I am officially obsessed with learning ASL! Every day I become more intrigued with sign language and I would love to learn to sign fluently. I have no idea how to do it on a limited budget but I am trying to figure it out.
E is doing well with her signing. However, I have noticed she is using the same sign for a few different things. Her sign for banana, water and up are all the same- a single pointer finger shooting into the air. I guess she is imitating what she sees me doing in her own way-but sometimes it make it tricky to figure out. She also signs milk when she sees a bottle even if it doesn't contain milk. So I am trying to help her see that milk is white! She isn't big into asking me for what she wants and I a thinking that it might be because I am always offering her things. I guess I should sit back and see if she comes to me for cheese or a cracker or milk or whatever.
E is not very verbal. Now I know there are some who think if you teach signing it will hinder speaking. This is NOT true and I don't think for even one second that signing will delay E. I actually believe that when she starts speaking it will be improved because of signing. We always say words when we sign anyway. I think if she didn't know signs there would be more head banging and frustration and not more talking.
I purchased some Signing Time videos for E and even though I am not big into TV I do LOVE these videos and she watches one a day- and some of the videos on YouTube. She goes over the computer room and dos the sign for boat because she wants to see this video! If you are not familiar with this series you should check it out and read the amazing story behind the show. I believe in teaching ASL to kids of all ages. I used to teach finger spelling in 4th, 3rd and Kindergarten in order to reinforce spelling.
Some people have asked me when I will stop using sign language with Eliza. I hope not for a long time. I plan to teach her the alphabet and to finger spell as soon as she is ready. I already sing the alphabet to her and sign the letters.
Signing Time has DVD's, D's, books, coloring pages and lost of other great stuff. There is also a message board which is very helpful!
I also want to say happy 12th Birthday to Leah! She is the inspiration behind the Signing Times series and also one of it's starts. She turned 12 on December 8th!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
I'm Obsessed!
Posted by Danielle at 12/10/2008
Labels: ASL, Baby Sign Language, Signing Time
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9 comments:
glad you've found something that works for the two of you
I LOVED signing with Tate too. And yep, now he talks, so signing is done, and like you said, it definitely did NOT hinder his talking skills at all! I'm super excited to start signing with Emily though!
WE only signed a little with Madison but I can't wait to sign with Stella. I also think Madison will have fun learning at the same time. Wait 'til you see the giveaway I have coming up soon. You are gonna flip!
When I did speech therapy with Dev delayed kids I had a little boy with DS who LOVED these videos. He learned SO much from them which is a little atypical of kids with DS to learn from a video, but it is phenomenal how much he picked up from them. I am all for signing early. Kids can communicate early, even though not "verbally" there are so many other forms of communication that people miss because they are waiting for "words" or "language" and what they don't realize is they are missing such great communication "time" with their kids. You are doing a great job D!
We're all about signing times at our household too. Wow I didn't know it was Leah's bday. I guess you're an even bigger fan than I am!
There are still a lot of fairly racist things in sign language. I am waiting for them to update it. Ex look up the sign for Chinese or Jewish
I love it when E signs! She's so cute!!
We love sign here too! Rebekah is doing quite well! I like you would like to be more fluent !!! Great post
When I was teaching the girls to sign I used this site a lot: http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
There's also a link at the bottom (Learn ASL) where you can sign up for a $50 online course which gives you 4 months of access. I was too crazy with the whole "OMG they're twins" thing to do it but it looked interesting.
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