Does the use of baby sign delay speech development?

Did somebody say sign and speak at the same time? isn't that an impossibility, sort of....?
 
Tousi said:
Did somebody say sign and speak at the same time? isn't that an impossibility, sort of....?
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If you are signing ASL, it is. But the MCE's were devised to accompany speech, however linguistically confusing they may be. Speaking at signing at the same time is like attempting to read Spanish while carrying on a conversation is spoken English.
 
Tousi said:
Did somebody say sign and speak at the same time? isn't that an impossibility, sort of....?
Click to expand...

Doesn't necessary means ASL, but I've done signed English more than ASL, when I do signed English, I speak and sign at the same time...
 
My two sons were delay in their speech because their first language were ASL. I was not really worried about this, they pick up really quickly with T.V. program and pre-school interact with other children.

Now, my sons are 22 and 21 years old, their speak are advance level than I expect. I am not really worried about the hearing babies with Deaf parents's delay speech development. I preferred, they learn ASL first language than speak to communication with me more effectively in ASL. :D
 
deafskeptic said:
My dad is also a doctor but I remember when I first went to VSDB in Staunton, he was concerned that I'd lose my speech skills and just sign. His worries were unfounded.
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Wow... sorry it is off the topic.... my father and I went to VSDB too...
 
Why Sign?

Studies have shown that signing with children and infants results in:

increased IQs
earlier speech and larger vocabulary
improved reading skills
improved motor skills
decreased frustration and tantrums
Signing allows your infant to communicate very specific thoughts before they have the vocabulary to verbally communicate. It bridges the gap between when they understand language and when the have the motor skills to verbally communicate.

Signing will not delay verbal development as some people worry; studies have shown if anything it actually accelerates it. Research shows that babies that sign usually speak sooner and have larger vocabularies than non-signing babies.

For more information on the benefits of signing with your baby, please visit the SIGN with your BABY® website Sign2Me.com | About Our Program

Why Sign?
 
Tousi said:
Did somebody say sign and speak at the same time? isn't that an impossibility, sort of....?
Click to expand...

It's not easy. I have to do it in one of my classes where one student has a cochlear implant, another signs but is also oral, and another one has recently arrived in this country and barely knows any ASL. So I sign and speak everything and I end up repeating myself a bunch of times so that everyone understands. It ends up working out okay since it's an English class, but if I were teaching, say, history to deaf students, I'd probably go crazy.

Regarding "baby sign," the only thing that bugs me is why so they dumb down the signs so much for these programs? Someone once showed me a cheat sheet from their baby sign program and it seemed silly because okay, maybe a baby won't be physically capable of opening and closing a fist to make a clear sign for MILK. But hearing mothers know what their baby means when she says "muh," and deaf mothers know what their babies mean when they approximate the real signs until they are able to perform them correctly.

I am all for "baby sign" as long as that means "real ASL signs used with babies." Why even bother doing this if you aren't going to be using a real language? It would be like telling hearing mothers "Just teach your kid to say 'muh' because 'milk' is too hard."
 
jillio said:
If you are signing ASL, it is. But the MCE's were devised to accompany speech, however linguistically confusing they may be. Speaking at signing at the same time is like attempting to read Spanish while carrying on a conversation is spoken English.
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Yes, I knew that; I just thought somebody said speaking while in ASL mode but I can't find it. Oh, well, no big deal.
 
Cheri said:
Doesn't necessary means ASL, but I've done signed English more than ASL, when I do signed English, I speak and sign at the same time...
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Correct, see my response above.
 
Signing and talking at the same time will help your kid develop better skills. :)
 
VamPyroX said:
Signing and talking at the same time will help your kid develop better skills. :)
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Just with the MCE's, tho, Vampy, not with ASL. At most, some inaudible and intermittent, generally, mouthing goes on with ASL.
 
Kalista said:
My two sons were delay in their speech because their first language were ASL. I was not really worried about this, they pick up really quickly with T.V. program and pre-school interact with other children.

Now, my sons are 22 and 21 years old, their speak are advance level than I expect. I am not really worried about the hearing babies with Deaf parents's delay speech development. I preferred, they learn ASL first language than speak to communication with me more effectively in ASL. :D
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I agree with u too! My 2 year old is delayed in speech right now but signing away. No worries..his speech will pick up later. :)
 
Interpretrator said:
It's not easy. I have to do it in one of my classes where one student has a cochlear implant, another signs but is also oral, and another one has recently arrived in this country and barely knows any ASL. So I sign and speak everything and I end up repeating myself a bunch of times so that everyone understands. It ends up working out okay since it's an English class, but if I were teaching, say, history to deaf students, I'd probably go crazy.

Regarding "baby sign," the only thing that bugs me is why so they dumb down the signs so much for these programs? Someone once showed me a cheat sheet from their baby sign program and it seemed silly because okay, maybe a baby won't be physically capable of opening and closing a fist to make a clear sign for MILK. But hearing mothers know what their baby means when she says "muh," and deaf mothers know what their babies mean when they approximate the real signs until they are able to perform them correctly.

I am all for "baby sign" as long as that means "real ASL signs used with babies." Why even bother doing this if you aren't going to be using a real language? It would be like telling hearing mothers "Just teach your kid to say 'muh' because 'milk' is too hard."
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I am with u on that one!

I couldnt speak and sign in ASL at the same time if my life depended on it. It just does not work.
 
Interpretrator said:
It's not easy. I have to do it in one of my classes where one student has a cochlear implant, another signs but is also oral, and another one has recently arrived in this country and barely knows any ASL. So I sign and speak everything and I end up repeating myself a bunch of times so that everyone understands. It ends up working out okay since it's an English class, but if I were teaching, say, history to deaf students, I'd probably go crazy.

Regarding "baby sign," the only thing that bugs me is why so they dumb down the signs so much for these programs? Someone once showed me a cheat sheet from their baby sign program and it seemed silly because okay, maybe a baby won't be physically capable of opening and closing a fist to make a clear sign for MILK. But hearing mothers know what their baby means when she says "muh," and deaf mothers know what their babies mean when they approximate the real signs until they are able to perform them correctly.

I am all for "baby sign" as long as that means "real ASL signs used with babies." Why even bother doing this if you aren't going to be using a real language? It would be like telling hearing mothers "Just teach your kid to say 'muh' because 'milk' is too hard."
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Agree with you on the use of real ASL. If parents want a hearing child to use a new word, they don't dumb it down...they wimply pronounce the word as it is meant to be pronounced. The child will approxiamte according to their developmental level. So why dumb down the baby signs? Use the proper sign, and the child will approximate according to their developmental level. Accuracy will improve as development progresses.
 
jillio said:
And yet we still have people insisting that sign will prohibit the development of spoken language, and the scary thing is, someof these people are the very ones that parents look to for accurate information so they can make informed decisions regarding their children!
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YES! As a teacher, this is VERY FRUSTRATING to me that some "experts" are telling the parents that signing prohibits the students from learning to speak. How can kids learn to speak if they have no language skills?

Sorry. Had to vent. :)
 
deafbajagal said:
YES! As a teacher, this is VERY FRUSTRATING to me that some "experts" are telling the parents that signing prohibits the students from learning to speak. How can kids learn to speak if they have no language skills?

Sorry. Had to vent. :)
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Couldn't agree with you more. These are the kids that can speak as a parrot speaks....they can repeat. But their critical thinking skills are impaired by their stunted langauge development.
 
Interpretrator said:
Does anyone have a link to that series of vlogs where someone (I'm sorry I've forgotten who it was now) basically asked the question "Why is sign encouraged for hearing babies but discouraged for deaf babies?" Her argument was interesting and eloquent.
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Hi, you are thinking of Amy Cohen.

You can easily find her and her videos as DeafRead and even a search at Google for "Amy Cohen Deaf". :wiggle:
 
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