Baby Sign Language

[ConservativeChristian97]

Has anyone else heard of baby sign language? Have you used it? I'm thinking about learning it so Remi and I can communicate earlier. My hubby doesn't like the idea as he feels our society isn't allowing kids to be kids anymore and this furthers that suspicion for him. However, he agrees it could be beneficial to our son, so he's agreed that I can try.

 

[seamonster]

I don't see it as any different than teaching your child any other language at a young age and can be pretty useful

I'm planning on signing with our baby, but we're also going to be teaching him Chinese so he'll have a couple of different languages to use.

My cousins are deaf and their kids both signed at really young ages and it was great when they'd come visit us because at 10 months their daughter could tell us what she wanted/needed through signing and nobody had to guess what she was thinking.

 

[KillerV]

I have seen it done and its pretty neat,I try to teach him but I am not consistent enough with it

 

[ConservativeChristian97]

If you don't mind me asking, why Chinese? I've never heard of anyone choosing Chinese, the closest was my friend learning Japanese at the age of 14. That was to watch anime.

 

[Beth1231]

Yes, I hope to use with with baby. I won't start using it though until I see that our baby is trying to communicate with me and has some understanding that gestures can stand for words (pointing for example). I had great success teaching five or six simple words and phrases to a baby girl when I was a nanny and her knowledge of "milk, all finished, please, eat, more and sleep" really cut down on frustration and tantrums. Hopefully, I'll have a similar experience with my own sweet baby

 

[RooMama]

I used some sign language with my first son, who had a mild speech delay. It really helped lessen his frustration with communication. My second son has special needs and we are trying to do sign language with him, but he has learned that he just has to smile to get what he wants, so the signing is working.

 

[seamonster]

If you don't mind me asking, why Chinese? I've never heard of anyone choosing Chinese, the closest was my friend learning Japanese at the age of 14. That was to watch anime.

We want our kids to have a second language and Chinese seemed a lot more useful than Spanish (although if they want to learn that, we both speak it, too). My husband and I are both getting Chinese degrees so we'll be easily able to teach our kiddos, and will probably spend some time living in China.

 

[RedTulipMom]

well my son luke is almost 3 yrs old and still doesnt talk because he has dyspraxia..so yes we do sign language with him in order to communicate. If he didnt have the speech delay i would never have taught him to sign.

 

[ConservativeChristian97]

We want our kids to have a second language and Chinese seemed a lot more useful than Spanish (although if they want to learn that, we both speak it, too). My husband and I are both getting Chinese degrees so we'll be easily able to teach our kiddos, and will probably spend some time living in China.

That's pretty neat. Yeah, here most people are either of Hispanic decent or Arabic, so most people here learn those two. Where we're moving, our kids will probably need to know French as we'll be visiting Louisiana pretty reguarly.

Is it pretty easy teaching kids sign language? I've been looking into it a good bit today, but didn't see anything about the difficulty level.

 

[seamonster]

It's not difficult as long as you're consistent and do it every day

 

[ChildByGrace]

I've heard of it but i won't be using it unless i have a child that has a real need for it.

My best friend used it with her 1st baby even though she didn't need it. Concequently even when she could talk she wouldn't talk because she was so used to signing. She was around 3 when i first heard her talk properly to her mum. They haven't used the signing with the other two children they have had since.

I also agree with the fact that it is changing the way children are. Children go through all stages for a reason - it teaches them vital things that they need for later life. While signing makes things easier for a parent it can have a detrimental effect on the child.

 

[Thankful4HIM]

I do it. It helps, especially when they can "voice" something that we will not understand until they can learn to say what they need. I like it, plus it's fun teaching them new words. I also think it builds self esteem.

 

[purpleunicorn_Andi]

I would think it would make things easier on both child and parents because they could make needs known... I've never used it, but I would like to know more anyone have any good sites?

 

[seamonster]

I also agree with the fact that it is changing the way children are. Children go through all stages for a reason - it teaches them vital things that they need for later life. While signing makes things easier for a parent it can have a detrimental effect on the child.

I question that last statement. How is learning another language detrimental? Believe it or not, ASL is no different than speaking Spanish or English or Arabic. It's still a language, and the child is still communicating.

Not all children (even those who don't sign) speak at young ages. My parents never signed with me and I didn't speak a word until I was 3. My brothers also never signed but were both talking by 18 months, so some kids are just different.

 

[nateboy]

I don't agree with the stages thing either.

Children are usually not able to speak as young as they can sign because their vocal cords are not mature enough not because they are not ready to communicate (most children that is..my child was different). A lot of children have severe temper tantrums because they are not able to express their wants and needs adequately at such a young age.Sign language makes it possible for them to express those wants and needs at a much earlier age. I have many Deaf and hard of hearing friends and also friends who signed with their children who were not Deaf or hard of hearing. It did not affect their developmental, speech or otherwise in any way.

I am moderately fluent in sign language and my child had NO INTEREST in learning. It was so frustrating. I signed practically all the time and he wouldn't even look at me. He was such a strong-willed little boy. I tried and tried. He was also speech delayed and continues to suffer from a speech impairment. If only he was more interested in sign language.

So, my child could be like childofgraces child's friend in a way...just very strong-willed and refusal to talk (or sign). However, a child refusing to use a language doesn't mean that they don't have the neurological building blocks of the language. In fact, a lot of speech therapists use sign language in their sessions.

I attended a mostly all deaf university for graduate school and have researched (not my own research) what was stated. There is no evidence that anyone was aware of which indicated the opinion learning sign language is detrimental in learning English. I also studied speech and hearing sciences during my undergraduate years and heard just the opposite during my studies in that field.

So, if anyone has any valid and strong research out there that actually disagrees with what I have said, please let me know. It could help me in my career. Of course, we can't even go off one research study and call it "the truth." That is why research is repeated to see if the same or similar results hold true with a different sampling group...

 

[Green Orchid]

I've never really thought about it, but it might be a good idea. I've always been interested in ASL, so it could give me an excuse to learn a little bit. Our kids will be bilingual too, I will speak to them in English and dh in French. We're both French, but English is SO useful, I want them to be fluent in both.

 

[ConservativeChristian97]

I just went to Yahoo and searched "Baby Sign Language" and it brought up a lot of really good sites. All of them say it helps your child learn to speak because they've already learned there are words for differant objects so they just need to learn to pronounce those words. More good comes of it than bad, honestly. Especially since most children don't say their first word until 1.5 to 2 years of age.