sing and sign classes anyone? (sign language for babies)

Sadierhianne

I am aware that there is a difference between baby sign that they learn in classes and sign language - i used to work with deaf children although back then i wasn't expacted to know signlanguage - it is only in recent years that it has become something of importance almongst many parents and is very much a trend i think - an excellent one at that and so i hope that it is something that really takes off.

I have done basic baby sign with mine although they were such early talkers that it isn't particularly the baby sign that i am intersted in but rather sign language as a whole - the books that i bought from Chelltune are excellent and her advice via email has been excellent too, because i realise that there are so many different instances of sign and communication and after the posts on here - we all have different opinions and forums offer loads of different angles, anyway the advice that i was given was good and very informative.

I'd rather my children know some basic sign language - not necessarily all baby sign, i do think that it is going to be important to them at some stage. There is a little girl at Brownies who is partially deaf and uses sign - it's nice that my daughter can sign just a few words to her. She now wants to learn lots of sign and so i need the help to do this particularly as i find it very difficult to remember. Good resources and advice have been hard to find but now i have found a fab place to get that help - baby sign classes aren't suitable for us.

jellyhead

some of the signs we've learned are the same as BSL, and i actually had a conversation with my deaf stepsister this week, something i've never managed before - but she's 22 and tries all kinds of ways to communicate, so she will use some signs that aren't proper ones with people like me, and will try to understand people who get it 'wrong' too.

but my husband uses different signs (BSL) for quite a few of the major words which are the ones the baby is trying such as milk, more, all gone, dog so it can be confusing, i've had to tell him all the signs we've learned and keep reminding him which ones he does different. it makes more sense to him to carry on with BSL because the rest of the family use it and always will (with my sis) whereas sing and sign is just me and roo. we really enjoy it though. i can't decide, we love the sing and sign classes so much.

Chell

Jellyhead, have a look at the Child's Play range of books. They have a BSL range and a Makaton range. They would be fab for your DP and baby to share.

Lillibet_2

Jellyhead

There are a few people in my class who had already started using different signs with their babies before they started the class, either picked up from Tv or made up etc, our teacher says to use the ones you are used to & not mix the signs. It's OK during the class if a few people are using different signs for words, as long as you are focused on your baby & use them consistantly that is all that matters. Use the BSL if that is what you use at home, your teacher should surely have told you this or haven't you asked? Saying that, our teacher is very supportive & very good & knows several different versions of some of the signs, she teaches the "policy" ones for TinyTalk but can help others out if they have learnt differently before comming to her. She just says consistance is most important.

HTH;)

Chell

Sadierhianne wrote:

I am aware that there is a difference between baby sign that they learn in classes and sign language - i used to work with deaf children although back then i wasn't expacted to know signlanguage - it is only in recent years that it has become something of importance almongst many parents and is very much a trend i think - an excellent one at that and so i hope that it is something that really takes off.

Baby signing may seem like the latest craze but since signing began centuries ago babies of Deaf parents or those who have a Deaf older sibling have been exposed to sign language from a young age. The effects of this have been positive. It’s only in recent years that more research has been carried out, the benefits of signing with hearing babies has now been discovered.

Chell

Lillibet, I support a Deaf tutor teaching level 1/2 BSL. The fact that there are regional variations for signs is something that stumps adults.

With our children they are used to hearing several words meaning the same thing, I would imagine they would be fine with the odd word being signed in two different ways. With hearing babues we always speak while we sign so the clarification is there.

runragged_2

Interesting, I wish I'd done this with my little ones when they were babies.

Gingham_Ribbon

Jellyhead, I used baby sign with my lad and I will again with the next one. It completely changed how we spoke to each other from the age of about 7 months. I did it from books and we made a lot of our own signs up since it would just be us and close family using them so they didn't need to be standard.

You will not believe the difference it makes if you stick with it and use it a lot. When he was tiny, he told me he could see a giraffe bird. It was an ostrich. And he told me I looked like a duck when I had a piece of cardboard in my mouth. It was his first joke and he was well under a year old at the time. He could ask for milk by signing at 7 months too.

At one point, again, he was TINY, I was reading a book about a flying teddybear with him and I asked him what else he could think of that flies.
He told me (I can't remember exactly, but it was along the lines of) moon, sun, helicopter, balloons and rainbows. He couldn't talk. Some of it was signs and some of it was his own made up words that I understood (like balloon was simply making a puffing noise and moving his hand from his mouth, outwards as if he was holding a balloon that was getting bigger.)

To know that your child is making sense of the world like that, catagorising etc before they can talk. There is no gift like communication and I treasured those early times before verbal language came along.

You will love it! Enjoy! And pm me if I don't notice this thread again!

Chell

Gingham Ribbon, that is actually how you do the BSL sign for balloon. Many signs are as you would expect them to be.

jellyhead

we've signed up (chortle) for a second term at stage one and the instructor will be running stage 2 classes as from next term so we could go on to that too.

there are some little babies using signs there but roo is 15 months old and still only does one of the signs. another baby who is the same age as roo and is in his second term is also just using that one sign, and like roo it means 'i want', not just 'milk'. the instructor says that's fine, and that babies do sometimes generalise and use a sign for more than one thing, such as cat for anything with 4 legs (roo calls everything with 4 legs a dog, he's saying bab but he means dog). he'll get the hang of it eventually, or will talk, either is okay

some of the little ones are using lots of signs and are really communicating, other show no interest at all, they just like the singing and the toys.

roo loves going to the class, he likes the structure and seeing jessie cat each time, the instruments etc. even if he never signs he will have enjoyed the class. the songs are fun and we sing them at home too.

GR that's great that your little man could communicate so well :T there's a mum at our class whose boy of 2 or 3 has conversations/games with his little sister of 14 months old, they both sign so well. i don't know many other families where the little ones get on so well.