Baby sign language

[pk]

My boy was just getting into signing when he learned to speak instead - but his nursery carried on with Makaton and he signed loads, now he's at school they're not so hot on it, and he's learning French instead, but babies can do the signing way before they can speak if you are dedicated enough.

Mrs M has some great links to info and resources... don't you Mrs M?

 

[Poot]

That's just called overtired. Leave him in a quiet darkened room and pour yourself a stiff drink.

That's my 7.30 ritual!

I wonder what the sign for "Mummy's off to the pub" is...

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I can sign that pk!

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Mrs M has some great links to info and resources... don't you Mrs M?

British Deaf Association is a good start.......

 

[pk]

I'm not sure... He still throws a strop when I put him in his highchair even when he's clearly very hungry and will fight sleep by physically bashing me and screaming as I try to rock him, even when he can't keep his eyes open!

You definitely need to leave him well alone if he's acting up like that - he needs his space and quiet time just as much as he needs his cuddles and giggles!!

If he's bashing you, that behaviour can't be rewarded with attention.

 

[toggle]

With hindsight, I think it would have benefited my, late to start talking, first child. My second was talking far earlier, and had far fewer tantrums, I think because she can explain what she wants. If I coukd go back 8 years, I would have taught some form of sign to my son, however, hindsight being 20/20 and all that........

 

[Poot]

You definitely need to leave him well alone if he's acting up like that - he needs his space and quiet time just as much as he needs his cuddles and giggles!!

If he's bashing you, that behaviour can't be rewarded with attention.

He's always asleep within 20 seconds. He doesn't get attention, I just hold him still and firmly so he can't lash out and he's out like a light! I can tell when he's building up to it and prefer to nip it in the bud.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Forgot to put in a link earlier....

www.british-sign.co.uk/index1.htm

 

[Mation]

I know for a fact I could understand speech long before I could form understandable language (there's a post...look for grandfather and thunder.... a long way back

Bugger - can't find it. What's the story?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

When I was in my late 30s my grandfather came to stay and we were talking about this and that. I said I had a recurring dream that he and storms featured in, but in a place I didn't know. I described how he lifted me from a cot with a really terrible storm going on and took me to the window and talked soothingly about the thunder and the wind how it was nothing to worry about and how the loud bangs were because of the flashes of lightning etc and how I felt really calm and interested in the storm....he asked me to describe the room exactly which I did and it turned out it wasn't a dream at all but had really happened in a house that my parents had left before i was a year old. He'd come to visit and because of the ferocity of the storm, he'd had to stay. A local woman and her children had been killed by a falling tree and he was able to pinpoint this incident which had really happened. I was ten months old and was on a short visit because I'd been living with my great-granny and granny because my mother was very ill.

 

[Mation]

That's lovely!

 

[thought]

The research i have seen, has suggested that whilst it can slow down the original speach for a child, the long term advantages in so far as the child can communicate far ealier have only ever been advantageous.

I am not a mum who looks short term, I am interested in long term goals for my child, and having a HAPPY content child right now. Our daughter has some chronic food intollerances, which really make her uncomfy and put her in a lot of pain. From 9 months she was able to tell me exactly where the pain was. this enabled a far swifter pain relief, and us to eradicate "toxic" substances from her diet far faster than if we had remained waiting for her to "talk"

This for me is one of the main advantages of sign. She still uses it for words she finds hard to say. We encourage her to say the word, but at least at the time of her excitement, she is able to communicate what she wants, and we later help her say the word... elephant and tomato come to mind... :d

Iwill try and find the links i read, but it was over 24 months ago now.

 

[Cloo]

I know of a few people using this, including my nephew-in-law. His mum has found it quite helpful. I don't know if I personally would bother with it when I have kids, but it seems as though it can't be a bad thing to try it.

 

[Jonti]

Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language

This is a tremendously Good Idea, not only for the child, but, if it were general, as a way of removing social disabilty from the deaf. On Martha's Vineyard it was not such a great disability to be deaf, as everyone signed.

I'd like to see all schools across Europe teach Sign as a common language, for social reasons, and because to learn a gestural language is to learn a new way of thinking and expressing oneself.