Hello

R

RB

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Hi, I am not deaf, but recently had a daughter three weeks ago who was just diagnosed yesterday as deaf. I am unsure of whether this site is meant only for those who are deaf, or could be meant for parents of deaf children as well?
 
Welcome RB. I don't recall seeing anything saying that people who can hear are not allowed here. :) I was born hearing myself, but lost my hearing over a period of about 10 years. I think finding this site was good thing for both you and your daughter. Again, Welcome.
 
mizwytch said:
Welcome RB. I don't recall seeing anything saying that people who can hear are not allowed here. :) I was born hearing myself, but lost my hearing over a period of about 10 years. I think finding this site was good thing for both you and your daughter. Again, Welcome.
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Thank you, MizWytch. I think so too.

With my son, he was taught sign language from infancy so that he could communicate with me before being able to speak, and I had planned on doing the same with her. He was taught baby sign language, though. Is there a different version I should teach her?
 
RB said:
Thank you, MizWytch. I think so too.

With my son, he was taught sign language from infancy so that he could communicate with me before being able to speak, and I had planned on doing the same with her. He was taught baby sign language, though. Is there a different version I should teach her?
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I shouldn't think there would be any differences in the type of sign language that you should teach her that you taught your son.

I myself don't know a lot of sign language yet as my hearing loss happened over the last 10 years. It started gradually, but accelerated the past 3 years to the point of being unable to hear anything without some sort of aid and not very well even then. I started noticing problems with my hearing in my early 30s, and I just turned 42 in Oct. and I am now considered legally deaf. I can not hear conversational speech, or anything below the very highest tones and even those are faint.
 
you are welcome here. you can get some ideas on what you can do for your newborn. these days there are a host of options. but a big one is to stimulate his senses right now so he can be aware more with his eyes. at your sons age there isn't much to do. what is your doctor saying?
a great resource is always a local deaf school.
 
Welcome. This can be a fine site for parents of deaf kids. Remember to be tough and not get offended by every little thing people say. People here are very blunt.

It is not a place for the faint of heart.
 
hey, welcome to AD
I have had hearing loss (hearing loss was detected at 10 months old)
but I've wore my hearing aids all my life :)

take a look, there's a couple of hearing aid peeps like me around here and the CI peeps too
so make yourself at home.
 
Thanks for the replies. I wasn't sure if this was the site for me to go to. It's called ALLdeaf, LOL.
 
RB said:
Thanks for the replies. I wasn't sure if this was the site for me to go to. It's called ALLdeaf, LOL.
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On your question about Baby Sign, I would not do it. I speak as a deaf grandmother, who when trying to correct a granddaughter's signing, was told by my daughter to stop, that the child was correct and it was Baby Sign.
 
Bottesini said:
On your question about Baby Sign, I would not do it. I speak as a deaf grandmother, who when trying to correct a granddaughter's signing, was told by my daughter to stop, that the child was correct and it was Baby Sign.
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So, just teach her regular sign language from the jump? Are their hands and fingers dexterous enough for that?
 
Regular sign language=American Sign Language, you mean?


I used American Sign Language with my hearing son since he was a baby and at the age of 5, he is fluent in it.

Good luck with everything. :)
 
RB said:
So, just teach her regular sign language from the jump? Are their hands and fingers dexterous enough for that?
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Yes, and Yes!

Baby's will approximate signs exactly the way they approximate speech :)

Here's what I do with my niece

I sign correctly - help her sign (hand over hand) key words (MILK+miming sucking a bottle for breastmilk/formula in a bottle), COOKIE, WATER, MUM, DAD etc ... then when she starts reproducing them I will COPY how she signs it repeating the sign a number of times in a row slowly transform HER sign for "MILK" into the correct ASL sign for MILK.

It's important that you acknowledge that they have signed something (even if it's not "correct") and then continue to model the correct version of the sign ... soon they will be able to reproduce the sign correctly (or nearly so) - just like hearing kids who start saying "ba ba" for bottle, then "baw baw", "bot awwww" then finally "bottle" :)


Hope that helps.

I'd skip the baby signing completely - as it'll only mean UN-learning the baby signs to RELEARN the correct signs ... which is SOOO much more work than it is help!
 
:welcome: to AllDeaf forum. I taught my son ASL when he was a toddler. Now he is full grown of 34 years old. He still knows ASL. :D

Just have fun reading and posting all the threads here. See you around here. :wave:
 
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