I have a daughter who is 3 years old. She is hearing impaired and one of my Mom’s friends wants to watch her. She is a nanny from home and watches two other pre-school aged children. She does not know sign language and I don’t mind. She is learning to read lips and is in a school for the deaf most of the day to help with her hearing loss and to explore the world around her. What could I do provide her to help her learn a few signs to make things smoother for the nanny. My daughter has been learning sign language since we found out when 6 months old. So, she has a really good vocabulary now. Also, she’d only be watching her for maybe 3 hours a day 3 times a week. Any suggestions would be helpful.
.
Join the Conversation
Leave a comment
Try The Joy of Signing. I took a signing class when I was in high school and it was a good book for beginners. However, as the reviews in the link say (these are much more experienced people than I am, I never continued learning it), it’s just a beginning, it doesn’t teach ASL, which is quite different. But that won’t make much of a difference to your 3 yr old. http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Signing-Illustrated-Mastering-Language/dp/0882435205
For our young baby we purchased a book called Australian Baby Hands http://www.australianbabyhands.com.au It was really easy to understand and our baby began to use the signs from around 7months old. So I believe that anyone could find this book useful. It is based on the Auslan Sign Language so it is a good ‘stepping stone’ for any age.
find a series of DVDs called “signing time”…send them with your daughter to the Nanny’s house. Not only will the nanny start to pick up some ASL, but if she watches it while the kids are around ALL of them will start picking up some ASL and may start translating what the nanny does not understand. They also make flash cards and board books for some of the more basic signs.
hope this helps