Sign language has been a godsend for my girl -she can't speak well yet, at age three, and if it hadn't been for sign language, she couldn't have communicated at all.

A really close friend of mine is deaf and so is his wife, their two boys have done sign since they were about 5 months. They are not deaf. Funny part of it is they are 3 and 4 now but have a limited verbal vocab. They have a bigger vocab. then most adults when they sign.

Their mom can speak pretty well but she hardly does so they dont often hear words. I figure once they start school and are around more spoken word they will start talking more.

Hey Sammy, your friend really needs to get those kids around people that can speak. There is a certain window for spoken language, and if they miss it, they could have a hard time catching up. Preschool a couple of mornings a week would probably do fine. But if she waits until they are 5 or 6, they could really be at a disadvantage in the classroom, and the school may wind up classifying them as speech impaired and putting them in special ed classes or giving them speech therapy. Better to head that off at the pass (unless they actually need it for some reason, which they probably don't).

i got the book and didn't stick with it, but my kid just knowing "more" and "finished" and "milk" and maybe a couple other words was fabulous.

batchild:

i got the book and didn't stick with it, but my kid just knowing "more" and "finished" and "milk" and maybe a couple other words was fabulous.

That was my daughter's entire vocabulary for nearly 2 years. Once we added juice and eat, we were golden. She's talking more now, but she still signs more, eat and all done.

First meaningful word she said was "didi" for diaper. After that, what more do you really need to say to someone, right?

Could swear there was a Simpsons episode about this. Or maybe it was the Flintstones.

I have told her that but she is now in a circle. She worries about school because of their lack of speech but she also knows they need it.

She worries she let them down. It just kind of creeped up on her. For them all was fine then one day it was like , OMG , those boys don't talk.

Funny thing is that they seem to choose not to speak , even when they have been around other children. I should say that they will but not much. They also have a hard time because they just assume that other children understand their sign.

Sammy_McL.:

They also have a hard time because they just assume that other children understand their sign.

Yeah, that's gonna work against them in school. Tell her not to fret too much, but to get them into a preschool program of some kind. AT this point, they'd technically be classified as having a speech delay, but if they were tested with the sign (which they should be) they should be okay to not get a cognitive label.

But she should make it clear to them that speaking is how most people talk. For my daughter, once she's able to say the word, I only respond to the spoken word, not her sign. Obviously, your friend can't do that, but she should make an effort to get them to use speech.

No one SHOULD (but some will) blame her, but it is an issue.

Tough situation, though. Hopefully, her school district will be understanding. But if they do go into speech therapy for proper pronunciation and stuff, it won't be all bad. Just make sure to tell her that if anyone wants to test their language skills, that the test has to be administered in sign language.

I've been teaching my son sign language for a while. His progress is pictured in my profile.

I have used sign with some of my non-verbal downs clients. It reduced their behaviors by about 80%. When they can't get their point accross it does make them act out. Teaching them some sign was the best thing I ever did. It also opens a whole new world for them.

Tiga: Hopefully, her school district will be understanding

Well the dads mother ( the boys Nana ) is a big cheese with the school district so you can bet they will get the attention they need :)

It was cool seeing Storm do that the last couple of times Drew was in town.

Sammy_McL.:

I have used sign with some of my non-verbal downs clients. It reduced their behaviors by about 80%. When they can't get their point accross it does make them act out. Teaching them some sign was the best thing I ever did. It also opens a whole new world for them.

Absolutely. I know so many kids whose parents are told they are profoundly retarded because they have no language. AS soon as they learn some sign, or PECS, their whole world opens up and they are treated as real people by the docs.

I can't even imagine how frustrating it must be to know that you want to say something, but everyone around you is too stupid to figure out how you can communicate!

Sign language? I know a kid that knows semaphore

the problem with baby asl is that most parents expect their kids to start signing in the first few months. although sign language can be really helpful after the first year, don't expect to see any communicative signs before 10-12 months.

Teaching our baby basic sign language was easy and was very rewarding.

She is 2 now, and speaks excellently.

Sign language helps stupid mothers, so go for it.

I sat in teh same row as a real doting mom for five hours on a plane - every time her three year old fell asleep, she'd wake him with a stroke of the cheek or by moving his leg to what she thought was more comfortable. When he was awake, he was a terror - demanding his DVD player while our pilot struggled to keep the shiny side of the plane up in the clouds. Obviously factory farmed in daycare while she went back to her career....she had absolutley no clue of what to do with him and he dominated the crap out of her.

Go with your instincts and respond accordingly - the nonverbal is more important than signing..i.e. knowing when they need help instead of merely responding to the finger.

Even though we think we're smarter because we have BS, MS or PhD after our names, humans've been doing this for over 100,000 generations (or ~100 if you're a Creationist)...make the kid use his speech center, ya neanderthals.

Tiga: Sign language has been a godsend for my girl -she can't speak well yet, at age three

Gimme your girl's number in 15 years. Women who shut up are teh hotness.

Suck It Dolphin: Gimme your girl's number in 15 years. Women who shut up are teh hotness.

See, that'd be funny, except it's not. Her not being physically able to speak kinda hurts and it's a real pain in the ass disability.

I hope you are young; that would excuse the stupidness of your post a bit.

/empathy - learn it, use it.
//yes, I know this is TF. You still don't get to make fun of my 3 year old with a disability. Bad form.

Tiga: You still don't get to make fun of my 3 year old with a disability.

I didn't consider it a disability. I've known two sets of parents with 5 year olds that just got toilet trained. 5 years later the kids ended up all right. I just figured your daughter was the same way.

Certainly wasn't trying to offend you specifically. I was trying to offend women in general. I'm sorry, really.

oh and if the mods think I went to far please delete all my bullshiat. I see I was out of line.

Welcome to the 1980s.

Another submission from the editor of Duh Magazine!

Suck It Dolphin:

iga: You still don't get to make fun of my 3 year old with a disability.

I didn't consider it a disability. I've known two sets of parents with 5 year olds that just got toilet trained. 5 years later the kids ended up all right. I just figured your daughter was the same way.

Certainly wasn't trying to offend you specifically. I was trying to offend women in general. I'm sorry, really.

Don't worry about it, no need to delete. Hell, I say stupid shiat sometimes, too. Thanks for the apology, though. Takes a big person to man up like that. Here, have a cookie:

I have an 11 month old son-- I didn't do signing at all with the first two kids but I have been working on a few things with my son since he was 6 mos-- "more" "all done" "eat" "nurse" the only sign I ever see him do is "all done"

A few weeks ago, I asked him if he wanted to eat while i did the sign. He looked at me and said, "EAT" His first word was mama. Second was eat. thats ma boy.

Baby signs work, and prevent frustration- watch your child, and pick up on his / her motions- it really works.
/didn't RTFA

The number of things that young children are in need of at any given time are so pathetically small that sign language is probably completely unneccesary:
Diaper? check
Hungry? check
Thirsty? check
Needs attention? stfu you little rugrat!

/slides a pancake under the door

Fark, I'd like you to meet 1984's news headlines.


Oh, I see you've met.

My daughter was born at 27 weeks; we were really lucky, everything's fine, but she's mentally now to the point where she understands language, while being physically not able to speak. We tried sign language for a bit, but she wasn't into that. It's hit or miss; the hardest part is remembering to use the sign yourself.

Kids' language skills blow me away. My niece sat next to a hearing impaired boy in grade one. No formal instruction, just being a nice kid and helping him out. By the end of the year, she had an amazing sign vocabulary and was teaching it to her little sister. They are little freaking sponges. I know another two year old who has very little verbal communication yet, but can sign like crazy.

And redoctober65 that cracked me up.

"Nope."

My mom's been teaching my niece signing.

My favorite one thus far:

In daycare at church, my sister said that my niece started doing this sign that my sister didn't know. She kept doing it, more and more emphatically.

So she asks my mom what it means when they came over.

It meant 'Out'. As in 'Get me the fark out of here!'

My niece is so much like me.

Drew and Heather do this with Storm... it works great. Storm is the best-behaved kid I've ever seen, and my girlfriend and I spread the gospel to all the new parents we know.

Sign language helps children communicate before their vocal chords have developed to the point where they can physically say what they are thinking. Kids who use sign language learn several months earlier that communication will get them what they need a lot faster than crying. Not only are they often happier, but their early adoption of a communicating mindset allows them to adopt the spoken word very quickly once their vocal chords are where they need to be.

My daughter was signing at eight or nine months, picked up a few spoken words by eleven months, and had several hundred words by a year and a half. She turns three tomorrow and knows probably two or three thousand words. Her grasp of grammar is advanced enough that she once corrected her grandmother ("This ice cream tastes good, don't it?" "Don't it? Doesn't it!"). She's also able to read some words and write her own name.

While I do like to brag up my daughter, my point with all of this is that sign language can REALLY make a difference in your child's life. Learning communication skills a few months earlier gives the brain a strong foothold on which to develop new skills.

A general bit of oddness, my cousin is deaf and insisted on not learning sign at all,(guys way too proud.) He just carries around his laptop and PDA everywhere and makes a text document whenever he wants to tell ya something or wants to "speak" with you.


/Well what works works.

ASL should be tought in every K-12 school and encouraged in preschoolers, signing is non-interfering, hundreds of people can be signing in the same room without making it any harder to comprehend what is being signed. in addition signing is much harder to eavesdrom on because the information only propogates withing line of sight.

duhh [I need Homer now]. It's also a mothers' intuition.

My wife and I are teaching our autistic 3-year-old boy sign language. Kids sure learn the tasty signs quickly. Cookie and ice cream are quite popular.

nauteeprincess [TotalFark]
I've been teaching my son sign language for a while. His progress is pictured in my profile.

I just spit beer all over my screen. Thanks.

Thers's a fellow at my office who is deaf and he is one of the funniest people in the office, even for those of us (like me) who know little to no sign.

In general, knowing ASL can really help your communication skills, even if you are fully capable of speaking and hearing. I've been picking up a few signs here and there and it is quite amazing.

A kid that can form a whole sentence at a year old with sign could never put that many words together verbal. It is not a waste of time. Something tells me the folks making light of it do not have kids. Ever been up all night with a baby that can't tell you what is wrong ?

What I love about it is that from across a room full of screaming kids, and clueless adults, I can ask Ellie if she's hungry and she can sign back what she needs.

I wish she could do more, but her little hands don't work so great, either. She knows the sign for cookie, though, lol!

I'm from the opposite side of this. My 11 yo stepson is autistic and has limited motor skills and language. However he was starting to develop an impressive vocabulary by the age of five. By impressive I mean maybe 5-7 words said clearly. Car, hi, bye, no, ect... Well his dumbass mother decided we were off our rocker and forced his teachers to continue trying to teach him sign.

Within a few months he had lost most of the clearly spoken vocabulary and now uses only one sign consistantly. The sign for "apple" has become the universal food/drink sign for him. Occasionally he'll use the sign for "Dad" if he's frustrated my husband is working late. We've had custody for 2.5 yrs now and he's just now starting to use word-sounds. "Ma" for mom, "Huh Pah" for Harry Potter, "Ma Muh" for my mutt (referring to his beagle Tobie AKA The Mutt when he's in trouble). He did surprise the hell out of me yesterday and said "Biii" as he pushed his little brothers bike around the back yard.

I think if you teach the babies sign at a young age, that's great. But if you use only sign, you run the risk of delaying them past the point of no return.

j z:

I was banging a deaf chick when I was 17. It was all good till she tried to open her mouth and talk, then she sounded like a zombie from Night of the Living Dead.

Kinda ruins the moment.

cgrgryrn:

I think if you teach the babies sign at a young age, that's great. But if you use only sign, you run the risk of delaying them past the point of no return.

I think that may have more to do with him being autistic than anything else. A typically developing kid will not choose sign over speech, if exposed to speech regularly.

A developmentally delayed kid might, if sign is easier than speech. If that is so, why not use sign and make communication easier?

But for a child to completely stop speaking in favor of using only one sign is not the fault of signing. That's a neurological regression, and has more to do with your nephew's condition than using sign language.

and by nephew, I mean stepson.

/sorry about that - super late here.

This is a great thing. Laungage develops long before speech is a regular thing. Sign Language helps in motor co-ordination, helps develop those early language skills, and is something parent and child can work togeather at. And it's great to talk behind people's back about.

I know it's not too hard - I have multiple redundant learning disabilities, and languages are my hardest issue. But even I managed to learn enough ASL to get by in deaf communities and in my jobs teaching and selling computers.

Can't say enough. Love everything about the concept. And of the dozens of children I know who worked with early sign language, all have normal, or above normal lanuguage skills.