Claudia was diagnosed with Down syndrome when she was born so we started
sign language pretty soon, by about 6 months, mostly concentrating on using
it with her twin brother who would help us practice but also model the signs
for her as well. Without having a delay in the fine motor department, he
picked up on the signs much more quickly but it did take awhile with her,
mostly for that reason. Now she probably uses upwards of 150 signs (her
most recent favorite is "chocolate") and is just beginning to use sounds
that are kinda sorta understandable; they would probably be completely
unintelligible without her signing along with the initial sound. Claudia
clearly *wants* to communicate but her lack of muscle tone in her mouth
makes it difficult to form the sounds. The only words that she says that
are about 100% understandable outside the family are "no", "thank you",
"baby", "bubble, and "daddy". But using the sign along with the sound, we
can pick up consistent sound combinations that now mean specific words in
her own Claudia language like "pizza", "chips", "pretzels", "yogurt",
"book", and "draw".

Her twin brother has dyspraxia of speech and it has been extremely helpful
to have used the sign language with him because of that reason. Of course,
my aunt argues that he's speech delayed *because* of having the sign
language as a "crutch" but I have to disagree.

The most powerful word to start with for a child seems to be "more" which is
used by tapping the fingertips together.

As a side note, using sign language in public is a great way to get kids to
behave without having to verbally reprimand them. Much less embarrassing.
And often, if I can't get Claudia to respond to a verbal command, if I pair
it with a sign she'll respond much more quickly. Perhaps she is just more
visually oriented.

Leigh

"andrea" wrote in message
...
My son Alden is 4 in September. He has Apraxia, which is a speech
disorder.
Progress has been slow on the speech side according to the therapist, but
I
feel he is doing great compared to how he was.
He had at one point zero understanding. Now his understanding is great for
his age, but he has limited vowels and can't pronounce constanants.

I thought about signing for babies (like for drink), for Joseph and
hopefully Kamron, to help avoid the frustration babies have before they
are
able to talk. I also plan on starting this with Alden, he does speak but
it's not very clear, and we usually guess what he is saying.

Have any of you already started signing for babies/toddlers? How did it
go?

My pack I have ordered says some babies can start signing from 6 months.

It's sounds like it's worth a try, as babies that can sign find speech
comes
more easily. Some people believe signing delays speech, but i'm told this
is
not the case.

--
Andrea mom of -
Peter 7, Ellie 5, Alden 3, Joseph 21 mths & little munchie man Kamron 5
weeks!
Married to David since 2000.