One of the fantastic things I have learnt as a result of having my eldest daughter is sign language. E io sono un vero fan! E 'fantastico per aiutare la comunicazione e l'apprendimento con i neonati e bambini – whether or not they have a speech delay / hearing difficulties. Ecco le nostre esperienze finora:-

Knowing to expect a speech delay, we embarked on learning to sign before our daughter was even born. Abbiamo comprato un libro sul linguaggio dei segni bambino e ha iniziato a imparare alcuni segni di base che sarebbero rilevanti come 'il latte', ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ and ‘book/story’, ecc. Abbiamo iniziato a condividere i libri con la sua firma e le indicazioni chiave quando era solo un paio di settimane di vita.

From 6 mths old, we had input from a speech and language therapist and learnt how to ‘read’ our baby’s earliest communications via eye pointing i.e. put a teddy and a doll in front of her and ask her ‘Where’s the teddy?’ (in sign and speech simultaneously) and then watch carefully where her eyes went to, praising her if she got it right. (Note to readers: You could start these type of activities much earlier than 6 mths but we didn’t know to before that!) From these games we saw that she could understand many words (especially when reinforced with a sign). Il suo primo segno di nuovo a noi è venuto con “more” – we had been teaching her (hand over hand and making the movement for her) to tap her hand on top of our fist to sign ‘more’ when she wanted to repeat a game or story. A 10 mths she would tap our fist without any help/prompt and by 12 mths she was signing it uninitiated to ask for more stories at bedtime!

Signs came thick and fast from 14 mths onwards when she also started to combine signs such as “hungry + food”. All'età di 24 mths (2yrs) she knew and used 240 signs! In confronto per i bambini tipici, discorso viene spesso e veloce a partire dall'età di 2 – at 2yrs the average child will speak 100 words, by 2.5yrs they will know ~300. Così la bellezza di firmare per noi era che abbiamo potuto vedere che la nostra figlia aveva lo stesso vocabolario come i suoi coetanei,even if she couldn’t yet form the words….

It also made her think of herself as a communicator – she initiated conversations (in sign) because she knew we would understand her and respond. Ha dato la sua fiducia, allowed her to make choices, ask for things and make her feelings/ ideas known. Ha fatto il suo proprio segno su per il Ninky-nonk in the Night Garden! Ha firmato nel suo gioco e anche firmato nei suoi sogni mi danno visione meravigliosa nel suo mondo!

niamh signing aged 2 – video clip showing her at just gone 2 yrs signing to me that she is going to the ‘beach’ in her ‘car’ and then ‘going’ ‘horses’ ‘to see’ ‘yes!’

In comparison, her 1st words were “Da-da” at 18mths, “yeah, nao, there, up and dow(n)” at 2 yrs. Basta pensare a tutte le conversazioni e comunicazioni avremmo perso fuori su se non fosse stato per la firma a colmare il divario.