My 2 year old has been having hearing troubles for the past year which has made it difficult for him to hear and pick up on language. Since he is 2 and can’t communicate with us, we are trying to learn sign so we can help him express what he wants. He has picked up on it pretty well so far, he is able to sign more, please, help, drink, candy all within a period of a month, so I am really glad that we’ll be able to help, but I was wondering how hard it was for you to learn yourself and teach your child how to learn sign language. I’m not sure how I should be teaching him either…should I be saying “do you want to eat?” or just “eat”. Or “Let’s go to bed” or just ‘bed’? Any advice would be great if you have any expierence in the matter.
Thanks!
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I studied sign language for a few years. I found that I was able to learn it pretty quickly and easily sign to deaf people. However, it took me a long time and a lot of practice to be able to comprehend sign language. I still can sign much better than I can understand it. You need to start signing to your son as soon as possible. Children with hearing loss will be language delayed if they are not exposed to language. As long as you are working on it, and it sounds like you are, I wouldn’t worry about it.
As far as your question about “do you want to eat?” or saying “eat. Keep in mind that sign language is a bit different grammatically than spoken English. To ask the question, you could sign, “you want eat” and raise your eyebrows to indicate that you are asking a question. Don’t worry about teaching him sign, just worry about learning sign and speaking to him in sign as best you can. As long as he is exposed to the language, you can learn together. Also, don’t be afraid to fingerspell words you don’t know. He won’t be able to fingerspell back to you for sometime, but they do learn the shape of fingerspelled words and he will start to understand what you are saying even though he can’t spell yet.
How hard it is depends on the child, but most children that age are eager to be able to communicate so he should be able to pick up the signs pretty easy with some repetition. It may take a little bit for the sign to be associated with its meaning, but once it “clicks” he will add it to his vocabulary.
As for how you should sign, how much sign knowledge do you have? If you have the ASL vocabulary to sign full sentences, you should, just as parents of hearing children speak full English sentences, even if the child doesn’t fully understand the language. Don’t worry too much about ASL grammar if you’re just trying to learn the signs – “you want eat” or “go-to bed” are fine. The important thing is to expose your son to as much sign as possible.
If you haven’t already discussed it with your doctor or social services agency, check to see if there is some sort of program in your area to help your son and you learn sign faster so his language can progress so he can catch up with his peers. Please also educate yourself on things like Deaf culture and the history of the Deaf community – I’m sure right now it may feel like all loss, but your son is also gaining a part in a proud community with a strong heritage. Your state may have a Deaf school that can give you more information about the Deaf community in your area.
Feel free to send me an e-mail if you want to talk more!
Well I don’t know allot of sign language but I know enough to be able to communicate easily. I had a friend and also my brother-in-laws parents were death and went to a club with people with deafness or hard of hearing went and I seemed to pick it up. I would suggest talking fully like lets go to bed instead of just bed and then he will learn 4 words instead of 1.
I do pretty well on everything except for word order. It wasn’t very hard for me. As for kids, I don’t have any but have babysat two that I used sign with. I taught them using Signing Time. One has autism, and doesn’t sign at all. He does use some signs to stim, though. I just started teaching the second one with Signing Time last night. She and I watched two ST DVDs. On the first one, she just watched for the first half. After that, she was signing along with that episode and the next one we watched. When the episode would teach a sign, I would model it as well.
Just make sure you’re signing correctly (maybe not with correct grammar and syntax and stuff, but you can add that gradually as you learn more). Also, he may not do signs exactly “right”, but just model the correct sign and he’ll get it. Also, if you can, become friends with Deaf people or get a Deaf mentor. Communicating with people who know the language will help you learn it faster.
And if you can get Signing Time, do it. It is such a fun and easy way to learn ASL vocabulary for anybody, any age, even though it’s designed for kids. You might be able to find the videos in your local library and they’re offering all the Baby Signing Time videos on YouTube Rentals for 2.99 per 3 days (and they have other YouTube videos for free). I have a link to some Signing Time pages in my sources list.
You have a lot of very good information from others so far. If there is a hearing loss, keep in mind that many Deaf/Hard of hearing children start in Deaf pre-school programs (not daycare, actual programs through special ed districts) at 3 years old. I worked in one and had several students come into the class knowing absolutely no signs. Within weeks they were having 3 year old conversations.
My first question would be, have you actually seen an audiologist? If so, they should be able to give you resources in your area. If not, go see one. Second, contact the school district in your area and ask them about the Deaf Ed program for your area. If they don’t have one, ask for someone in Special Ed. As someone else said, contact the Deaf Residential School for your state. Even if you decide that’s not a fit for your family, it’s a great resource.
Another great resource would we NAD (National Associaton of the Deaf). I’m sure they can help. Their website is nad.org (I don’t think anyone gave that yet 🙂 )
Good luck!