Years ago I read about the benefits of teaching babies sign language, in time to teach dd14 a couple of basic signs when she was about a year old. I didn’t really know many signs and my motivation to teach my infants wasn’t strong enough to push me to extend myself to learn more.
Enter the birth of my youngest, now 2.5. I knew that with a diagnosis of Trisomy 21, he was likely to experience communication difficulties. I decided to assist him in expressing himself rather than waiting for speech. At 14 months, when I began introducing early reading I also began introducing signs.
Neurodevelopmental therapists oppose teaching sign language to a child with T21, believing that the frustration to want to express oneself encourages a better degree of clarity in speech later on. I trust their many years of experience but I’m not willing to withhold a way for my child to communicate now for the sake of later gains. Every person wants and needs to be able to communicate with others, and deserves to be given the tools to succeed. Especially children for whom it’s more of a struggle than others.
There are plenty of benefits to using sign language for all young children. Young children understand so much more than they’re able to express, and giving them ways to let you know what they want is very helpful to you both. Sign language encourages language comprehension, fine motor skills and is cognitively stimulating.
It’s not hard to learn basic signs. I’ve learned a number of signs from the Signing Times website; when I needed others, I looked them up at Signing Savvy. The Signing Savvy site has a much wider vocabulary of words but the video quality can’t compare to that of Signing Times. They’re both great free resources.
Yirmiyahu is limited to the signs he learns by what signs I learn. Recently a while went by and I kept telling myself I needed to look up more words and not getting to it. So I began considering buying signing dvds for him to watch. When I looked into this, I learned that Signing Times has a digital subscription option – with a free monthly trial that gives unlimited access to the programs they have available. So I signed up!
So far we’re enjoying this a lot. There are several series that include Baby Signing Times and Signing Times. Each series has a number of programs that are grouped according to topic and taught together with songs. The program host has an engaging and fun way of presenting the signs and is extremely clear. Our boys ages 5, 7 and 8 are enjoying watching with Yirmiyahu and me, which is really nice. They’re learning the signs and that’s helpful so that they aren’t dependent on me to translate what Yirmiyahu is ‘saying’. And they can also help me translate when I’m not remembering what sign Yirmiyahu is using! (Yirmi has a better memory than I do!:))
When the host introduces a sign, on the opposite side of the screen is a picture of what she’s demonstrating along with the word written out. This reinforces Yirmiyahu’s reading program, which has many of the same words.
Another thing I really appreciate is that the children in the programs are diverse and reflective of children in the real world. They include a number of children with Down syndrome and other disabilities; children with disabilities are usually shut away from others and having them portrayed as naturally as any other kid is extremely important.
Watching these programs has made it easier and more fun to learn signs. I don’t know yet if I’ll sign up for a subscription when my trial runs out but I’m certainly enjoying the access that we have now!
Avivah
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