Hey everyone!

E

Eeryel

New Member
Joined
Oct 17, 2015
Messages
5
Reaction score
0
Hi all- I'm hearing but I'm sort of stuck and looking for feedback. I joined for a few reasons, one being the deaf community is amazing, and two, I'm the mom of a wonderful two year old little girl who is hearing and nonverbal but is so quick at picking up signs that I don't know how to continue teaching her. I obviously don't know asl other than the few hundred signs/phrases I've taught my daughter but I'm trying to learn as much as I can and would love any ideas or suggestions.

She does have a medical diagnosis that is genetic and lifelong and although it does not affect her intelligence, is does affect her ability to talk and she may never speak or may be greatly delayed, neither of which is important at this time- my main goal is to help her communicate because she has so much to tell us!

My problem is that neither my daughter nor I are deaf and so I've been unable to find resources that would help either one of us learn more other than a couple of great YouTube feeds online and the signing time series, which was a starting point but we have moved past that very very quickly. Although she does receive speech therapy, there are none in the area I live in that are fluent in asl and they can't find any place to send us for more instruction. When I've tried reaching out to a few gatherings of people who are deaf or have deaf family members I'm ignored because I'm hearing and have been told as much.

Sorry for the heavy post (and probably the over share). Sorry if this isn't in the right thread either, like I said- I'm just a bit lost right now. Thanks for any and all feedback!
 
Curious, have you been using to learn sign? Also, have you looked locally for ASL classes?
 
I would look into classes around your home town, or sign videos. My daughter who is 2 1/2 likes my baby can sign with Marlee. There are also tv shows. I had friends learn by watching switched at birth, but this doesn't help grammar. I learned at a deaf school and recommend that. They will teach vocab, grammar, and history.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using AllDeaf App mobile app
 
Jezie said:
Curious, have you been using to learn sign? Also, have you looked locally for ASL classes?
Click to expand...

Hi! Yes, I have been learning as well as I am able to through the online courses, Bill vicars is great and some other videos I've found through the dcmp website have been helpful, though to be honest quite a few are still too fast but I am trying. There is one school locally that offers basic one and two asl course but as I am home with my children during the day at the same time the classes are offered, I'm unfortunately unable to attend right now. I am hopeful that they will offer a weekend or evening class but the registrar there said there is no way of knowing at this time if that will happen. :(

I think the hardest part for me is trying to teach her signing when I don't feel like I know enough myself. I know it is in no way the same as a hearing parent learning to sign with their deaf child but I have been trying to find resources they might use to start with and I keep coming up blank. I'm running into the problem where she picks up everything so fast that she wants to learn more than I know!

And thanks for the welcome too- it has been so interesting and I've learned quite a bit just reading through several of the different boards. Love the diversity and the support here!
 
Thank you! I would love to learn with or send my daughter to learn at a deaf school but I'm wondering if they are all exclusive those who are deaf or hard of hearing? It seems like so many of the public resources in my state are limited to those who qualify medically and I don't know how to work with their restrictions and my daughters needs, even the people who work in the state program she's in seemed stumped. It's been interesting to say the least! :)

I just stumbled onto the my baby can sign videos and I will try those too, she just loves watching any signing videos I've found so far. Thank you for the recommendations! The grammar definitely seems to be one of the most complex parts to learn.
 
Eeryel said:
Thank you! I would love to learn with or send my daughter to learn at a deaf school but I'm wondering if they are all exclusive those who are deaf or hard of hearing? It seems like so many of the public resources in my state are limited to those who qualify medically and I don't know how to work with their restrictions and my daughters needs, even the people who work in the state program she's in seemed stumped. It's been interesting to say the least! :)

I just stumbled onto the my baby can sign videos and I will try those too, she just loves watching any signing videos I've found so far. Thank you for the recommendations! The grammar definitely seems to be one of the most complex parts to learn.
Click to expand...

Is your daughter pretty much apraxic? Hearing nonverbal with no other issues is pretty rare, but kids like your daughter HAVE been seen in Deaf ed....I know they've been seen at Willie Ross School for the Deaf in Longmeadow, you might want to check out Children's Center for Communication at Beverely School for the Deaf......Also google St Rita's It has a program specificly for hearing kids with apraxia:http://www.srsdeaf.org/Apraxia.aspx
 
Here in oregon the deaf school takes deaf, HoH, non verbal, and apd students. And the blind have a spot on the campus because our hospital bought their school and closed it, mean people.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using AllDeaf App mobile app
 
DeafNerdMommy said:
Here in oregon the deaf school takes deaf, HoH, non verbal, and apd students. And the blind have a spot on the campus because our hospital bought their school and closed it, mean people.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using AllDeaf App mobile app
Click to expand...

APD? I hope the nonverbal kids they take aren't the euphanism nonverbal kids who are actually severely ID. Simply b/c most of the time the needs of those kids are very different from a "just dhh" kid. There are kids whose only issue is that they are nonverbal and use Sign as an expressive language. Glad that Oregon has a small Blind program.....Actually the reason why they closed the Blind School, was b/c enrollment dwindled to 24 students, the school lost its accreditation in the '90's and the campus was incredibily run down.
 
deafdyke said:
Is your daughter pretty much apraxic? Hearing nonverbal with no other issues is pretty rare, but kids like your daughter HAVE been seen in Deaf ed....I know they've been seen at Willie Ross School for the Deaf in Longmeadow, you might want to check out Children's Center for Communication at Beverely School for the Deaf......Also google St Rita's It has a program specificly for hearing kids with apraxia:http://www.srsdeaf.org/Apraxia.aspx
Click to expand...

At this point is does seem like she is, yes. The speech pathologist was hesitant to diagnose her specifically with apraxia when they did the eval until she was somewhat older (3-4) because they have seen speech impairments that change/become more defined as they age, which makes sense, but she has continued to fit that definition since then, which was several months ago and her current therapist feels the same way too. And you're right, the fact that she doesn't have other learning/behavioral/etc problems does seem to be very unusual, which I think might be part of the reason I'm running into issues with finding resources for her.

That is very good to hear, I had not heard of any of those schools/programs and it looks like they have some amazing resources. That there is a school that has a programs specifically for dealing with apraxia is great news, I don't know that I would have ever found out about it without your help. If only we had something similar here! :)
 
Last edited:
DeafNerdMommy said:
Here in oregon the deaf school takes deaf, HoH, non verbal, and apd students. And the blind have a spot on the campus because our hospital bought their school and closed it, mean people.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using AllDeaf App mobile app
Click to expand...

It sounds like a very inclusive school! I'm still trying to learn some of the different abbreviations and lingo- is apd auditory processing disorder? Sorry if I'm way off.
 
Yes it is :) it's fine u don't expect people to know. I never heard of apd until 5 years ago when I was diagnosed with it

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using AllDeaf App mobile app
 
Back
Top