" :shifty:

[Iamthatbean]

My kids all use ASL. We are a Deaf and hearing family. They signed long before they spoke...so what?

[Iamthatbean]

Thanks for the input, Turtle. I was reading posts on here about babies signing at 5, 6, 7 months and thinking, "Eeep! What am I doing wrong!" :shifty:

My hearing kids first signed around 10 months. My Deaf child was a little later

[roddma]

I am skeptical of anything that promises to make your child smarter. The real question is does the hearing community have a right to hijack something meant for the hearing impaired/ developmentally disabled? Nobody used signs in our generation nor the ones before, unless they were hearing impaired, and we turned out fine. Frustration is just part of the growing up process. By the time babies are able to learn signs they should be talking.

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/ba ... irst-words