Too Late to Start Teaching Sign Language

Early Learning Teaching Your Child - Signing, Speaking, Languages
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where can we get free resources on baby sign language?

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http://www.lifeprint.com/

http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

http://www.signingtime.com/resources/activities/coloring-pages/

Here are a few free resources.

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I started early with my daughter but it wasn’t until around 10 months that we really took off. Now at 17 months she is signing tons of words and always wants more. Oh and it didn’t delay her speach in any way she just says the word at the same time as she is signing just like I do when teaching her.

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I would say it is never too late. I was totally inconsistent with doing signs with my son, but tried to do them at least during mealtime starting when he was about 6 months old. He signed “more” at about 10 months and around 12 months very consistently would sign “banana” or “apple” as well as a few other signs that I was actually fairly consistent with. It definitely helped me understand what he was trying to say. He is pretty verbal so I have to admit I got lazy with the signs around his first birthday because he was saying what he wanted. I’ve been thinking I want to start using more signs around him now (he just turned 2) to resurrect what I had started.

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When I was teaching my youngest sign language my other 5 kids joined right in. We love to sign and I couldn’t believe how much my older children enjoyed learning to sign. The oldest was around 11 at the time. They also love to teach other people how to sign as well. It is never too late. :slight_smile:

View my blog at www.teachingbabytoread.com

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I have a question. My daughter is a little over 1 1/2 and has been talking for a while but doesnt really talk talk. She actually says rhymes much better than she tries to talk. Can sign language be of any use to her? and should I use it anyways - just to encourage a sort of secret connection between us for later. Fact is, she already knows her alphabet (can read and recognise) and also her numbers. What happens in this case?
Any suggestions / advice?

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Reasons to teach sign other than first language acquisition:

  • it is another language of its own with its own vocab, culture, syntax

  • very helpful as a transition between two spoken languages: if a child knows sign for “shoe” it is easy to sign “shoe” silently while saying “xiezi” in chinese… the child will know immediately what you mean, without having to mix English in with the Chinese. Also practical for translating when someone else is talking ie in Chinese, as it is silent.

-excellent for communicating with child wherever raising the voice would be intrusive or impossible: noisy surroundings, during adult conversation, across a crowded room, from distance, while someone is sleeping: you can ask if they are hungry, tired, thirsty, understand what they want, all silently and don’t need to be able to hear, just see.

  • -child can communicate with hard of hearing and disabled children and adults, including friends, families and people they meet in public.

-learning gestures to go with language can help a child learn to communicate with people who don’t share his spoken language: we all know “byebye” by waving hands, but just thinking to gesticulate and make gestures opens up the mind to different communication methods. So many people go “he speaks Italian, I don’t… I guess I’ll just not try to talk to him”. Whereas gestures can open up dialogue even between people who can’t “talk”.

I wanted to teach my child sign when I saw an ASL translator speak in sign to her hearing children in a large group meeting. She communicated with them silently, and also across the room, and they could speak with deaf adults and kids as well.