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Topic: Signing

03-09-2006 03:52 PM



McKenna
Senior Member

Location: San Antonio, Texas
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 172
Last visit: 03-24-2006

If you ventured over to the brag section, you'll notice my happy brag! I have a question about what other first signs you have worked on and need ideas of how to work with them other than meal times. Because of Darah's feeding problems, she's doing a behavior modification session during each meal, so working on signs is next to impossible. She's got "All done" down!!

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~McKenna~
Mom to Darah Faith (8-11-04)
Darah's Website

03-09-2006 04:33 PM



naomid
Super Member

Location: California
Registered: Apr 2003
Posts: 2809
Last visit: 03-24-2006

The signs Callum first learnt were

bath
more
milk
all done

since then we've added
bear
giraffe
elephant
dog
diaper
potty
sleep
cry
music
apple
eat
sleep
cookie
cheese
bird
mummy
daddy
baby
car

and then some he made up himself
wiggles
shrek
donkey
squirrel
ernie (from sesame street)
man

Some of them he's now dropped and alot of them now have a verbal approximation or real word that goes along with it.

We'd usually choose a sign for something he enjoyed and do it over and over again while saying the word as well. Then we'd help him make the sign and then he'd catch on and do it himself. Callum is really into animals so that's why all the animal signs.
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Naomi
Mum to Callum (DS) 3/03 and Kieran 8/04 Read all about us

03-09-2006 05:05 PM



kathleen
Senior Member

Location: Chico, CA
Registered: Dec 2005
Posts: 317
Last visit: 03-22-2006

I am certainly no expert, but here is what we started with.
Bath, More, Milk, Eat, Sleep, diaper, poop, and I'm sure a mommy, and daddy.
now we do: Different foods she likes, animals, play, toys, ball, car, hungry, clean, dirty, kiss, wet, dry, hot, cold, fun, game, dance, music, etc. You get the picture! Have fun!
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Chico, CA

03-09-2006 05:26 PM



Kokie
Senior Member

Location: California
Registered: Jul 2005
Posts: 129
Last visit: 03-22-2006

I am using mainly cued speech with my brother. With CS, I do it at times when I am talking. When I show him the flashcards I have, I cue the word. He LOVES animals . . .so when he sees the dogs, I cue "dog" and he says, "da". I truly believe the cueing is helping him . . . I started doing it alot with him about a month ago, and he has started saying sounds consistently, whereas a month ago, he was just babbling and not saying many actual sounds.

Qadoshyah
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twins - February 2005

03-09-2006 05:29 PM



azvalerie
Senior Member

Location: Phoenix, AZ
Registered: Mar 2004
Posts: 675
Last visit: 03-24-2006

Yup, we did those words too:

Milk
Drink
Eat
More (that seems to be one of those words they really catch on quick to!)
Daddy
Mommy (he's just NOW starting to use that one)
All done

Now we've added:
Sleep
Diaper
Potty
Bird
Baby
Dog
Cat
Play
Water

I know he knows more than that, but can't think of them at the moment. He made up signs for bear, cartoons, "Show me" (that's my favorite one). He has others that I have no clue about either, but I'm learning. As Naomi said, just keep looking for opportunities to use the sign, but keep saying the word too.
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Valerie
Proud mommy to Jaymes Xavier 6/4/03
& Baby #2 - EDD 5/15/06

03-09-2006 05:42 PM



Emdad
Super Moderator

Location: San Diego, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
Posts: 2805
Last visit: 03-24-2006

Yeah, use the ones that happen the most often.
I think the first sign she used regularly was "Candy"

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03-09-2006 08:23 PM



Mindy
Senior Member

Location: Loudon New Hampshire
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 222
Last visit: 03-23-2006

We pretty much followed the signing times dvds. But of course added Mom, Grammy and Grampy. She loves to sign candy and ice cream even though she won't eat either one!
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Mindy
Gram to Lexi (09-10-03 DS)

03-10-2006 05:09 AM



LinMac
Senior Member

Location: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Oct 2005
Posts: 581
Last visit: 03-24-2006

We attended a sign course a few months ago.

We got a few tips to help get Robert motivated.
Use sign that are high reward ones in the begining like food, drink, sweet/candy , music, play, ball, car, toy, cookie. Signs where the kids get 'rewarded' for making the effort to sign.

Another tip...place objects out of their reach so they have to sign for them, like putting the dvd above the tv, or giving them an empty bowl without food, or putting them into the bath without water, or turning off the tv and making them sign.

This might seem a bit tough but the teacher told us you sometimes have to use tough love to get them started.

We didn't have to be 'too' tough with Robert. The penny droped very quickly with him. I think Robert did so well cos we were all signing. Big factor.

Also he loves tons of praise so we were sure to give him that when he made any attempt to sign, even if the sign wasn't that accurate.

I also noticed that word sounds came very quickly after he learned the sign for a word. So be prepared for that .... it's great! I still get a great kick when Robert signs.

Good luck and enjoy.

[Edited by LinMac on 03-10-2006 at 08:08 AM]
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Linda & John
mom to Hannah Kate (Age 7), Robert (04/16/2004, DS)

03-10-2006 09:17 AM



McKenna
Senior Member

Location: San Antonio, Texas
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 172
Last visit: 03-24-2006

What GREAT ideas, Linda! How many signs did they suggest you work on at a time? Should I pick one and work until she gets it, or couple, or a lot???

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~McKenna~
Mom to Darah Faith (8-11-04)
Darah's Website

03-10-2006 09:23 AM



McKenna
Senior Member

Location: San Antonio, Texas
Registered: Feb 2006
Posts: 172
Last visit: 03-24-2006

Thanks everyone for the word ideas! I checked out Signing Times from our library to see how I liked it before I bought it. They have a new "Baby Signing Time.." anyone seen that? I like the older kids one, but am wondering if the baby one would be better for Darah.
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~McKenna~
Mom to Darah Faith (8-11-04)
Darah's Website

03-10-2006 09:24 AM



lespring
Super Member

Location: Twin Cities metro area, MN
Registered: Mar 2005
Posts: 3743
Last visit: 03-22-2006

I'm a sign language interpreter. Typical kids need to hear a new word about 500 times before they're able to use it. For most kids with DS it's going to be much more than that, and that includes for a sign. Sign EVERYTHING you can, but try your best to sign in full sentences. It's the "Language in/language out" theory.
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~Leah~
mom to Noah 18, Tyler 17,Angela 9 (DS)
downcues.com

03-10-2006 01:36 PM



LinMac
Senior Member

Location: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Oct 2005
Posts: 581
Last visit: 03-24-2006

The first night they said pick six signs and do them consitently with your child. Now, that didn't fit right with my thinking. If you were teaching your child a new language you wouldn't just teach they a few words of the language but rather you'd speak all the vocabulary of that langauge. So I ignored that advice.

So I trusted my feelings, and signed every word I knew with Robert. That presented a few problems cos we were only shown 90 signs! So the option of signing full sentance is limited for us. I have since learned that cued speech is problably what I needed to learn but as you can imagine Robert will be around 20 before my service provide get 'cued' into that. Forgive the pun and my sceptism (sp). Leah is the person to talk to about cued speech.

Here in Ireland they were so impressed with Robert signing at 20 months that they asked me to video tape him. I think our service provider is only realising the potential of signing now that they have seen Robert. A bit worrying really!! Althought they were offering sign courses I think they didn't really believe it could work so effectively with our kids at such an early age.

Another reason to sign every thing is so the kids get familiar with hands being very important in communication process. Everyone signing, every word, if possible means they get focus on the hand movements. They learn that the hand are important to communication.

So there I leave you. I haven't any experience of the Signing Times videos. We have been trained in Lamh which is a cut down verion of Irish sign language ( 200 most used works). From what I have learned on this forum it's not really a language, but it's what's used here for kids with special needs.

If Robert was obviously delayed in communication and not doing so well with sign and language development, I'd be following up the cued speech option for sure ( even if it meant having to travel to the US for training).

Let's know how you get on.
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Linda & John
mom to Hannah Kate (Age 7), Robert (04/16/2004, DS)

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