ASL for hearing children

C

cjester27

New Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2003
Messages
177
Reaction score
0
Not sure if there's a thread for these kinds of articles, but here's a thread for articles about teaching hearing babies and young children ASL at a young age.

Here's a start:
From the newsroom of the San Jose Mercury New, San Jose, California, Sunday, October 5, 2003 .....

SIGNING NOT JUST FOR DEAF

By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News

A small group of South Bay families met at a Cupertino park Saturday for an unusual type of play group. They sang songs, played duck-duck-goose and read books to each other.

It was unusual because the youngsters squeezed each other's shoulders to indicate ``goose,'' wiggled their fingers to read ``Brown Bear,'' and
gestured with their hands to ``sing' the lyrics -- communicating without
uttering a word.

The children, mostly 1- and 2-year-olds, and their parents who gathered at Portal Park are part of a growing number of families using American Sign Language to communicate not because they are deaf but because they think it's the best way to talk with a child not yet able to speak.

Experts say toddlers can communicate with their hands about six months
before they can speak their first words. And doing so lessens the
frustration they experience when they want more milk (squeeze their fists) or want out of the highchair when they're done with dinner (waggle their hands).

No one's certain why signing for babies is a new fad, but Rachel de Azevedo Coleman, the 28-year-old mother of a deaf child, organizer of the play group and creator of the video series ``Signing Time,'' said she believes the reason is simple.

``Parents see that it works,'' said Coleman, who lives in Salt Lake City.
``Signing is not just for the deaf. It's for everybody.''

Coleman said signing helps reduce frustration that leads to tantrums because children don't have to whine or grunt what they want but are able, for example, to tell their parents they prefer milk to water by making a ``W'' and hitting their chin.

Coleman and other deaf teachers say it takes roughly one to two months to teach babies or 1-year-olds their first signs.

Months before he could speak, 2-year-old Ethan Hintz of San Jose shook his hands in the air while sitting in his highchair, alerting his parents,
Robert and Jane, he was through with his meal. He also used that sign while in line at the supermarket, signaling he was ``all done'' with the wait.

`It helps him communicate and tell us what he wants,'' Jane Hintz said.

Ethan started watching Coleman's video at a year old and gestured his first sign two months later. Today, he has a verbal vocabulary of about 100 words and knows about 40 signs.

Coleman said she has sold 35,000 copies of the video to places as far away as Japan and Malaysia since last year. She's done little marketing; sales have mostly been by word of mouth.

The idea for the signing video came out of necessity. Coleman, a musician in a folk/pop band called ``We The Living'' discovered her daughter was deaf at 14 months old. She and her husband, Aaron, 31, who used to work at a youth center for the city of Los Angeles, began learning American Sign Language. Within six months, Leah's signing vocabulary surpassed that of hearing children the same age, Coleman said. Coleman's sister, Emilie de Azevedo Brown, who used to live next door to her when they lived in Studio City, taught her son, Alex, sign language so he could talk with his cousin.

The two sisters saw how great it was for both kids to communicate. And they decided to produce a sign-language video together. They thought it would also be a boon for children with disabilities. Coleman gave birth to a second daughter, Lucy, 3, who has spina bifida and cerebral palsy. Lucy can speak and use sign language.

Copyright 2003 San Jose Mercury New
Click to expand...
 
yeah.. Hearing child or deaf child or hard of hearing child learn to Speak ASL before they use their voice.. instering fact.. Their IQ increase..

i have seen many parents don't have any deaf person in their family but they do teach them signs before they can accually speak out loud.
 
I've seen hearie friends who had deaf parents who are fluent in ASL. They are often deaf advocate and support ASL as deaf culture's language, yet their english are also fluent. They realize ASL as "spoken" language and respect deaf's own writing which doesn't conform to english grammar. They are often to our advantage, giving us the ability to communicate with outer world (hearies) perfectly expressing our intent of our mind. ASL is pure facial language and they fully utilize the true intention of our communication expression to the outer world. I also have seen interpreters that are CODA (Children OF Deaf Adult) that really enjoy their job. Those hearies are what I am most comfortable to hang around with.
 
Hearing Children

Although I am Hearing, I did not speak until I was four years old. There is evidence, as reported by my mother that I had some Home Signs, but she felt that signing was not an option for me. I once asked her why, and she said, "even though you're Hard-of-Hearing, you heard as well as you could...and I was afraid if I let you learn to sign, you would never speak, and thus not be accepted anywhere." Mother worried quite a bit about whether I would ever learn to talk! Now I can't shut up!

However, I do know some signs taught to me by Hearing who can sign, and by Deaf friends. I also have a good knowledge of the Manual Alphabet, and I could spell for a Deaf person if the occassion arose. I once almost had to at church for an old Deaf man because some old Hearing ladies tried to make him move, and I was going to tell them he had to sit there. But I just watched, and the Hearing ladies left him alone.
 
So...I'm a little confused, are you hearing or HOH?
I was afraid if I let you learn to sign, you would never speak, and thus not be accepted anywhere
Click to expand...
Very common fear of hearing/speaking parents. They think it's an "either or choice" ...they think that if ASL/Sign is learned, then that means that speech therapy is going to go down the drain...the gross majority of deaf and hoh folks still get thousands and thousands of hours of speech.
I've noticed it's become more common for kids who are hearing but have other disabilties(apraxia, tracheostomies etc) to pick up ASL as a first language.
I know my parents started Sign with me when it was first thought that I was HOH, but they were encouraged by experts to drop it, as the experts insisted that I would become dependant on it and use it as a "crutch"...my folks now say they wish they'd pursued ASL for me all those years ago...would have made my life MUCH easier!
 
I'm hearing and I definitely want my kids learning to sign before they can talk. I'd like them to keep signing, too, though I've heard most hearing babies stop signing as they learn to talk with their mouths. I grew up in a town with a strong deaf/HoH community, and I always regretted that I couldn't talk to my friends, sunday school teacher, etc. in their first language. (trying to learn ASL now so it won't happen again).
 
I am a deaf Mother who speaks very well with my Voice and I also have two Children who are hearing.. They know a very Little sign Language...I teach them for fun.. they do not require to learn ASL...Because they do know I can speak with my voice and they understand me Perfectly fine. We Communcate with both voice and signs at times But, Most of the Time we use our voices to communcate.

They both are aware of my deafness and Understands how to get my attention when they Need me.. like tab me on the Shoulders to get my attention or move my face with their soft hands to get my attention which I love that the Most cuz I think it so Cute when they do that...

If some Stranger talks to me behead my back and My Children sees it My Oldest son who is 9 right now would tell the Stranger My Mom is Deaf U need to face to her when u speak to her..Its like Wow. I am so Proud of My boys being understanding about Deaf and They are Not embarrassed about it either. ;)
 
When my girls were born, I talked and signed at the same time. Because of the early start, my girls were signing at 3-4 months old.
Our house was nice and quiet. They never threw temper tantrums, because they were able to express themselves, and I was able to understand.
Their first vocal word was Mommy at the age of 5 months, and they progressed from there.
I noticed the more words they learned to speak, the less they used sign language.
Now they are almost 4, and are much more calm and relaxed compared to other kids. Also I find that we have a great mother/daughter relationship.
Uhmmm as for them signing, I don't really notice them doing it anymore. I do try to encourage it, but they are not interested. Perhaps later when they get older.
I encourage teaching sign language to infants regardless if they are hearing or not.
 
All my 4 grown up hearin' children know sign language very well. Very fluently in sign language. I taught them when they were a year old. Of course, they use ASL....
 
I think it's a good idea to teach children sign language. Since it's physical, the are able to communicate without waiting for their vocal skills to develop. Heh!
 
VamPyroX said:
I think it's a good idea to teach children sign language. Since it's physical, the are able to communicate without waiting for their vocal skills to develop. Heh!
Click to expand...

Exactly! It also improves children's visual to read/understand better. When they gets to their drivin' education, they will be able to pay attention on the road than non-visualized persons. :)
 
AUSLAN - not ASL -- I have a very close and good friend, Von, who's hearing and she has two hearing daughters, ages 6 and 11. The oldest and Von both have been learning AUSLAN so they could communicate with me. MacKayla, the eldest daughter, has become so attached to me and has been very motivated in learning sign. Always asking me what sign is for this or that..., etc. She's awesome and sweet. She also gets upset when other people who I don't know, don't understand my speech or don't realise that I'm deaf -- she'd tell them to speak clearer and look straight at me so I could lip read, etc. Aww, ain't that sweet?! ;)

Maddi, the youngest, does know a few signs, but she's a bit shy. Heh...so both Von and Kayla interpret for her, :lol:
 
i've actually met a few hearing people who know sign language it'z very interesting....it'z also funny because some hearing people who know sign language forget to talk with other hearing people, they wind up signing

my friend ceejay, her sister's son isn't deaf or hard of hearing but at about 2 yearz old, they want to teach her sign language it'z pretty kool
 
Gin, do you think that your daughters have more sophiscated use of spoken language due to you encouraging sign? Wouldn't it be cool if there was a corralation between early sign useage and high verbal IQ or high verbal SAT scores?
 
deafdyke said:
Gin, do you think that your daughters have more sophiscated use of spoken language due to you encouraging sign? Wouldn't it be cool if there was a corralation between early sign useage and high verbal IQ or high verbal SAT scores?
Click to expand...


There is a corralation between learning any second language and having a higher IQ. Sign language would be included in this.

This is an interesting quote " data from the College Board’s Admission Testing Program revealed that SAT-verbal scores of students who had taken four or five years of any other subject. A large-scale study conducted by Eddy in 1981 concluded that students who study foreign languages for longer periods of time did better on various SAT sub-tests and on the test as a whole that students who studied less foreign language, even when the variable of verbal giftedness was controlled. Cooper’s own study of 23 metropolitan high schools in the southeast revealed that students who take a foreign language in high school scored significantly higher on the verbal portion of the SAT than those who do not. Economic background, which was measured by the number of students receiving free and reduced lunches, did not affect students’ performance. Even those who came from lower socio-economic backgrounds, but took foreign language, performed "basically just as well as their more fortunate peers." Taken from here

Something else " Some research suggests that students who receive second language instruction are more creative and better at solving complex problems than those who do not (Bamford and Mizokawa, 1991). Other studies suggest that persons with full proficiency in more than one language (bilinguals) outperform similar monolingual persons on both verbal and nonverbal tests of intelligence, which raises the question of whether ability in more than one language enables individuals to achieve greater intellectual flexibility (Bruck, Lambert, and Tucker, 1974; Hakuta, 1986; Weatherford, 1986)."
 
Back
Top