when i was pregnant i wanted to teach him sign language, after he was born i completely forgot about it, just remembered yesterday. so anyway, i was wondering if anyone has taught thier kids? also i found this if anyones interested, http://www.born2sign.com
I don't have kids, but I'm learning sign language right now ... my prof used to teach at the "hearing parents with Deaf babies" program for the Canadian Hearing Society. He said that once kids reach about 5 or 6 months they'll really start picking it up.. and dang, kids learn so fast. Good luck, I'd be interested in hearing how it goes
one of the women at my biblestudy has taught her son (or is teaching him) she finds it better i guess because he is able to sign for things like juice so there is less guessing when he cries. i think he is around 6 mo.
thats so cool.. my baby just turned 3 months and he's so attentive to everything i do or say to him, iam starting to teach him milk and ít looks like he's really trying. its great
Jamaica, that's exactly what my prof was telling me ... that it makes it easier sometimes for parents, like knowing why their baby is fussy and crying..they can sign that their tummy hurts, or their hungry, or scared. Also, it's been shown that babies and toddlers who are introduced to another language have stronger cognitive skills, and has shown to help them learn other things once they start attending school.
I used a few baby signs with Dakota before he could talk. He would tell me if he wanted more or was all done and if he wanted a drink. It definitely cut down on the guessing games as to what he wanted. He's pretty verbal now so he doesn't use them any more. Kathi
yeah, we want to teach joey sign - i better get started soon or he'll be talking before i do! but for a hmmmm.... my hubby was wondering if when a person gets old, and their brain begins to lose its vocabulary, would they still be able to sign? especially if that was the first language they were taught - since when you lose verbal ability, first you lose any secondary languages. what do you think? thanks for the site, lemonhead
^^^^ If you mean like with Alzheimers, I guess they would lose their signs as well as their spoken language ... among everything else, of course.
I have used some sign language with Xander,he's been a little slow verbally and it has been really wonderful for him having a way to communicate his needs. Once at a playdate in the park he signed "I love you" to me and all the other moms were like "I need to teach mine that" because it was so sweet. He is using verbal words now,too.
I've never thought about teaching a baby sign language, but it's a great idea! I was a really quiet baby according to my parents so that probably would have helped them out alot. When I have children, I'm planning on bringing them up bilingual (English and Spanish) either by hiring a bilingual nanny who would only speak and respond to Spanish with them, or by only speaking Spanish to them myself up until they were at an age where they could distinguish between the two languages. Children pick up on languages so easily and soak it up like sponges up until they're about 12, though after that it stops clicking with most people (I'm one of the lucky few who can still pick up on languages with some ease, but only because I grew up reading at an early age and with various musical instruments to experiment with) so the earlier you can teach your child a language, the better.
I'm completely for signing with children. My three little ones know some basic sign language, and I think all of us have really enjoyed the experience. I became interested in signing way back when I was in elementary school, I begged my mother to buy me a sign language book on the basics and loved learning it. I'm pretty rusty, but I still remember some of it. My mother in law is also a sign language interpretor for the deaf children at the local schools. I've learned more by watching her sign, as she signs out of habit, even when she doesn't have any of her deaf students with her. My 5 year old son knows more signs than I do, because he picks up on the signing she does when she has deaf children over her house (there are three deaf children in her neighborhood, and they are over my MIL's house almost daily) when he spends the day with her. He's also really taken an interest in learning Spanish. Of course, I encourage all of that! I'm learning myself!
