One of the fantastic things I have learnt as a result of having my eldest daughter is sign language. そして、私は本当のファンです! これは、通信を支援し、赤ちゃんや子供たちの学習のための素晴らしいです – whether or not they have a speech delay / hearing difficulties. ここに私たちの経験は、これまでのところです:-

Knowing to expect a speech delay, we embarked on learning to sign before our daughter was even born. 私たちは、ベビーサインの本を購入し、「牛乳」などの関連するであろういくつかの基本的な兆候を学び始めました, ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ and ‘book/story’, など. 私たちは彼女と一緒に本を共有すると、彼女は数週間だけのカップル歳の時、キーサインに署名開始しました.

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). 私達に戻って彼女の最初の兆候が付属しました “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. で 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”. 歳まで 24 mths (2歳) she knew and used 240 signs! 典型的な子供のための比較において, スピーチは歳からどんどん来ます 2 – at 2yrs the average child will speak 100 words, by 2.5yrs they will know ~300. だから、私たちのために署名の美しさは私達が私達の娘は彼女の仲間と同じ語彙を持っていたことを見ることができたということでした,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. それは彼女の自信を与えました, allowed her to make choices, ask for things and make her feelings/ ideas known. 彼女は夜の庭でNinky-nonkのための彼女の自身のサインアップをしました! 彼女は遊びに署名したとさえ私に彼女の世界に素晴らしい洞察力を与える彼女の夢に署名しました!

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 歳. ただ、我々はギャップを埋めるために署名するためにそれをしていなかったを逃したであろうすべての会話やコミュニケーションを考えます.