Signing?! | Autism PDD

My daughter was a little over 3 when we first started watching the signingtime videos together. I cried. It was what we needed for so so long. For her having the visual connection with the verbal word made it all start to come into focus better for her. Instead of her saying DRINK DRINK DRINK, I would stop her and say and sign "Anna, do you want to drink...milk..juice or water?"

Also, I am a really slow signer and its all still awkward for me. She sees that, I think it makes her more intersted "what the heck is she doing?" kinda thing.

Out in public, where my daughter is worse, it helps her and I communicate better. A trip to the grocery store was awful a year ago...now she isn't as nervous or emotional. I don't know why, but I think having that visual feeding of words gives her a sense of comfort.

I walk into the super walmart and all the talking and beeping and bright lights take its toll on me. By the time I go I feel like I am in a warzone w/bombs going off all around me...I just need to get out of there. That is how Anna feels a lot of the time I guess. Signing brings a sense of order in all the chaos.

I find it very interesting that quite a few of you have taught your children sign language! That is an option that my husband and I never thought of. My son is three and I am wondering if you think he could benefit from this or is it too late? I need to mention that he doesn't not verbally communicate at all.

It's not too late and the signing may actually help him learn how to talk. But I'll let someone with a little more experience (and success) with it address this question. :) My son Luke is not into signing, though we've been told to keep at it since sometimes it takes quite a while before it kicks in. Personally, I think Luke will talk before he signs -- which would be FINE by me!

Jeffrey was taught the basics of it, along with the pecs system. Now he was a late talker so he had the basics of sign language down before he could talk. And occassionally we still use some of the basic signs. It does help get the point across to him when he is not concentrating on what you are saying.

Tammy

Very pro-signing here. Go to this site and grab a couple of their videos. They're fantastic:

http://www.signingtime.com

3 is not too late at all! A huge part of the language our son has came from watching these, and we use the songs to teach him social language ("please," "thank you," etc.) all the time.

The mom in the videos has a deaf child and one with spina bifida... she knows where we're coming from in terms of having a rough parenting road. It's inspiring.
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Tammy

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we were the same with jack and like jeffrey jack still uses some of the basic sounds i think it actually helped his speech to come on because we always spoke what we were signing and he began to echo this back to us.we found too that once he could sign his needs in a very basic way ie for drink or cookie his frustration lessened dramataticly.One thing i will say is it helps if everyone is onboard with this my mum had jack one day and he was signing to her that he wanted a drink and she had no clue what he wanted i don't know who was screaming loudest by the time i got there which is funny now when we look back but at the time neither of them enjoyed it.Once his language started to developed we used signing for words we wanted him to use things like please and thankyou and even now he still signs along with the owrds please and thankyou.So yup very pro signing here

Dee

We used a few signs with adam when he was younger and it really helped him develop language because everytime we signed the words we said them and he heard them over and over. Eventually he started saying the words on his own. IF your child is not verbal then I don't think age is a factor but communication of some kind would take prevelance. I'll never forget when he learned the sign for "give". When he mastered it he would use it with everything he wanted. My son never used gestures such as pointing or taking me to something until much later so when he would use this sign...I at least knew that he wanted something and I could usually figure it out eventually. Before that sign...it was a nightmare with constant meltdowns because he couldn't communicate with us.

Karrie

I agree with everyone! We signed with DS when he was younger. Around 20 months he started signing back to us- one month later he started talking- I'm not sure if it's a coincidence but my ST says signing and talking are in the same parts of the brain. Also he is very visual so it was easier for him to sign than talk. He learned about 25 signs- then we kind of stopped since he was added spoken words to his vocabulary. Once he started talking better he kind of faded the signs on his own. He still uses them sometimes to emphasize what he's saying.

Try Signing Time Volumes 1 & 2- they're great. DS still watchest them- he loves the songs and Leah. They also use the spoken word and the written word and DS can read most of the words.

Signing was an amzing tool when I was so scared that DS would never talk and we would never be able to communicate. It was so great just to know what he was thinking in that cute little head of his. It showed us that even though he didn't seem to be with us most of the time he was paying more attention than we though.

Sorry for my rambling- as you can see I'm a big fan!

it is not 2 late! keith is learning basics in dd/pk, and he is getting about 8 words per week. b/c he is so visual, i think it really works for him. it really makes him pay attention and stay focussed on the "conversation". we are all learning together and we actually enjoy being able to interact w/ him, where b4 it was very limited.

hth

kate