Baby Sign Language – Bubbles Song

American Sign Language signs have shown to be helpful in increasing communication among children and helping with their learning abilities. It can also be a fun way to interact with your child or students. They are learning better communication, while having fun. Songs are a great way to get children involved and excited about learning signs.

Since it is summertime, bubbles are very popular among young children. You can integrate this fun activity into a song. For this song, you will need to sign bubbles, ocean/sea, rainbow, and come back. To sign bubbles, open and close your pointer fingers and thumbs while moving your arms upward as if the bubbles are floating. Ocean and sea are the same sign. You will form a W with your three middle fingers and touch your hand to your chin (the sign for water). This is followed by making a forward wave motion with both of your hands. To sign rainbow, start with the tips of your fingers touching and then open them in opposite ways. Come back is signed by the gesture you are already familiar with and probably use frequently.

This particular song is sung to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” and here are the lyrics you can learn and teach to your child: My bubbles flew over the ocean My bubbles flew over the sea My bubbles flew over the rainbow Oh come back my bubbles to me Come back, come back Oh come back my bubbles to me, to me Come back, come back Oh come back my bubbles to me This will be a fun song to teach at home to your child or in the classroom with students. With the warm weather, they will have fun singing and signing with you. You can even blow real bubbles with them before, during and afterwards, and enjoy the beautiful weather!

For more ideas on signing with your baby, visit http://www.babysignlanguageonline.com/blog

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Will Teaching My Baby Sign Language Delay His Speech?

by Christina Schabow, owner Baby Sign Language in Play (Portland, Oregon)

This is by far one of the most common questions I get from parents: Will teaching my baby to sign delay his speech?

As a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) I love to answer this question! A good deal of research has been done to address this and has shown us that babies who sign do not have an increased risk of delayed speech/language. In fact, research indicates that many babies who sign actually go on to have early, advanced speech.  Let’s take a look at why this is so:

1) SIGNING IS NATURAL – If you think about it, babies learn naturally to gesture. They throw their hands up in the air to indicate “up”, they clap to indicate “I like that!”, they point to express “I want that”. Signing with a baby expands on this already present intuitive means of early communication.

2) SIGNS ARE A BRIDGE TO SPEECH – Much like crawling is to walking, gesturing/signing is to speech. Crawling is a natural first step enabling a baby to explore her world before she is ready to walk. Signing empowers your child to communicate before she is ready to talk. Babies don’t decide to forgo walking because they already have a method of moving around — when their bodies are ready, they will walk! A point in time comes when walking is easier and more effective than crawling. The same is true for signing and speech. Ultimately when your baby is ready, speech will be easier and more effective than signing. Just as babies gradually move from crawling to walking, signing babies eventually transition from signing to speaking.

3) SIGNING READIES A BABY FOR SPEAKING – Oh how I love to think about, write about, chat about the many ways signing prepares a baby for speaking. Signing families are very focused on communicating and thus spend a great deal of time in face-to-face, language-rich interactions with baby. As parents are teaching their baby signs, they use lots of repetition of both the signs AND the spoken words (speaking & signing should happen simultaneously). They talk about the objects they are signing about, and repeatedly show these objects to baby, demonstrating how those objects are used to keep the baby’s interest. All this practice with language and words results in signing babies having broad receptive vocabulary knowledge. The rest is like dominoes: The earlier a child understands a sign the sooner he can use the sign, the more signs he uses the more words he can speak when his little mouth, tongue and lips are ready! It also should be said that signing babies have the advantage of participating in give-and-take conversations much earlier than babies who don’t sign. This too readies a child for spoken communication. All of these things come together to lay the foundation for speech. It’s like all of the pieces are ready and waiting and as soon as a baby is able, speech will take off!

Certainly there are times when even a signing toddler has delayed speech. But it’s NOT likely the signing that has caused this. In fact, for the reasons stated above, one of the first things a SLP will do with a child who is late to talk is teach them to sign! And for those families who do have a child with delayed speech, I encourage you to think about the ultimate goal of signing and speech: COMMUNICATION. I can assure you that many a family with a late-talking, signing child has thanked their lucky stars that their child could express himself in some way, alleviating so much frustration from breakdowns in communication.

Ultimately, signing will NOT cause your baby to have delayed speech. It WILL be one of the best things you do to help prepare your baby for talking!

Christina Schabow has her Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology and is a baby sign language instructor in Portland Oregon..

Obama seeks momentum from Russia arms pact signing

Obama seeks momentum from Russia arms pact signing
President Barack Obama leaves on Wednesday for Prague where he will sign a landmark nuclear treaty with Russia, marking a much-needed diplomatic achievement and a step toward better ties with Moscow.

Read more on Reuters via Yahoo! News

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Deaf Culture Uncovered

In 1965, Deaf Culture was first recognized as a real culture. That was only forty years ago. William Stokoe, Carl Croneberg, and Dorothy Casterline were the ones who introduced the culture of the Deaf to the world. They wrote the Dictionary of American Sign Language and included information about the thriving culture of the Deaf.

Before the Dictionary of American Sign Language was published, people involved in the medical field and deaf education only saw deaf people in terms of their deafness or hearing loss. They never would have though that Deaf people had their own culture.

Carol Padden defines a culture as: learned behaviors of a group of people who share a language, rules for behavior, traditions, and values. Deaf culture fits this definition just like every other culture in the world. They have a language, values, rules for behavior, and traditions.

Language

American Sign Language is the language of choice for the members of the culture of the Deaf. If you are not fluent in American Sign Language, you are not part of this culture.

American Sign Language is a real language just like any other language. William Stokoe was the first to publish the truth about ASL–that it has its own structure, grammar, and syntax separate from English.

ASL is a real language and is the natural language of the Deaf.

Values

American Sign Language is the most valued in Deaf culture. Speech and spoken English do not compare to the natural language of the deaf. Even if a deaf person can read lips, comprehension is no where near that of ASL.

The preservation of ASL is also a value in the culture of the Deaf. Sign systems have been invented to try to help deaf children learn English. These systems include Signed English, Cued Speech, and Sign Supported Speech, to name a few. These systems are not supported in Deaf culture and are not even languages. These systems have deprived deaf children of learning their true language and the ability to communicate naturally.

Not speaking is a value in the culture of the deaf. Because speech is often forced on deaf children, it represents deprivation and confinement to a Deaf adult. If you are hearing, know ASL, and are around a Deaf friend, turning and speaking to someone else leaves the Deaf person out and is incredibly rude.

Socializing is highly valued in the culture of the Deaf. When you are deaf, having a social life is very important because there are usually very few Deaf people in a community. In a hearing world, having Deaf friends is necessary for support. Before text messaging phones, Deaf people would only communicate with their deaf friends through letters or in person. Today, Deaf people still take advantage of the time they have with their Deaf friends. They will stay at a gathering for hours and leave very late. Long goodbyes are more than common.

The members of the culture of the Deaf also value the literature of their culture. These are stories and cultural values that are passed down through signed communication. Deaf culture also has its own art, stories, poetry, theatre, jokes, games, and books. These avenues teach about Deaf culture and Deaf pride.

Rules for Behavior

It is not rude to stare in this culture. Not staring is actually rude in this culture. When someone is signing to you, if you break eye contact, you are very rude.

Facial expressions are required when you are signing. Some non-manual behaviors are part of ASL grammar.

When you introduce yourself in Deaf culture, you use your full name. Deaf people also ask each other for information about where they’re from (what city they grew up in), what school they went to (what residential school they attended), etc. The Deaf community is very small, so they try to find these commonalities with each other early in their introductions.

Deaf people also label themselves in different ways. People in hearing culture tend to label deaf people by their hearing loss–hard of hearing, hearing impaired, etc. In hearing culture, being hard of hearing is seen as better than being deaf. These labels are viewed the exact opposite in the culture of the Deaf. Deaf people call themselves one thing and one thing only when they are part of this culture–Deaf. The term “Deaf” has nothing to do with the degree of hearing loss. Using the term “hard of hearing” is actually viewed negatively in the culture of the Deaf. Using it makes it look like you think you’re better than everyone else (because that’s how it’s viewed in hearing culture). Using the term “hearing impaired” insinuates that you think there is something wrong with deaf people and that they desire to be “fixed.” This is actually the opposite of what members of the culture of the Deaf believe; they are Deaf and proud! The terms “deaf” (“little d”) and “Deaf” (“big D”) are also used and have much different meanings. “Little d” refers to someone who cannot hear while “big D” refers to someone who is part of Deaf culture and shares the language, values, behaviors, and traditions of that culture.

Deaf culture is a real culture just like any other. If you want to gain a better understanding of the culture of the Deaf, you need to know about the history of sign language. You can also learn American Sign Language for free at http://www.start-american-sign-language.com.


Michelle J. has a Bachelor’s degree in Deaf Studies from California State University, Northridge. She has a passion for American Sign Language and Deaf Culture and wishes to share her passion with the world for free on her website.


Wilcox, Sherman (ed.) (1989). American Deaf Culture: An Anthology. Linstok Press, Inc.

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Obama calls nuke terrorism the top threat to US

Obama calls nuke terrorism the top threat to US
Rewriting America’s nuclear strategy, the White House on Tuesday announced a fundamental shift that calls the spread of atomic weapons to rogue states or terrorists a worse threat than the nuclear Armageddon feared during the Cold War.

Read more on AP via Yahoo! News

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Can learning sign language help me learn other (spoken) languages easier?

I was thinking that maybe learning sign language would not only help me communicate with the deaf, but also help me learn languages like italian and French faster. Like if I’m learning the french word for Car I can sign car at the same time and I’ll remember what the word means. I don’t know just a thought. Anyone know?
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An overview on sign language linguistics

Sign language is a rule-governed language that has its own grammatical rules and symbol system. As such, it meets all the requirements of spoken languages abolishing any dispute as to whether it is really a language or not. The work of William C. Stokoe Jr. ‘Sign Language Structure’ (1960) is the first linguistic analysis of sign language that has actually formed the basis on the later field of research.

Functioning exactly like human languages, sign language substitutes acoustic sounds for hand movements, facial expressions and body postures, forming individual signs of communication. In spoken languages, people use vowels and consonants to form parts and they identify with sound units to form minimal pairs. By using minimal pairs, in effect, they change sounds and they give different meanings to words. For instance, they can spell ‘fit’, ‘sit’, or ‘bit’ and mean three different, unique things. In sign language, instead of using vowels and consonants, parts are formed by hand movements, handshapes, and hand locations. To form a whole new word with a whole new meaning, signers change the location or the movement of a sign since they do not have sounds to spell. Therefore, the most important point that distinguishes sign language from spoken languages is the fact that each sign is formed by a unique combination of a hand movement, handshape, and hand location ranging from the use of simple to more complex ones.

Similarly to spoken languages that words are pronounced differently depending on the geographic location or the background of people, sign language has also the same type and range of variation. Research has identified regional, ethnic, gender and age variations in sign language.

Regional variations are mostly related to how signers from different regions of the U.S. or from different countries of the world use different signs to articulate meanings such as ‘birthday’, ‘Christmas’ or ‘ Halloween’.

Ethnic variations are related to how signers of different racial or ethnic descent sign. For instance, Black signers from the South sign differently than White signers from the South.

Gender variations are related to how male signers use different forms of sign than female signers.

Age variations are related to how older signers sign differently than younger signers.

Another linguistic consideration of sign language that is similar to spoken language is the sentence type. In spoken languages, the speaker uses different intonation to distinguish between a question, a statement or a command. Similarly, in sign language, the signer uses different signs to indicate grammatical information that conveys the meaning of a statement, command, or any other type of sentence.

Without any doubt, sign language is a self-governing linguistic system that demonstrates all the characteristics and the complex structure of spoken languages. Anyone who is interested in learning the true grammar and syntax of sign language, there are quite some interesting degrees offered by esteemed universities such as Gallaudet University, Boston University and University of New Mexico.

I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.

Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.

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Learning Baby Sign Language

    Have you ever looked at your newborn baby, and wondered why are you crying so much today? I think all parents have. Now there is a new way to communicate with your child at a very early age. Babies as young as 6 months old can learn to do baby sign language. This can be very helpful to you and your newborn through the early stages of your child’s life.

    Baby signing can improve your baby’s language and communication skills, therefore increasing your baby’s IQ. Teaching baby signs to your baby can help reduce tantrums and strengthen the parent/baby bond which will lead to more confidence and higher self-esteem. Your baby will be able to tell you when they are hungry or thirsty, and if they want orange juice or milk for breakfast.

    Your baby will naturally try to communicate with you from birth, and will start almost as soon as they are born with eye contact, and after that, facial expressions. By teaching baby signs to your newborn you will be giving him the basic tools to communicate in a meaningful way. By six months babies can develop the motor skills needed to make signs and by 7-8 months your babies memory will have developed enough to use these signs consistently. Normally once your baby learns the first few signs, they will pick up n the next ones more quickly. Another question alot of people have is if the baby is using signs all the time, will it delay their speech? Experts say that the opposite is true, and it actually speeds up the speech process. Knowing what i know now about Baby Sign Language, i think it should be something that every parent would want to consider.

Baby Sign Language

   

 

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