New to the forum- Mom of 3 with Special Needs

[LisaTmom23]

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to be here. I know I will learn a lot from all of you. :) I have 3 very special children age 9, 4, and 10 months. My oldest son JP is on the autism spectrum. My 4 year old Joel was born with a host of medical issues requiring a tracheostomy and feeding tube and our newest addtion Sierra came to us at 6 months of age with several extra tubes as well. She is 10 months old now.
We immediately introduced sign language to our youngest child Sierra when she came to us in January. Having a tracheostomy, we knew it would be some time before she could communicate verbally. She loves watching us sign and has actually signed momma, daddy, and attempts brother! :p Ironically, her hearing was tested last week and we found that she has "maximum, conductive hearing loss" and a preliminary diagnosis of CHARGE syndrome. Signing has just become that much more important to us.
I guess this is mostly an introduction, but I do have one small question. We only have the first 3 volumes and I'm trying to decide which ones to add to our library next. Can anyone recommend what would be a better purchase? Also, I noticed there are new baby sign DVD's. Would those be better for our situation? I know there are great descriptions on the website, but I really wanted some personal experience to back up our choice. Thanks so much!

[dmmetler]

I'd really suggest Baby Signing Time, even though most of the signs are the same as on 1-3. The slower pace and format seems to really get kids signing with the DVD and signing back. I started signing with my daughter almost from birth, and we got ST 1-6 at 6 months. She had quite a few signs, but then I broke down and bought BST when she was a year old, mostly because the next ones weren't out yet and I was seeing silly pizzas in my sleep-and within about a month of getting BST, she had jumped from about 25 signs to being able to sign everything in both DVDs, plus a lot of other signs. It was like seeing all those babies her age signing showed her that she could do it, and all those pieces of information just fell together at once. I haven't counted her signs recently, but I suspect that she's well over 100 signs and probably close to that on spoken words now at 18 months.

[ST! LeeAnn]

I agree. Welcome to the Forum. I hope you will enjoy the friendships that we have here.
LeeAnn

[jenml]

We only have the first 3 volumes and I'm trying to decide which ones to add to our library next. Can anyone recommend what would be a better purchase?

We love all the dvd's, but Henry LOVED 4, 5, 6 very much when they came out, and even after 7-13 and BST, he still requests those three (3,4,5) the most.

[Krista]

Hi!
I haven't been to the site in quite a while, and I'm pleased to come back and see this post! Welcome!
As far as my experience, we have only ever used ST, so I have none with the BST. I really think that 4,5,6 are just as important at 1-3. I have 3 children. Madison turns 6 tomorrow, Anika is 3 & Corbin is 3. Anika is our special needs sweet heart. She has mild low tone cerebral palsy, severe GERD, tracheal & laryngomalacia (we've avoided the trach), g-tube, etc. We've been signing with all the kids since Madison was an infant- I'm already fluent (I'm hard of hearing myself). It's nice to "meet" you, and I hope I'll have more opportunity to be back :)

[LisaTmom23]

Thanks for the wonderful welcome! I'm so excited about the feedback. I guess its time to go shopping! :D

BTW, can anyone see my signature picture?? If so, is it too big??

[c01dunlap]

What a cute pic of the 3 of them! It's stretching the border a bit, but it looks okay to me! I'm on a high speed connection now, so I don't know if it is slow to load for those on dial up.

[LisaTmom23]

Thanks. If I need to take it off I will. :p

[fia's mom]

I must say you have some very beautiful children. What cuties! :D

[Kei_as_in_K]

Welcome Lisa and family! Your kids are beautiful! I think your kids (and you) will all enjoy Baby Signing Time!