Advice for new parents

That is awesome that they come to your home! I find it so helpful to be able to ask questions as they come up. Good luck with the implantation. We are seeing that signing is still so beneficial to our son. He is doing very well with both, I think. He likes to sign and likes to learn with sign, so we mostly speak and sign, unless his processor is off, like in the car or bath or around bedtime, then we sign everything. But, he is starting to sing songs, and has probably 20 spoken words used in the proper time, and is really starting to mimic what we say. One thing that we do, (unless we are in our therapy sessions where he has to talk), is when we need a response, like asking "more please", "all done", "hi" and "bye", we don't wait for one or the other, either spoken or sign will get him what he wants, so that he feels that communication is more important than the method. I also don't force the totally correct speech, but the attempt and the right approximation. Just speaking instead of screaming will get the job done as well. That is what is working for us right now, who knows how that will change as we go along.
 
I have a friend whose daughter has much bigger delays, both cognitively and physically, and how thankful I am that this communication thing is what we have to bridge.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, I know what you mean. I have a genetic disorder that can cause very significent cognitive delays, and it just baffles me that parents of kids with relatively mild issues can get so upset about those issues.
 
So just a quick update for anyone paying attention. We visited the ASL program this morning and I was very impressed. Granted we were there for 45 min, and the class was busy, but there was 1 deaf and 1 hearing teacher in the class, and both used ASL to communicate with all the kids. They are revamping their preschool and early childhood program for next year, and at the very least they have a once a week, or once every other week time for 2 year olds to get together that I think we will join in on. They gave me the same response as most of you, that learning sign as a base can build a better language for both English and ASL, so once a week is an easy commitment.
 
Cole's mom said:
So just a quick update for anyone paying attention. We visited the ASL program this morning and I was very impressed. Granted we were there for 45 min, and the class was busy, but there was 1 deaf and 1 hearing teacher in the class, and both used ASL to communicate with all the kids. They are revamping their preschool and early childhood program for next year, and at the very least they have a once a week, or once every other week time for 2 year olds to get together that I think we will join in on. They gave me the same response as most of you, that learning sign as a base can build a better language for both English and ASL, so once a week is an easy commitment.
Click to expand...

Glad your visit was so successful. You and Cole are on your way to true communication!
 
Back
Top