What to do with Stubborn Toddlers learning ASL??

[JuJuBean]

My family and I have been using ASL since my daughter was little and not hitting her speech milestones. Her speech therapist is who first taught us the basic signs: more, bed, eat, mommy, daddy, help, so on. She is picking up on speech better now but still has problems communicating. We focus on both English and ASL at home, but use English more since her father isn't learning many more signs, but I am becoming more fluent taking ASL at a community college and would like to encourage her to become fluent since it pretty much along with English is her first language.

She is very stubborn, she like "Signing Time" but chooses cartoons with more action in them now, and when she says a new word, I try to teach her the sign with it and she gets mad sometimes, shell try the sign but use the wrong hand shape or wrong number of fingers, like "play" shell use her pointer and thumb instead of pinky and thumb, and when I try to correct her she gets frustrated easily. If I try to take her hand and show her to put down some fingers or do it a certain way, she jerks her hand from me.

Its like she knows she can use sign to her advantage when she wants something, sometimes shell just tell me no and wont sign when i ask her but other times say shes tired, shell start signing away, like shes trying to make me let her stay up longer...and it works sometimes lol...

But what Im wondering is have any of you had this problem teaching your children...are there any new methods i can use? How many signs at 4 should she know? How can i get her hands right without upsetting her? Would flashcards work? Thanks for any tips!

 

[Bebonang]

Well, if she want to sign the way she wanted to sign her words which might be easier for her to sign. So I would let her go at this until later if she is willing to learn the right correct signs. Don't force her as she will get frustrated and angry. Let her decide on her own signs. She is more comfortable that way. So you need to learn the signs that she wanted to sign. She may decide on the right signs that she can do but other signs she can not do. I like flashcards and hope your daughter would like that so that she can correct her signs. But still let her do it her ways of signing. This is the only way you both can understand each other. Give her time.

 

[Bottesini]

Flash cards are great. They were on everything in my home when I was a small child and it is how I learned language.

 

[caz12]

is she deaf,bc kids don't reach milestones as the book says don't mean she needs ASL as first langage.....most kids do things to their advantage at that age

 

[JuJuBean]

Thank you for the suggestions, both are great ideas. She does seem to sign certain words more than others (typically the ones that I don't correct her). Maybe I should find ones that are easier that she enjoys signing, I just really wanted her to learn the sign as well as the word when she starts using a new word. I'll stop correcting her especially when I see she's frustrated and try just resigning it the correct way so she can, that may work out a lot better.

Also flashcards on objects are a great idea! I haven't thought of this, I was just thinking flashcards with objects and showing her the signs, but the signs on the cards on the objects is a wonderful idea. I actually know a guy that learned english this way from his wife, he told me his wife had taped the cards all over the house and when he felt comfortable with a word he'd take it down and built a lot of his vocabulary for around the house this way.

No, we took her to the ENT, and had her hearing checked and they ruled it out but she has Digeorges its a chromosome disorder and deafness or gradual hearing loss is common among other things. Not hitting milestones is also very common, its projected most kids with Digeorge don't hit their speech milestones until 5 or 6 years old so I wanted to teach her ASL so we could communicate sooner. They thought at one point that she may also have Apraxia which can go into adulthood, sometimes people who have this use ASL instead of spoken languages. When she was smaller she used more signs than words, she picked them up faster, but in school they spend very little time with her doing ASL and only concentrate on speech. Ive just always wondered if I had already been fluent in ASL or learned faster and taught her more if she would be able to communicate better and pick it up faster than english.

 

[Angel1989]

Well, if she want to sign the way she wanted to sign her words which might be easier for her to sign. So I would let her go at this until later if she is willing to learn the right correct signs. Don't force her as she will get frustrated and angry. Let her decide on her own signs. She is more comfortable that way. So you need to learn the signs that she wanted to sign. She may decide on the right signs that she can do but other signs she can not do. I like flashcards and hope your daughter would like that so that she can correct her signs. But still let her do it her ways of signing. This is the only way you both can understand each other. Give her time.

Love this and Bott's post above.

 

[JuJuBean]

Just an update: got some flashcards and not being so overbearing about how she wants to do her signs, and focusing on ones that are easier, and its helped A LOT! Thank you everybody for your advise! She hasn't refused to learn them lately, when I show her a new sign, she tries and I let her know that she's doing good and show her the sign again, I'm looking at it more the way you'd teach a kid "papa" instead of "grandpa", it'll come with time

 

[Alderez]

Awesome story, im so happy its working out and i appreciate the update. Hard to know what advice is good advice if there isnt any feedback on success or failure.

 

[whatdidyousay!]

I feel if anyone is being stubborn it's the dad for not wanting to learn ASL so he can talk to his own daughter.

 

[Bottesini]

I feel if anyone is being stubborn it's the dad for not wanting to learn ASL so he can talk to his own daughter.

Or we could just be positive and focus on what a great job the mom is doing.

Since you didn't grow up as a signer, it may be a surprise to you that as mothers have far more interaction with their children, they are usually the ones to pick up signing as their child learns.