Please Note: While I no longer
offer classes in infant signing, I continue to be an enthusiastic
supporter, and provide this FAQ for general information purposes.
Frequently Asked Questions
About teaching sign
language to infants
.
How Can This
Work? Babies Usually Don't Speak Until Well Into The Second
Year of Life?
Babies can understand language
and other forms of communication long before they are able to
speak speech is a challenging and complex skill to master,
but there is comprehension from a very early age. Signing takes
advantage of that level of comprehension, and babies' natural
curiosity and wish to grow, and gives them tools to leverage
that comprehension into something useful.
How Old Should
My Child Be When I Begin Signing With Them? How Long Will It
Take For My Child To Sign Back?
There is no harm in beginning
from birth, if you have the knowledge of signs already. The SIGN
with your BABY program suggests that beginning at around
6-7 months is optimal; your baby's memory is ready to learn signs
at around 6 months, and the motor skills necessary come along
at about 7 months. Most babies can begin showing signs at 8 or
9 months, depending on how long parents have been working on
signing with them. There is never a time when it is too late
to start signing even toddlers who have speech enjoy it.
My Signing Together classes start when your baby is around 6
months old.
Does Signing
Interfere With Normal Language Development?
Not at all; in fact, babies who
sign tend to have larger vocabularies and speak earlier than
babies who don't.
I Already
Have Two Languages In My Home; Will ASL Complicate This?
Many students have found that ASL
is a good bridge between the two languages; you can use the same
sign with the two different words in the two different languages.
Also, ASL signs can give a common language to grandparents who
don't share a spoken language, making it easier to connect with
their grandchild.
My Child
Is In Full-Time Childcare Is It Worth It For Me To Initiate
Signing With Them?
Signing is perhaps even more helpful
for a child in full-time childcare. First, because it enhances
bonding between parent and child, it can help make up for the
shortened time together. Second, most caregivers are very happy
to be given a tool to enhance their understanding of what the
children they care for are wanting. A parent can show the caregiver
what signs the baby has, and the caregiver can learn to use them
even a few signs can make a world of difference.
What Is The
Difference Between ASL (AMERICAN SIGN LANGUGE), SEE (Signed Exact
English) and Babysigns?
ASL is a genuine language
it has developed naturally, and is its own complete method of
communicating. ASL signs often contain information that would
correspond to entire phrases in English, making it a very compact
way to communicate. ASL does not have many of the little connector
words that we use in English, such as "and","the"
and "or", nor does it use the same word order (syntax)
that English does. One advantage to using ASL signs with your
baby is that there is a common vocabulary that they may share
with others in other settings.
SEE uses
a sign to represent every word in spoken English, including verb
endings, plurals and conjunctions. SEE was developed to bridge
the gap for deaf or hard-of-hearing children who were expected
to learn to speak later on in life, and would benefit from an
early exposure to English before they learn to speak. SEE is
not its own language, and is considered cumbersome by many.
"Baby
Signs" refers to the system of teaching signs to
babies put forward by Drs. Accredolo and Goodwyn. Their system
uses a combination of genuine ASL signs and simpler, more baby-friendly
signs. The advantage to this approach is that parents may feel
freer to invent their own signs. This system also focuses only
on the period of time before the child uses spoken language,
and does not seek to extend signing beyond that.
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Please contact
Mika
Gustavson 408-375-9635 or securebeginnings@pacbell.net
for more
information.
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