About a year and half ago we started to learn sign language with our boy. In all honesty it didn’t take the first time. In fact it didn’t do anything at all except frustrate us and him. He didn’t understand what we were trying to do and we ended up quitting.
I think that at 3 years old he was just too young. All children develop differently, and that holds true for autistic kids as well.
We tried again about six months ago, and what a miracle. Our little clam has opened up in ways that we never expected. He has gone from not understanding or at least not being able to communicate what he understands to having some semblance of normal communication with his parents and siblings.
We made the plunge and spent over $300 and got the “Signing Time” DVD collection. Now I’m not selling them and I could care less if you run out and buy them or not, but they have literally opened up a whole new world for us.
We have two other children, one nine and one four. All of the children love the videos and as parents we are learning the signs as well. Now our little boy can identify all of the foods he likes, as well as a variety of other activities and objects. It is so much easier to be able to say it is bed time than to have to show him the bed etc.
I know that for us learning sign language has been a huge bonus.
Showing posts with label signing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label signing. Show all posts
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Dealing With “What do You Want”
Perhaps the most frustrating part of dealing with our particular child has been the “what do you want” routine.
Without the ability to communicate in other ways, he has developed a way of communicating which is to grab your hand and take you into a room where the object of his desire is located. Then we get to play a little game where we attempt to figure out which object it is.
For parents who are dealing with a child in similar circumstances I can recommend the following things:
First, make sure that anything you don’t want the kid to have or to harass you about constantly is in a locked cabinet.
Second, put the items that you do want the child to have regular access to in plain view, but just out of reach (so they don’t get into it and make a huge mess). That way the choices will be much more obvious.
Finally, before you give out the object, make the child give a sign or a word (any sound similar to the word is good). This really does encourage speech development.
Without the ability to communicate in other ways, he has developed a way of communicating which is to grab your hand and take you into a room where the object of his desire is located. Then we get to play a little game where we attempt to figure out which object it is.
For parents who are dealing with a child in similar circumstances I can recommend the following things:
First, make sure that anything you don’t want the kid to have or to harass you about constantly is in a locked cabinet.
Second, put the items that you do want the child to have regular access to in plain view, but just out of reach (so they don’t get into it and make a huge mess). That way the choices will be much more obvious.
Finally, before you give out the object, make the child give a sign or a word (any sound similar to the word is good). This really does encourage speech development.
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