We're still working on getting Isaiah to speak and on getting him into speech therapy. In the meantime, I am embracing sign language as an option. Poor, sad, Isaiah spends so much of his time crying because he is frustrated that I don't understand him. And that's just wrong for such a cute, sweet little boy to be so frustrated so much! Giving him a way to communicate seems like the nice thing to do. Fortunately, I picked up a little ASL on my mission. I served with "signing sisters" for at least 6 months, including a deaf sister. I never really sat down and studied ASL, so I must say that I, in no way, "speak sign language". I just know a few signs. But as I went to a website to refresh my memory, it was coming back pretty quickly. I've been using this website for a refresher.
The older kids think sign language is a blast and have been signing to me plenty. Isaiah, however, seem resistant. I'm not sure why. We started with the sign for "milk" since that is his most frequent request through the day. Then I taught him "water" so that I could ask him which he would prefer (it's always milk that he chooses, but choices are important to little guys like him). We've learned a few others just for fun, like family, brother, sister, apple, please, thank you, more, etc.
What I really need to do next is look up signs for other things Isaiah frequently requests - fruit snacks, granola bars, to be picked up, to go outside, etc.
What I'd really like is for him to start speaking.
****Update: Shortly after posting this Isaiah signed "more milk please" to me! Triumph!****
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4 comments:
We had the same problem with one of our kids. We got the "Signing Time" movies and they helped out a ton! All of our kids since have loved watching them, too. www.signingtime.com
Yay Isaiah! I'm so glad you're doing this for him. This is the site we used to use: http://commtechlab.msu.edu/Sites/aslweb/browser.htm
Paul loves signing time! It really helped him. He's talking now, but for those few months when he wasn't but going crazy, he really embraced the signs. I hope the signing helps Isaiah.
I'm obviously way out of it, because I just clicked over from Google Reader to tell you about Signing Time, but everyone else beat me to it (weeks ago...). Hope it's all going well!
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