Originally Posted by Babyblue

Alot of pre school teachers are now taking classes to teach infants and toddlers Signs to be able to teach them better now. It is a big trend now to teach the hearing child to communicate. Now as you say "of the deaf" meaning "for the deaf" I highly encourage it because I truely believe in total communication to help that child to learn vocabulary, Speak and Sign at the same time. A deaf child can learn to Sign when a teacher speaks and sign and that child will know exactly what to say and to expect as well as the teachers. but it requires the parents to cooperate to achieve that goal Signing to a deaf child will NOT delay a childs speech if you use Total Communication. I had a child that was in my pre school class that was deaf and had a CI and the parent didn't want me to sign to that child anymore they wanted me to talk to that child and I was in Awe...so upset, I could not stop myself from signing and speaking to the child because the childs first language was ASL and then she just wanted me to talk to him and he was still adjusting to his programs on his CI. Unfortunately she withdrew him and wanted him to just learn to talk and get used to the sounds without signs. But........I was her right it is her child..... even though I disagree with it.