Baby Sign Language

Reading article "Baby Sign Language" - Reply to this / 9 comment(s)
To be honest, I'd never even thought about teaching kids to sign, but clearly a lot of people do it. This article has a few good reasons why it's worthwhile:

http://www.beagooddad.com/11/5-reasons-to-teach...

http://www.beagooddad.com/11/5-reasons-to-teach... 

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1. Re: Baby Sign Language by ecosrights, 914 days ago

   Friends of mine have taught their son to sign. At 18 months he was commnunicating as well as our 2 year old, but it must take a lot of discipline as you have to use it all of the time - signing as you talk - and be committed to classes for the whole family and all carers to learn to sign.
   
   It was interesting to watch, but in the long term I'm not sure it makes that much diffference. Speaking to a senior speech therapist they confirmed that in the long term there is no proven difference in how the children develop. Yes, they may be able to communicate slightly earlier, but their speech development can be slightly slower, so it's swings and round abouts. You also get some kids that talk early and some who talk late (3 is nothing unusual).
   
   I don't think it's always kids not being able to communicate what they want, but not really knowing what they want - our son can easily tell us what he wants when he's calm, but when he's worked up he can't decide what he wants - he'll ask for something, you'll get it and he'll say "NO". That's going to be the case regardless of whether they are signing or not.
   
   One thing I think it's really good for is removing the stigma of signing for deaf people - if a hearing child has been brought up with baby signing, they can adapt, relatively easily, to British Sign Language, which has to be a plus.

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   1. Re: Re: Baby Sign Language by Anonymous, 391 days ago

      I know this was ages ago, but for people reading it, please don't worry that if you teach sign language it will slow their speech development. My daughter signed from 6 months when she asked for her milk, and spoke her first word at 9 months. My son had dulled hearing due to wax build up and wasn't talking or making sounds at 2. We really concentrated on the signing and it meant he wasn't frustrated. He is just starting to talk now and he's over 2 and a half. In my experience (and not an expert opinion!) the signing doesn't make a difference to their speech development it just helps them communicate earlier.
      
      PS: It's about inclusion too. When my daughter was 12 months she signed to a deaf lady in town. The lady was so moved that I had taught my daughter to sign that she cried!

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      1. Re: Re: Re: Baby Sign Language by jane, 391 days ago

         I love the idea that your daughter was able to sign to the deaf lady.
         
         Your example definitely demonstrates some of the benefits of signing (I'm a strong believer that children speak when they are ready - apparently at 4 I hardly said a thing, but once I started..... well, I soon made up for it shall we say).

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         1. Re: Re: Re: Re: Baby Sign Language by Anonymous, 377 days ago

            "MACATON" is a much simpler sign language than BSL - I had profoundly deaf neighbours next door to me for 15 years and was and found MACATON much easier to learn, it made communication with them so much easier than BSL

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2. Re: Baby Sign Language by Laura, 914 days ago

   Thanks for the link. Have you seen the DVD, Talking Hands? And if so, was it useful. I have a new nephew who has hearing difficulties and it's good to know that other children will be learning sign language too.

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   1. Re: Re: Baby Sign Language by duncan, 914 days ago

      No, I've not seen that - do you have a link?
      
      My son is something of a chatter-box some days, I wonder if there's a way to reverse that process, and get him back to signing ;)

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3. Re: Baby Sign Language by Laura, 912 days ago

   http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A7BQOC/102...
   
   This is the link to Talking Hands DVD on Amazon. I think I'm going to buy this so a big thank you Duncan for bringing this to my attention.

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   1. Re: Re: Baby Sign Language by Anonymous, 674 days ago

      Do you now if the book is American sign language (ASL) or British Sign Language (BSL)
      
      I've just found a site www.babytalkuk.com that teaches BSL and they have an online course available soon. As I have no classes near where i live!

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      1. Re: Re: Re: Baby Sign Language by Anonymous, 368 days ago

         Hi, I am hoping to start sign language classes around devon in the near future and would be interested in hearing from people who think such a class would be supported in their area. I have bsl level 2 and have worked with the deaf for 5 years. I hope to make the classes fun for both babies/children and parents alike and will be offering needs lead tuition, rather than a rigid programme. If you are interested or would like more information please email me, Rebecca, at all.sign.fun@googlemail.com

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