Introducing a toddler to ASL (and actually seeing her USE it)??

straddler

straddler

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I'm going to be starting a new nanny job next week. I'm Deaf/hoh and the family is entirely hearing. The two kids that will be in my care are aged 22 months and newborn.

Obviously, I want to teach them to sign (this is also part of why they hired me--they are excited to have their kids be bilingual and also would like to learn to communicate with baby sign language) but I don't know exactly how to go about it. I'm not worried about the newborn; my issue is with the 2-year-old. I can't exactly just come in on the first day and do nothing but sign to her. That would cause too much frustration, confusion, etc. At the same time, I know that she'll be less inclined to sign back to me if I speak to her while signing.

The best idea I can come up with is to start by speaking and signing (for, say, 1 week), then on the second week, I would stop saying nouns and just sign them. After a while, I'd stop saying verbs, then drop adjectives, etc.

My QQ: I'm not sure how quickly or slowly to progress, around when I should expect to see her using any signs, or if my idea is the best approach. If anyone has any experience with this, I'd love to hear your stories and suggestions...THANKS! :ty:
 
At 22 months, I think you will be surprized at how quickly she will pick up signs. You can go about it the way you described; I certainly see nothing wrong with that approach. Or you can start by just signing the nouns, and add grammatical markers as she progresses. Just try to keep it on the same level as her verbal development currently.

With the infant, just sign whenever in her presence, whether you are addressing her directly or not.

Good luck. I look forward to hearing more about your expierience as the kids progress.
 
I hope your employer family realize how lucky they are and what a gem they have in you Straddler :) A Nanny and A Teacher too. :cool2:

I am hearing and ran256 is HOHw/HA's. Our 8 mo. old granddaughter loves to see sign and is picking up although not really signing yet. Our 7 and 9 yr. old grandsons have picked up basic conversational ASL through seeing and doing with their papaw and I. They comprehend more than they have vocabulary to express but that will come.

Good luck to you!!
How cool, a job you will love to do everyday! Awesome!!
 
I thought the punch line would be "Priceless!" like a Mastercard ad. :hmm:
 
Children tend to learn sign language better and fasster then Adults. Thats just my opinion though as I don't have anything scientific to back that up.
 
jasin said:
Children tend to learn sign language better and fasster then Adults. Thats just my opinion though as I don't have anything scientific to back that up.
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The human brain acquires language best around age 2--that's why toddlers seem to suddenly have a huge boom in the number of words they know/can use. It is best to teach foreign languages before age 6 or so (to become natively fluent). After that, the initial language-learning parts of the brain shut down. That's why it is very difficult to pick up new languages, accent and all, as adults. Also, feral children who are not exposed to any language before they hit 6-ish have been shown to be unable to learn grammar. They can learn some words, but they will never understand the concept of sentences or phrases.

Don't mind me, I just watch too much Discovery Health channel :)
 
straddler said:
The human brain acquires language best around age 2--that's why toddlers seem to suddenly have a huge boom in the number of words they know/can use. It is best to teach foreign languages before age 6 or so (to become natively fluent). After that, the initial language-learning parts of the brain shut down. That's why it is very difficult to pick up new languages, accent and all, as adults. Also, feral children who are not exposed to any language before they hit 6-ish have been shown to be unable to learn grammar. They can learn some words, but they will never understand the concept of sentences or phrases.

Don't mind me, I just watch too much Discovery Health channel :)
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Discovery Health has lots of good information. And you are correct about feral children. And we see the same problems in deaf children who are language delayed. Even though they may learn some words, they have never been able to develop the intuitive grammar and pragmatics that comes with natural language acquisition.
 
It's really easy to teach sign to toddlers. I began teaching my baby sister signs when she was about 6 months old, and she picked up signs real fast. She was really good by the time she was 4 years old, she knew a lot of signs. Unfortunately, my mother died, and my dad's wife moved in a couple months after my mom died, and she forbade me from playing with my sister, and as a result, my sister lost her ASL skills. Now she only knows how to fingerspell. She is 22 years old now.

But anyhow, babies and toddlers pick up on language really easily and fast. Their growing brain is like a sponge, it absorbs everything they learn. You won't have much difficulty, I promise. :)
 
jillio said:
Discovery Health has lots of good information. And you are correct about feral children. And we see the same problems in deaf children who are language delayed. Even though they may learn some words, they have never been able to develop the intuitive grammar and pragmatics that comes with natural language acquisition.
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I knew a few deaf children growing up who had diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders, though I (and many of the teachers, interpreters, and speech therapists) doubted that they were accurate. Most of them just weren't exposed to language until a late age because nobody realized that they couldn't hear. One boy in particular was born with many health problems and spent most of his early years in the hospital. Under the guise of everything else, nobody attributed his language delay to hearing loss until he was about 6 years old. It's too bad--he was a brilliant kid. He was incredibly creative and original (even shaved his hair into a mohawk once) despite hardly being able to communicate. It makes me wonder what he would have been like if he were exposed to language earlier.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
It's really easy to teach sign to toddlers. I began teaching my baby sister signs when she was about 6 months old, and she picked up signs real fast. She was really good by the time she was 4 years old, she knew a lot of signs. Unfortunately, my mother died, and my dad's wife moved in a couple months after my mom died, and she forbade me from playing with my sister, and as a result, my sister lost her ASL skills. Now she only knows how to fingerspell. She is 22 years old now.

But anyhow, babies and toddlers pick up on language really easily and fast. Their growing brain is like a sponge, it absorbs everything they learn. You won't have much difficulty, I promise. :)
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That's horrible! Why would your dad's wife forbid you from playing with your own sister? Sounds like an evil stepmother to me :(
 
straddler said:
I knew a few deaf children growing up who had diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders, though I (and many of the teachers, interpreters, and speech therapists) doubted that they were accurate. Most of them just weren't exposed to language until a late age because nobody realized that they couldn't hear. One boy in particular was born with many health problems and spent most of his early years in the hospital. Under the guise of everything else, nobody attributed his language delay to hearing loss until he was about 6 years old. It's too bad--he was a brilliant kid. He was incredibly creative and original (even shaved his hair into a mohawk once) despite hardly being able to communicate. It makes me wonder what he would have been like if he were exposed to language earlier.
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I know, its really a sad situation. Unfortunately, many, many kids were misdiagnosed in the past, and today, many are still believed by the ignorant masses to be less than capable of what they truly are based on the fact of language delays. In the educational arena particularly, it seems to be much easier to come up with a dual diagnosis of learning disability or MR than it is to admit that they (the educators) have simply created the problems by insisting that deaf children belong in an oral, mainstream environment. And of course the doctors who recommend such to parents are reluctant to admit that their advise has actually done harm to a child.
 
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