parents - overwhelmed and undereducated

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our lil miracle

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Parents of a new beautiful boy, who recently found out he is hearing impaired. We are looking at sign language now ( he is 4 months old), but which one should we choose.
I do know that it has to be asl approved so it does not confuse him or us. My guestion is simple, which is the best to choose? Looking at all the choices, how do we proceed? We want to learn also, we are going to go with lessons for the entire family soon. Really just looking to get ahead. For his sake. Please any advise. Or suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you and may God bless you and keep you.
 
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ASL American sign language. It is your only real choice.
 
Congrats on your beautiful baby boy! What an adventure you will have! :wave:

You might indicate your location so that people can give you more detailed information. For example, I'm in Texas and I can give you information about resources in my state. If you're in Canada or the UK, people that can help you give you information about that, too. :hmm:
 
thank you

We live in texas too ( hook em horns). 1st time Blogger. So please excuse any mistakes. What about the signing time dvds and song cds? Are those going to work with his giftings or would another baby signing program work? We purchased, just today, Sign with your baby- sign language asl learning. But have not read it yet.
 
I'm in Houston. I can tell you about resources here. Where are you? If you're in Austin, there's a large deaf community there.
 
Signing time is an excellent place to start. Check your local library. they even have a 'baby signing time' series. Baby Einstein also has a signing DVD.

Contact your county human/family/child services department and inquire about early intervention services. If they are less than helpful, you could call your state school for the deaf and they'll point you in the right direction. They may also have a lot of other info available for you.
 
Ooooooo....the good news is that Texas is one of the states with a continum of placements Contact Texas School for the Deaf.
Welcome to the Texas School for the Deaf
Yes, it's too soon for school....but they can help you with tracking down local resources.
I would advise you to go with a full toolbox approach. Meaning speech and auditory therapy, (the hard of hearing appraoch) but also ASL.That way your son will have lots of choices and can function both with and without technology. He'll be able to hear and talk, but he'll be able to experiance life without feeling like he's in an eternal speech therapy session. he'll also be able to be comfortable in both the deaf and hearing worlds
Also American Society for DeafChildren:American Society for Deaf Children
and Hands And Voices Hands & Voices
There is a Texas Chapter of Hands and Voices: Welcome !
 
Start with ASL asap and contact the Deaf community for resources. Texas has a great Deaf school in Austin.
 
our lil miracle said:
We live in texas too ( hook em horns). 1st time Blogger. So please excuse any mistakes. What about the signing time dvds and song cds? Are those going to work with his giftings or would another baby signing program work? We purchased, just today, Sign with your baby- sign language asl learning. But have not read it yet.
Click to expand...

signing time focus on both hearing and deaf. So it is great for the whole family. It have musics so It helped hearing people build up their ASL vocabulary easier. Our hearing son and I learned a few signs from it when it was on PBS.
 
Thank you for all your advice, we will look into it all. We truly are grateful for everything and please keep it coming. We have early childhood learning coming to the house, so that's nice. We have started to learn the signs he will use, and showing him, milk, more , and eat. We hope to get in classes and/or order programs for the computer for us as well to get ajump start. He will soon enough be passing us by and learning at an accelerated pase, and leaving us in the dust. Lol. As I said thank you and keep the comments and advice coming, we really need it. And as always May God bless you and keep you.
 
It is wonderful that you are learning to sign! I am also the hearing parent of a Deaf child. My daughter's first language is ASL. She is currently also learning spoken language through listening with her cochlear implant.

What kind of loss does your beautiful baby have? Does he have hearing aids yet?

I think Signing Time is the best! Watch for Miss Kat (my daughter) in "Eating Time". She signs SPOON, CUP, and NAPKIN.
 
thanks

deafdyke said:
Ooooooo....the good news is that Texas is one of the states with a continum of placements Contact Texas School for the Deaf.
Welcome to the Texas School for the Deaf
Yes, it's too soon for school....but they can help you with tracking down local resources.
I would advise you to go with a full toolbox approach. Meaning speech and auditory therapy, (the hard of hearing appraoch) but also ASL.That way your son will have lots of choices and can function both with and without technology. He'll be able to hear and talk, but he'll be able to experiance life without feeling like he's in an eternal speech therapy session. he'll also be able to be comfortable in both the deaf and hearing worlds
Also American Society for DeafChildren:American Society for Deaf Children
and Hands And Voices Hands & Voices
There is a Texas Chapter of Hands and Voices: Welcome !
Click to expand...

Have already bookmarked pages - look foreward to exploring options
 
very cool.

faire_jour said:
It is wonderful that you are learning to sign! I am also the hearing parent of a Deaf child. My daughter's first language is ASL. She is currently also learning spoken language through listening with her cochlear implant.

What kind of loss does your beautiful baby have? Does he have hearing aids yet?

I think Signing Time is the best! Watch for Miss Kat (my daughter) in "Eating Time". She signs SPOON, CUP, and NAPKIN.
Click to expand...

We will look foreword to seeing her.
We will buy that soon. One ear is very little activity if any, but the one side is functioning, just do not yet know at what level. We have another Dr. Appt. In couple weeks.
 
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Well its good news that he has an aidable ear!!!!! That will help him learn speech.
 
deafdyke said:
Well its good news that he has an aidable ear!!!!! That will help him learn speech.
Click to expand...

Yes we are happy about that too. We are just so anxious to find out what level, what frequencies, etc. No matter what we are going to press in and learn asl anyway. I think it will be good for all of us.
 
humming bird

He has over the last few weeks started to hum while falling asleep, and just a few days ago found a scream. Not a mad or hurt, hungry scream. Just a real High pitch yelling, sorta like talking, but really loud. I think its kinda cool, bit not everyone in the house agrees.
 
Congratulations on your beautiful child.

Enjoy each moment with your baby.

I am profoundly Deaf and come from a large Deaf family.

I smiled when I read your wee one loving to hum himself while falling asleep because this is what I do. I hum and I hum as a form of comfort. It's the vibrations that's soothing.

If you have a chance to go to a deaf social setting, focus on the noises. Watch how some deaf people hug each other, they do hum when they hug. It's called "throaty hugs", it's comforting because as babies, parents would hum when rocking or burping.

Babies would rely on vibrations in place of sound. Your wee one has probably picked up on this hum from you and knows it is soothing/comforting. It's very sweet.

The high pitch yelling/talking is natural in our community. We can't hear the pitch pitch or the shriek magnitude. As toddlers, we enjoy the attention we attract with this so you can imagine how much your wee one is enjoying all the attention he's attracting with his vocal box.

If possible, start signing milk when you bottle feed/breastfeed him. He will grasp the concept of feeding.

Sign milk equals feeding/hungry time

Next thing is to introduce Mommy and Daddy.

Mommy and Daddy - you and Daddy ,, baby will know the name sign of his parents.

I truly wish you the best and know you and baby will do just fine in this community.
 
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