Question about ASL & SEE

C

chris' mom

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We've been teaching my son ASL, it was suggested that I switch to SEE since we are also teaching him to verbally communcate as well as I use verbal with my other kids and find it difficult to sign and talk at the same time. So in your opinion should I switch to SEE or just continue with ASL? I'm asking because I want to teach him sign to communicate later in life if he needs it. I'm worried about teaching him SEE if most people use ASL.

Thanks in advance
 
ASL is what he will need later, and I could say his siblings should learn with him so they have a relationship later in life with easy communication.
 
Shadow said:
ASL is what he will need later, and I could say his siblings should learn with him so they have a relationship later in life with easy communication.
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I've not really learned ASL (grammer wise) yet so I only use words here and there to get my point across. But is it hard to sign ASL while you are verbally talking exact english?
 
i would continue teaching him asl. signing while verbally speaking (referred to as simcom) only serves to complicate things. it would be much easier for your son if you taught him asl rather than see. at some point, you could teach him pse (pidgin signed english), but i wouldn't recommend that until he's competent in asl. jmo.
 
ASL is a language while SEE is not. It is always better for children to achieve and establish a strong first language rather than none.
 
chris' mom said:
We've been teaching my son ASL, it was suggested that I switch to SEE since we are also teaching him to verbally communcate as well as I use verbal with my other kids and find it difficult to sign and talk at the same time. So in your opinion should I switch to SEE or just continue with ASL? I'm asking because I want to teach him sign to communicate later in life if he needs it. I'm worried about teaching him SEE if most people use ASL.

Thanks in advance
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How old is he? What is his hearing loss like? What is his mode of communication, primarily?
 
faire_jour said:
How old is he? What is his hearing loss like? What is his mode of communication, primarily?
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He is 4, he is moderate hearing loss and he is learning verbal but it is not clear enough to get his points acrossed with the signs.

Here's my thing, I have 2 other kids that I get them in groups and tell them waht I want them to do. Since sign ASL it's very difficult to get it acrossed to all kids. B/c I speak and sign. Other thing I could do is give the directions to the hearing kids verbably then sign to chris. umm idea
 
chris' mom said:
He is 4, he is moderate hearing loss and he is learning verbal but it is not clear enough to get his points acrossed with the signs.

Here's my thing, I have 2 other kids that I get them in groups and tell them waht I want them to do. Since sign ASL it's very difficult to get it acrossed to all kids. B/c I speak and sign. Other thing I could do is give the directions to the hearing kids verbably then sign to chris. umm idea
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I think your hearing kids will learn signs very quickly. They should have no trouble understanding you. We use CASE when we speak and sign at the same time, but there are times when we turn off our voices and just sign ASL.
 
chris' mom said:
He is 4, he is moderate hearing loss and he is learning verbal but it is not clear enough to get his points acrossed with the signs.

Here's my thing, I have 2 other kids that I get them in groups and tell them waht I want them to do. Since sign ASL it's very difficult to get it acrossed to all kids. B/c I speak and sign. Other thing I could do is give the directions to the hearing kids verbably then sign to chris. umm idea
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That is going to set him apart and emphasize the fact that he is "different" from his sibs. I would use sign in all my communications in the home, no matter which child it was with. That will also communicate the message to his hearing sibs that families do what families need to do for all members.
 
chris' mom said:
We've been teaching my son ASL, it was suggested that I switch to SEE since we are also teaching him to verbally communcate as well as I use verbal with my other kids and find it difficult to sign and talk at the same time. So in your opinion should I switch to SEE or just continue with ASL? I'm asking because I want to teach him sign to communicate later in life if he needs it. I'm worried about teaching him SEE if most people use ASL.

Thanks in advance
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SEE is not the recognized sign language of the deaf community in the United States. According to NAD, "ASL is the recognized sign language of the deaf community in the United States of America."

NAD President’s Blog » Blog Archive » NAD Releases American Sign Language Position Statement
 
To answer the question on SEE, me personally, I wouldn't bother teaching that. I am only a student of deaf studies and from what I am told it doesn't make it any easier to learn english. Also, as a late deafened person that was exposed to SEE and ASL (asl later and see first), I was a lot more resistant and disinterested in learning SEE than ASL. SEE looks weird and feels weird and is just not something that comes naturally as far as learning it. Why not ASL first and then speak to kids after so they can see and understand both maybe?
 
I would use what I think of as the Italian approach.

When I was a kid I knew a couple of Italian families. When the door closed and they were outside they spoke English. When the door closed and they were inside they spoke Italian, no exceptions.

It was a good plan and it worked. The kids were totally bilingual.
 
Today was the first time that I have ever heard of anyone actually using SEE and that was a speech teacher in our district. She is using SEE with a deaf five year old that she works with for improving her written English skills, largely grammar. I would think this would be very confusing for the child and am wondering if anyone has any practical, real-world, experience with such a situation and if there is any evidence if this is a successful practice.
 
dorothy5664 said:
Today was the first time that I have ever heard of anyone actually using SEE and that was a speech teacher in our district. She is using SEE with a deaf five year old that she works with for improving her written English skills, largely grammar. I would think this would be very confusing for the child and am wondering if anyone has any practical, real-world, experience with such a situation and if there is any evidence if this is a successful practice.
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SEE works as a teaching tool to teach children writing, ONLY if the children has a strong first language. I used it during my language arts class with my deaf students and they all have already have a strong first language in ASL. Now, they are transferring it to learning English. Using SEE for language development in deaf children is a BIG mistake.

If the boy already has a strong first language and the speech teacher is just using SEE to model the English language during speech sessions, then I dont think it would confuse the boy although I think the boy seems a bit too young . If SEE was used for the boys' language development, then the speech teacher is doing him an injustic.
 
shel90 said:
SEE works as a teaching tool to teach children writing, ONLY if the children has a strong first language. I used it during my language arts class with my deaf students and they all have already have a strong first language in ASL. Now, they are transferring it to learning English. Using SEE for language development in deaf children is a BIG mistake.

If the boy already has a strong first language and the speech teacher is just using SEE to model the English language during speech sessions, then I dont think it would confuse the boy although I think the boy seems a bit too young . If SEE was used for the boys' language development, then the speech teacher is doing him an injustic.
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Just curious, How is that doing him injustice?
 
Secretblend said:
Just curious, How is that doing him injustice?
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Because the boy isnt getting a proper language model since SEE is a MCE not a language itself.

Would that be doing a hearing child injustic if he/she was only exposed to a spoken language with ASL syntax? That wouldnt be a proper language to take ASL and convert into a spoken language just like how ASL has been converted into the syntaz of a spoken language. It is linguistically confusing for young children without a strong first language.
 
Shel,

I never realized you were a teacher. You say deaf students, does that mean you teach in a deaf school or general ed. with deaf students in your class? Back to the original topic, as much as I know about the situation, which isn't much, I wonder if they are putting the cart before the horse.
 
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