To sign or not to sign
Sign or not sign? The question is: To sign or not to sign? Families affected by deafness seem to be divided on this question. Some families feel that total communication is the best way to go, while others prefer verbal communication only. As a parent, there’s no such thing as the right or wrong choice. I can only speak from my own experience, which has been overwhelmingly positive.
We decided that our babies would learn British Sign Language as a communication tool. We did this for a number of reasons. First, we wanted to give our babies the chance to communicate as early as possible before they received their hearing aids. When Isabelle was a child, we attended The Signing Company and received a solid grounding in BSL. Isabelle, now four years old, doesn’t stop speaking (! We’ve recently been following her younger brother, Jack, on his signing journey.
We started with some basic signs like milk,” mummy,’ ‘daddy,’ and more.’ Both signing and saying these words were important. In the beginning, we didn’t use many other signs because we wanted to help them make connections and put those funny hand gestures into context. As I signed “milk,” Jack laughed and smiled. It was about five or six months ago, and he is still very happy when this sign is used.
After Jack began to respond to signing, I started to introduce signs everywhere we went: while cooking, reading books, and playing. Sometimes, this means that you can only sign half of a word while holding a toy or book. The benefit remains the same, even if you only have a half-sign while holding a book or toy (or Jack!
We love singing ‘Brown Bear Brown Bear’ because it includes both animals and colors. Jack has been encouraged to move the wooden puzzle pieces in a way that is similar to the sign. (For example, he can wave the airplane up in the air). Toy animals are used to help him distinguish between the two animal signs he points out or indicates by eye gaze. This should eventually lead to him returning the signal.
In the last month, Jack has begun signing back. It’s wonderful to see Jack confidently telling us that he wants bubbles or water after almost a whole year of what felt like a one-sided discussion! He seems to learn a new sign every few days and clearly enjoys being able to communicate. Even before I knew my children were deaf, I wanted to sign with them. Our family has found it a wonderful tool for early communication.
