Teaching Your Child ASL

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amb7z

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I'm hearing and my husband is Deaf. We have a 3 month old son and I was wondering besides signing to him everyday what are some other ways to make sure he's learning sign? Any program or video suggests?
 
I suggest checking out the Baby Signing Time videos at signingtime.com for your son. I began them when my son was 5 months corrected age (he was a preemie). They are awesome. Andrew now has 10 of the Signing Time videos as well as the four Baby Signing Time ones. He's 2 now and begs to watch one every day. We watch with him and do the signs and sing. He was really into the flashcards that came with the Baby Signing Time videos. As a young toddler he would leaf through them, studying them all, checking out the signs on the back. I think it helped both his oral and signing vocabulary immensely.
 
Let him interact with other deaf babies and deaf adults as much as possible. Learning language naturally works best.
 
I've taught my hearing niece some signs, and I find that once kids know that the sign is connected to the concept, they typically start using it. The main thing I've found is repetition, repetition, repetition. They'll show signs of understanding. Also, expose them to others that sign. Kids catch on fast, he'll be fine.
 
We started with 4 key activities: 3X weekly early intervention with an ASL-using SLP; weekly Family Sign in our home with a deaf instructor; 3X weekly group parent-infant sessions (voices off/ASL-only) with qualified teachers of the deaf and a whole bunch of deaf volunteers interacting with the children; and, when she was almost a year and a half, 4X weekly child care with ASL-using providers (some deaf, some hearing with grown Deaf children, with help from deaf high school students) located on the campus of a school for the deaf.
 
An awesome example of how parental involvement and early intervention promote language development and social skills, for starters.
 
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