Deaf parents wants their child to use signs.

ZiNg31

ZiNg31

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We are deaf parents of our 18 months old daughter. My daughter is hearing and my mom suggested me to use my good voice to talk to her. I had been talking to my daughter with my voice and signing at the same time. My fiance doesn't speak. I noticed everyday my daughter starting to talk more than focusing signs. We couldn't understand what she is saying. Hearing people around heard my daughter said words. So our friends has 3 kids and one is 20 months old and knows few signs... the parents cant talk like normal hearing people. So I remembered my former friend told me that he can't use voice to talk to his son but only use signs then his son starting to commucation in signs. I just need a good advices because I wasn't sure since my other friend's 2 kids will not sign at all and he had trouble commucating them because his wife uses voice and signs to their kids.

Any suggestions? Prefer to hear advices from deaf parents of hearing child.
 
I don't really have an answer for you, except to say that it seems developmentally normal for your little one to experiment with talking. She's used to the world of signs, talking is new to her. She'll come back to signing on her own when she learns that it's the most effective way to get what she needs from you and Dad. It might take some patience on your part. :)

On a side note, I'm a HOH mom of two, and teaching my kids to sign. My oldest stopped signing as much when he became a good talker, but now is 2 1/2 years old and signing more again. However, my partner is hearing, and I am oral most of the time, so he didn't have as much encouragement to sign as your daughter would.

Good luck!
 
If you sign to your child without voice, she will soon get the message that with some people, she communicates in signs, and with some people she communicates with voice. She is too young to actually understand the deaf/hearing difference, but she will understand the communication difference. I'm hearing, but always communicated with my deaf son using ASL. We hung around a deaf club alot so he would have the opportunity to pick ASL up in a natural environment. He figured out very quickly that at the Deaf club, and with me, he could use signs. But with kids in the neighborhood, and his speech therapist, he would try to voice, becasue he also understood that they didn't sign. Before he could figure out that the difference between deaf and hearing was based on sound, he thought the difference was just that deaf people signed, and hearing people voiced. Until he was six, the thought I was deaf because I signed. So, as young kids, they may not understand what the difference is, but they understand that you communicate in one way with this person, and in a different way with another person.

Hope this helps.
 
Oops! Just saw where you wanted replies from deaf parents with hearing children. I am opposite. Just thought my experience might help.:)
 
Both of my children sign...I dont use my voice with them anymore. I want them to develop fluenty in ASL for several reasons...easier rapport with them, dont have to worry about lipreading them and risk misunderstanding them, and they become bilingual. :)
 
shel90 said:
Both of my children sign...I dont use my voice with them anymore. I want them to develop fluenty in ASL for several reasons...easier rapport with them, dont have to worry about lipreading them and risk misunderstanding them, and they become bilingual. :)
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Nice... I guess I will try to not use my voice and see what happen. One time I did the ABCs without my voice my daughter was looking at my signing hand.
 
I don't have kids but I want to tell you what I learned. My high school teacher had to sent his oldest child to speech therapy. His other children are okay. If I had kids, I would turn my voice off as I don't want my child to pick up my bad pronunciations. It would be better for the child to learn to speak from hearing people not from me.
 
NascarZing said:
Nice... I guess I will try to not use my voice and see what happen. One time I did the ABCs without my voice my daughter was looking at my signing hand.
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Ahh remind me that I taught my youngest sister when she was 2 yrs old and I did use voice to said ABCs then later I decided not to use my voice for ABCs and teach her till she knew all ABCs when she was 2 yrs old but signs no she doesnt cant signs only ABCs. Right now she is 17 yrs old and fingerspell soooo FAST! like a flash and I told her slow down lol :lol: haha and still cant sign at all just few like 2 to 4 signs that it mostly ABCs :) hehe. :)
 
My husband is hearing and I am deaf. We agree that we teach my son to sign first without voice. then he have good habit to sign. He know speak because he is a hearing. He never complain about have to sign to me. We dont have any problem.

You are not alone, My old friend who have grown kids. Her kids knew sign language but they don't feel sign because my friend taught them with voice and sign language same time. She and her husband have very hard time understand them. They asked them to sign but they wont. They begged them to sign but they gave them roll eyes. How rude! One day My stepdaugther was in church and she saw my friend asked her daughter to sign because she cannot understand her. Her daugther refuse do it. My stepdaugther stood up for my friend and yelled at her daughter about it. Guess what her daugther signed finally. My stepdaugther told her that she respect my stepmom ( me) and she love to sign.
 
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