Reba

A friend of mine has a young child who has recently been diagnosed with autism. The child is hearing, and has a very limited speaking vocabulary. Would sign language be a benefit to the child? Does anyone have experience, either as a parent or teacher, with hearing children with autism using sign language for communication?

Deafness

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OldNavyGirl

it varies on how austistic children reacts to those things.

my brother is more of HOH and he dont talk at all, but he do have some sign languages that he constantly uses, he also uses pictures to point what he wants, he do a lot of gestures as well. but yes he knows some sign languages like mom, dad, more, drink, please, sorry, shoes, blanket, jacket, etc. it varies on each child how they reacts and understand the sign languages.

it is worth a try to have the parents or teachers to teach the child sign language and how the child will react to those sign languages... hope it helps ?

the teachers also teaches him by communicating the pics from the book, cuz it also help him cuz he can recognize the pictures. they have special education classes for austistic children to go to too. it varies on what the parents, or teachers, or doctors decides whats the best for the child.

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Brian

Reba, I don't see why autistic children shouldn't learn sign languages - to communicate.

My step-father's mother (my step-grandmother) was a foster mother and had two hearing children who didn't use their voices used sign languages (home signs and basic ASL, I believe.)

My father's youngest brother (my uncle) is a Downs and hearing, he had learned sign languages through the school he attended and my mother, so he could communicate some with me.

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Interpretrator

I have a friend whose kid was having some difficulty with communication development. I don't think it was as serious as autism, but learning some sign really, really helped him. He was able to express things in sign that he wasn't in English, and it helped him along the way to better communication.

deafbajagal

I've worked with two hearing kids with autism during my second year as a teacher. It depends on the child and the severity of the autism as a condition itself. Some children will respond better than others to sign language and soical interaction with another person. One thing that might be considered is the use of a communication board initially, so the child can understand the concept of using language (pictures, gestures, etc). to get his/her needs and wants. The communication board can be as simple as using a felt board with two or three pictures (the felt piece is glued on the back of the pictures so it will adhere to the felt board) or the teacher and/or parent can use software such as BoardMaker. Usually when I'm asked to work with an autistic child, I would start off using a communication board to make the point that communication is possible...then gradually switch over to using just gestures and/or simple signs...and then we can go from there. The thing with my two students - they didn't like much eye contact. Not all children with autism dislikes eye contact (which is a common misconception), but most do not like it. So I had to find ways for them to use their eyes to look at the board and then look at the concrete object that they want/need.

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jillio

I agree with the others regarding severity, but sign can certainly be beneficial for kids with autism. There have been several studies done that indicate that sign helps to overcome the expressive verbal difficulties. Also, let me refer you to a website:

www.autismisaworld.org

I think you'll find it very enlightening. Be sure to watch the video of the young lady.

deafdyke

Yes.....Some experts think that autistic people don't have a great grasp on spoken language. An alternative language might be easier for them.

Jolie77

With my experience of having a deaf/autistic son - sign language is definitely a plus. I'm not just saying that just because my son is deaf but I believe that sign language is beneficial for hearing autism children. Again, like many others say, it depends on how severe it is.

You might would like to check this out, if that's a help -- Sign Language and Autism – Teaching Child Signing

GarnetTigerMom

I agree with Joile, and yes I do believe sign language is very very benefital for autistic kids, because my aunt daughter now 35 years old is a autistic and I taught her signs when she was a toddler. Signs does help commuications for autistism.

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GarnetTigerMom

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shel90

Hi Reba...in the past 4 years, I have worked at public schools for my summer teaching job. Those schools cater to mostly hearing children with special needs so I see austistic children. At all of the 3 different schools I have worked at, the whole school building has pictures of everything in sign language so I guess the answer would be yes. My experience with ausistic kids are those who are deaf and have been exposed to ASL since birth. Some do well with communication and others dont. I would think it would be the same thing with hearing austistic kids...some would do well with ASL while others may not.

I agree with Deafbajagal...Boardmaker is such a great software program to use. We use it too and so did the public schools for the hearing children.

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Miss-Delectable

My mother was a special education teacher, and in her school they used Matakon with some of the students including the autistic ones.

It's not a fully fledged sign language, but a language with simple signs.

It does help at times according to my mother.

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Pinky678

My mother in the law. She is working for Special Education Director for Autism, ADHD and long disability. Autism have to take a speech therapy. I do agree with you. Hearing child with autism would learn sign language to communicate easy. Few of kids from my old school. They are deaf, hoh with autism. I saw the boy is hard of hearing and can speak but it's limited speak. He is using a slow sign language. His parents spent him to deaf school to learn sign language to communicate with other kids. My classmate is working for deaf autism at school now.

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Aleser

Absolutely. I used to hear much better in childhood. For me, although I can speak quite fluently, I get very stressed and upset when I have to speak- it's difficult to do with family, it's impossible with strangers. I can speak perfectly fine alone, though- that's never been a problem.

Communicating non-verbally isn't nowhere near as stressful. Not only am I not frustrated/bothered by the speaking, I'm much more able to actually express my thoughts- people tend to assume I'm far less intelligent when I'm speaking versus signing.

Again, that becomes a source of frustration, which leads to rocking, which leads to people treating me worse... I can bypass the entire process by pretending that I am unable to speak because of my deafness.

I strongly suggest giving it a shot. For any neurodiverse 'disorder' a child has, if it leads to communication impairments, it's time to be looking at alternatives to the most obvious- communication boards, communication cards, keyboards, and of course, signing- if it can be done, it should be tried and stuck with for a while, to see if there's some sort of result. One thing to remember is that the environment where you're attempting to establish a new form of communication makes all the difference- ie, if you're in a classroom, your autistic kid might find the lighting unbearable and become very upset. If you're near a source of sound, it might be too distracting. Try moving the same method to different environments!

Eventually, if the child's intelligence allows for it, you CAN establish a working method of communication- ranging from expressing basic needs to full age-level or advanced communication. Everything needs to be tried... communication is far too essential to give up on an idea just because you're unsure.

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Reba

to everyone for your suggestions and experiences. I will try to find a gentle way to approach the mom about this. She's probably been bombarded by all kinds of "advice" so I have to be careful about my approach. It encourages me to know that other people have the experience so I can build on that.

jazzy

My friend who was a teacher for the special ed kids especially with autism. She uses sign language with them cuz she is deaf herself.

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AlleyCat

Last year, I was asked to teach a local autistic child basic sign language. He was 9 years old and up to that point, had never communicated with his parents in any way. I was rather shocked that the parents hadn't made any effort sooner. He was already 9 years old! But anyway, teaching him, as well as the parents, basic sign to communicate his needs REALLY helped him, I think!

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VamPyroX

Every autistic kid is different. It never hurts to try. After all, they might prefer to communicate in other ways than just talking.

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