Child with learning /speech delay/global development delay

[smurff]

Hi, this is my first time hear as I never knew this forum was hear! Anyway my dd has everything mentioned I'm the title, when she first seen the speech therapist she mentioned about doing sign language for dd as a way to help her communicate. To be honest it was mentioned in passing really and we thought no more about it. We now have the child early inclusion team helping her to and we were told that when we meet them they will prob mention sign language aswell. She has perfect hearing as she has only just been tested but its for a way to help her communicate. Anyone else learnt sign language to help someone communicate and did it work.
We'd like if poss to get a head start but don't know what to do or where to look, any help would be great thanks

 

[xx_danni_xx]

Hi, my son is registered blind he also has cerebral palsy and a few other problems, he is severely delayed and has no words other then hiya,mama and dada, he's 3 this month. He has speech therapy and we have taught him a few signs even though he's blind and his hearing is perfect it's a way for him to communicate and tell us what he wants. He has a left sided weakness from the cerebral palsy so his signs are restricted and only people who know him understand them but they've really helped with his frustrations and slowly he's starting to try and talk.
Your speech therapist should have some sign along courses that you could attend? This should teach you the basic signs. We just made ours up, for example he touches his mouth to tell us he wants a drink, and taps his hand to say 'more'
You've just got to find what works for you but it's definitely worth a try
Sorry for the essay!
X

 

[Tor]

My son uses PECS (picture exchange communication system) where he will swap Makaton symbols for what he wants, we used this rather than sign language because his eye contact wasn't good enough for signing he just didn't look at us.

The PECS has helped him so much, now he will do a few signs, his eye contact has improved and he will even say the odd word. We did a course through the speech and language therapist to teach us the basic level Makaton signing which I would ask about but in the meantime you can watch videos online of Makaton and pick up a few signs from there, we were told to limit our speech rather than big long sentences that meant nothing to him use a short sentence and just sign the main word in that sentence rather than signing all the words in the way that mr tumble does but that is worth watching too as your daughter might pick things up from it and you can too.

 

[deafgal01]

Signing Time is a good source for kids and parents to learn sign language. It's ASL (american sign language) though so I'm not sure where you live if that's the actual sign language your country uses.

There are tons of resources available for learning sign language online but like I mentioned, it depends on where you live so I don't know which sign language to suggest you learn and websites to look it up at.

 

[andypandy2]

Hi!

At this point I'm not sure what we are looking at with my son (so far delayed understanding and disordered development of speech,) however my husband and I are starting to learn Makaton and I feel it's going well! I ordered the 'Core Vocabulary DVD' from the Makaton charity and I feel I am picking it up quite quickly and my son has used a few signs also.

Basically it feels goo to be helping him.

xx

 

[smurff]

Hi, my son is registered blind he also has cerebral palsy and a few other problems, he is severely delayed and has no words other then hiya,mama and dada, he's 3 this month. He has speech therapy and we have taught him a few signs even though he's blind and his hearing is perfect it's a way for him to communicate and tell us what he wants. He has a left sided weakness from the cerebral palsy so his signs are restricted and only people who know him understand them but they've really helped with his frustrations and slowly he's starting to try and talk.
Your speech therapist should have some sign along courses that you could attend? This should teach you the basic signs. We just made ours up, for example he touches his mouth to tell us he wants a drink, and taps his hand to say 'more'
You've just got to find what works for you but it's definitely worth a try
Sorry for the essay!
X

Thankyou for your reply, your little boy sounds like a little star, we've been thinking of doing our own sign language aswell, like you do I think putting hand to mouth when thirsty and patting tummy when hungry will prob work best for us. Once again thanks for your reply x

 

[smurff]

Hi!

At this point I'm not sure what we are looking at with my son (so far delayed understanding and disordered development of speech,) however my husband and I are starting to learn Makaton and I feel it's going well! I ordered the 'Core Vocabulary DVD' from the Makaton charity and I feel I am picking it up quite quickly and my son has used a few signs also.

Basically it feels goo to be helping him.

xx

That's great, I've heard makaton is quiet easy to pick up and that's what we were considering doing. Just want to make everything as easy as possible for her