I have an 18 month old who is behind in his speech development and the therapist has started him learning sign language. My question is….will this slow down his speech even more because he can now communicate with sign instead of speaking? He is picking up on the signs very quickly. He seems less stressed and happier.
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it won’t as long as you make him say what he is signing. ask him to say a couple of the words at first then work him up to say every word.
personally I think that if he is being able to communicate with people he should be fine, or speaking what you are signing to him. He may also pick up speaking later in life. But that is just what I think.
i teach all of my children sign language. it won’t slow him down as long as you teach him to say the words while signing.
Baby sign language is great, I wouldn’t worry about it slowing down his speaking .. While you or your well-meaning friends and family may fear that signing will retard your infant’s ability to speak, teaching them to sign will undoubtedly help them to say their first words.
Children associate symbols with sounds and meaning. It is amazing to see a child learn to read by using hand gestures.
Not only will signing help your child learn new words, they will be able to communicate effectively and have her thoughts and feelings understood.
Good luck and have fun!
i am doin the same thing and as long as u are sayin the words with the sign then the child will learn both
if your child is less stressed does it really matter????
it sounds like it is working great for you guys all around
best of luck
best place to learn sign is borntosign.com
My now 19 month old daughter had not said even one word at 15 months and we started signing with her and she became a much happier baby. We always make sure to say the word along with the sign. We, too, feared that it would only delay her speech but as the others have posted, it seems to have given her the missing piece and she is now saying her first words and seems to be adding several new words a day. She even responded to me today when I asked her what she was doing she said ‘eating book’ which is exactly what she was doing. She was chewing on one of her baby books. I was truly amazed at how quickly she started talking. My favorite videos that I watched with her were the signing times and the einstein signing. They both are wonderful and she would watch them over and over. I bought two copies and kept one in the van constantly playing while running the older siblings all over town for practices, play dates and such. We are hardly even using our signs now as she is talking so much. Best of luck to you!
Have him sign and talk at the same time i know that will be hard for him but i think if you learn sign language as well it will help him in the long run look at it this way its kinda like he can speak 2 languages and when he gets older if he will use it they are always looking for interpreters
Its good to use both speech and sign language…. My son and me communicate better now that he can do both, and he is only 18 months old… I find it easier to use both cuz he doesn’t always know what to say to get the things he needs or wants…I would use the sigh language but encourage speech as well….
My nephew learned signing before he spoke and did fine with his speech.
No, learning sign language will only help his language and communication skills. I work with children with language/speech delays, and we incorporate signing with everything we do, from songs to commands. It is great that he is picking up the signs quickly, since that shows that there is not a problem with the receptive language skills he possesses. With signing, he will be able to develop his expressive language- perhaps not in spoken words, but in signing. That is great!! Children who learn signing to communicate fade out the signing as they learn the speech sounds for those words. I signed to my daughter starting when she was around 9 months old. By 11 months she had a “vocabulary” of around 10 words… way more than the typical almost-one-year-old is expected to have. As she gradually was able to speak the words, the signs faded away. She is now a precocious three-year-old, and speaks in 10-17 word sentences, tells stories, and makes up her own jokes. This process happens just as with crawling to walking. The easier, less time consuming method naturally starts taking over as the child gains that skill. As you’ve noticed, your child is happier and has less frustration now that he has signs to be able to communicate his needs/wants. The more signs he learns, the better communication skills he will have to build on for speech. Children who learn signs are less stressed, and are then able to focus on learning to speak, since they aren’t so frustrated about communicating their needs. So, join in and learn the signs so that you, too, can be a good communicator! : )
No, absolutely not. In fact, it will probably speed up the language. I would talk also to the speech therapist about pictures. Pictures can also elicit language without requiring the use and memorization of all those signs. Signs are also transient (that is they come and then go) just like language is. A picture can stay in the environment longer and encourage even more language. However, the answer to your question is no, it is not likely to slow down his speech development, and is in fact, more likely to help it.
It most likely won’t affect his speech development all that much. Occasionally, kids can be a little behind — temporarily — by being raised bilingual, like speaking Spanish and English fluently at home, or one at home and one at school.
However, I don’t think sign language would cause the same delay.
Regardless, if he’s already behind, this is giving him a means to be expressive and understood, and the effect is clear — “he seems less stressed and happier.” Trying to teach a very cranky, frustrated baby ANYTHING, much less speech that he’s just not getting, is not going to speed things along.
Absolutely not. It will only supplement his ability to communicate with you and make him less frustrated. How wonderful that he is able to sign! When my son who has childhood apraxia of speech was that age we tried supplementing with sign language and he wasn’t able to pick up more than a few signs. For great answers on all your speech disorder questions especially childhood apraxia of speech visit CASANA’s website (Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America) at http://www.apraxia-kids.org. They have tons of research, information, and a great e-community. Feel free to email me too if you have any more questions. I run a parent support group for children with speech disorders.
you will be amazed at how quickly he starts using sign language in his everyday life! i teach the two’s class at my daycare and teach sign language in my class. the kids love it. sometimes, the two’s find it easier to communicate with their hands when they can’t get their message across verbally. i have found the site below to be most helpful because it uses video instead of just pictures. good luck and happy signing! :)http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
Yes it can slow down his speech, if you don’t use speech with the sign. As you make the sign you need to make sure you are speaking it clearly. However some children will continue to go slow speech wise, because now they don’t have to use it. We always wanted until 2-3 years before we would start sign. Usually by this time they are using their words. I have an 18 month old now who only says about 5 words and I have a 15 month old who is say over 90 words. At 18 months it is hard to say they are having trouble, because next month they could be saying over 40 words.