There’s a cool website called Signing Savvy that we heard about through the Down syndrome clinic at Children’s hospital.
Today as I was feeding Julian winter squash in his bumbo I was also teaching him sign language for “eat” and “more”. Tom and I also use the sign for “milk” when giving him a bottle.
Children with Down syndrome do particularly well with sign language. They use facial expressions, gestures, mime, and vocalizations to express their ideas. But because spoken language often develops more slowly than receptive language, sign language is often the tool they need to build their confidence communicating.
Right now Julian doesn’t do the signs back to us yet but I know that one day he will just start doing them if we continue the repetition!
I taught a down syndrome child, Gretchen. His mother used to use sign language with him at the lessons and it totally worked. We took an extended vacation and when we returned, he was out of control, so we stopped the lessons. It was like starting all over again, and also, his mother got really busy at work. It was a nice experience though, and in the beginning I totally enjoyed the lessons. Sign language is a great thing Gretchen!!!
That is a cool site!!! Keep us posted on his progress and the new words you are teaching him.
We used sign language with Rice and loved it. Great way to communicate with little ones before they become verbal.
On a different note, I taught a first grader with Down Syndrome last year and she has used sign language since a very young age. She is verbal but sometimes used sign when her emotions took over a little. It helped me and her aide to understand her feelings.
PS You and Tom inspire me!
When our church was running a school we had a great kindergarten teacher who encouraged parents of a Down syndrome child to let him join the class. As a result, the other kids picked up some sign language, and the teacher says that if he didn’t know the sign for a particular word, sometimes he’d make up his own sign — I know he did that for “pizza!”
Lisa Messier Wilcox I love signing with my kids too. It took WAY longer for my kids to start using signs than any of the books said. In fact, they pretty much started using signs and words at the same time, but the signs helped us to understand their words, wh…
See More
January 18 at 8:51pm · Like
Kim Klemek I often use the basics with my kiddos too. Actually planning on spending some of my extra time these days stepping up my vocabulary. That site should be very helpful. Thanks!