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My son is 2 years old and he was just dignose with autism about 2 months ago. Now our case worker wants him to start signing, but my husband and my mother -in -law think it just other way for him not to talk? Where I think it's a good idea. I think if anything all he will help him that hurt him? Will someone help me understand this better or give me advise on how to convence them it's for the best? ↓
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| Name: jennmom1 | Date: Jan 4th, 2007 8:38 AM |
| Both of my children do sign..my 4yr old with autism and my typically developing 2yr old. It has been great for both of them. For our autistic son it helped him be able to communicate words with us that he couldn't get out. Just remember to use the words with the signs and if he starts trying to make the sounds with the sign then require that of him everytime he wants that thing. You must push him to use his verbal skills, but, signing can be very helpful and can bring on even more language. If you are going to do sign I highly recommend the Signing TIme videos. They are expensive but sometimes your child's speech therapist or school will have the videos on hand and you can borrow them. Good Luck to you! ↑ |
| Name: mondo | Date: Jan 4th, 2007 3:44 PM |
| My son struggled quite a bit before he learned ASL, once he grasped it, it was like a lightbulb going off! He was relesased of a lot of frustration due to not being able to communicate. He was and continues to be like a sponge with signs but always with a twist: it has to be something that is of interest to him, he will initiate and respond though often mimmicking the signs (which he knows the meaning of). He also carries or has available to himself a large binder filled with pictures/drawings of things that mean something to him (topics/foods/thoughts, etc) to which he shows others when he chooses not to use signing or might not know the sign for. ↑ |
| Name: Lise111 | Date: Jan 6th, 2007 5:47 AM |
Hi! My son is 2 1/2, and we took him to the Marcus Institute in Atlanta to get help with some behavior issues. He doesn't speak, so they decided to get him to learn signs. I was skeptical at first, and thought the same thing, he wouldn't be motivated to talk by signing!
But what you should tell your husband and mother-in-law is that, first of all, he has to learn that communication is important. Most kids learn this automatically, but autistic kids sometimes don't, which is why they aren't motivated to talk. If signing is less "scary" or whatever to him and he is willing to do it, then he will have made his first step toward language! My son picked up a few signs very quickly and actually seemed pleased and surprised that it worked. Now he is attempting to talk, though no real words (other than the ones he whispers to himself), he actually talks gibberish at me, and seems to understand more of how the whole relating-to-people thing works.
Basically if he's going to talk, sign language definitely will not hinder that, it just speeds it along. I don't know the % of autistic kids who use signing exclusively, but so what if he did?? Isn't that better than nothing? Tell them that, and then ask them isn't it worth it for him to feel less frustrated in the meantime if it takes him 2 or 3 years to learn to talk? Good luck with this, I'm sure you can convince them! : ↑ |
| Name: mtene5 | Date: Jan 7th, 2007 4:56 AM |
I think you should do what you feel comfortable with. I think each child's functioning level is different and some children may grasp sign language and some may not. I do not believe sign language is beneficial for my autistic children but I have no idea what your son's educational abilities are. I do not agree with sign language because my children have little control over their bodies and their therapists and I know sign language is not an appropriate form of communication for either of them. My daughter is two and half and progressing slower than I had hoped she might and at the team meeting with all our in home service providers and our service cordinator we discussed what would be the best way to introduce communication with her because she does not speak or recognize pictures and she has very little control over her body. So there were not many options left. What we decided on is to introduce through ABA a pointing communication. Trying to get her to point to what she wants. It may sound crazy but all the other forms of communication, speech, PECS, and signing we knew are just to complicated for her right now. You need to just think about the most beneficial treatment for your son alone. If you think signing will help your son go for it.
On the down side, signing was introduced to my autistic son for a very long period of time and almost daily in my home. I do not believe he benefitted at all from the signing and I saw absolutely no improvement in his communication due to signing. I do not believe all the time spent on promoting sign language actually did delay his oral speech because my son started to develope oral skills while being instructed with sign language. He now has about twenty words and he has zero signs. ↑ |
| Name: Kim Mori | Date: Jan 7th, 2007 11:02 AM |
Hi Mum!
I have a 13yr old autistic boy who has difficulty in communicating but he communicates the best with his signs! Just because you sign it doesn't mean you don't speak! The way I see it is if it helps him to be understood, who cares?
Cheers! ↑ |
| Name: jnnfrstark | Date: Jan 7th, 2007 1:50 PM |
| my son is 8. he is non verbal.his diorder..expressive language with apraxia. whic means,he understands everything that is being said to him but the brain is not allowing the tonge and jaw to move correctly to speak. we sign with him basic words.or everyday words.eat,drink,please,thankyou ect.my son has poor control with his fingers. he stiil cant undo a zipper on his pants or buttons either. so his signing may not be "correct" down to a fingerbut it has helped him and us alot.autism is different with every child but with a nonverbal one..do everything you can to get them express the wants or needs. start now because one day youll wake up and hes 8 and you wish you would have started when your gut told you to instead of waiting to see if communication comes on its own,or the doctors or husband(my said no too)said to see if it comes,give it a while . sign now,.teach your child as much as you can now.it can only be helpful and positve.i'm in favor of signing.good luck to you and your family. ↑ |
| Name: hope3650 | Date: Jan 8th, 2007 6:03 AM |
| My daughter was diagnosed at 24 months of age with Autism. (She's now 5 1/2 and verbal with 4 and 5 word sentences.) At the time she was diagnosed she did not talk at all. When she was about 27 months we started working on a few simple signs. We used "more" and "help" and that was about it. We bought a couple of signing time videos which she loved. She really loved bubbles at the time and I would blow bubbles and then say and show her the sign for more. I would not blow bubbles again until she did the sign and I always said "more" at the same time. She was so proud of being able to communicate that small request to do more bubbles! We probably worked for a few hours before she really started to get the concept that her doing the sign really did cause me to blow bubbles. We got bubbles everywhere! But she started to understand communication at the most basic level. I later realized that she was probably not able to speak her request no matter how much I might have tried, but she could do the sign. She only learned to use two or three signs before she started to try to say the words along with the sign as I had been doing. It exploded from there. At first her language was very very weird and difficult to understand and then it very gradually got more clear. Shortly after at about 28 months we took out dairy products and she seemed to really be able to hear us better. And her very extreme sound sensitivity went away. Then a couple months later we took out gluten and she improved even more. It may not be for everyone, but I am simply sharing what has helped us. But once in a while she will still use the signs that she knows, but they are always paired with her saying the word. So always pair the spoken word with the sign and I think you can't go wrong. (My husband also wondered the same thing about her not choosing to talk if she has another option.) We think it helped to introduce the benefits of communication and then she wanted to try harder to talk. I'd love to know if you try it and how it goes. (Also the baby bumble bee videos are really great because the say the word with many common items and they don't have sign language. We also think these helped her to want to talk more.) ↑ |
| Name: mary Lynn Brown | Date: Jan 9th, 2007 1:39 AM |
| I went through a similar situation with my son in pre school. I was worried sign language would also give him a reason not to try and speak. Instead, it empowered him to communicate and be less frustrated. He is 8 and still signing (also using an aug device which is like a small computer that he communicates with) but he also tries to speak the word in conjunction with the sign. It has opened up a new world for us as a family. Just imagine how frustrated you would be not being able to effectively communicate with your family let alone later at school. You are just giving your son tools to communicate that could improve his life now and possibly in the future. There is a lot of signing done in mainstream with very small children who are too young to speak. These normal developing children go onto speak at their normal pace it just enables them to communicate their needs at a very young age. You can tell them it is something you will try but as soon as your son communicates with them via sign language I'm sure it will convince them to continue. Good luck and you can email me at [email protected] if you would like to discuss further. Mary ↑ |
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