How long did it take your children with Autism/Fragile X to start to sign?

[Admin]

I know a number of you have children with autism and or fragile X and I'm curious as to your experiences introducting sign to them. How long did it take before they started to sign ? How did you go about introducing sign? What worked best for you?

Thanks so much for sharing! We have a number of parents who ar very curious about this so I thought I'd ask for the group!

-Karen

[carievercell]

my child learned sign very quickly! They were trying to force PECS, and he would not cooperate, so they also threw in sign, and he responded back to the sign. Some people still try to force other forms of communication, but i say he is trying to communicate through sign, so quit trying to force other things i am not against other forms, but sign works for him. I would say he picked up maybe the second time he was signed to. He will even sign in his sleep or sign to himself like he is talking to himslef. I love to see it!

[sacmom]

Brandon caught on quickly as well. To our amazement he started signing the first time we popped in the first DVD (volume 1). He'd sign along while watching Rachel and the kids on the screen (still does). He currently only uses a handful of signs on his own, but when watching the videos he can do just about all of them (volumes 1-4 and 6).

Oh and we just received the gift set (volumes 7-9) today. :D

[Breger3]

Elizabeth caught on right away too, but it was ST that introduced her to signing, so I think that helped!

[starsekker]

I had higher hopes for my youngest. She has been exposed to Signing Times pretty much all of her life. Although, at 20 months she only has two signs - Shoes and Eat. Shoes is one of her few words that she has. Eat is nice because it is at least something that she can say. She only picked up on it a month ago, and can now actually express when she is hungry. I was thinking about trying the baby sign dvds, thinking that maybe that would help. But she is deffinatly getting the board books for xmas. I have to say, her eyes light up when Signing Times comes on the TV.

[brenkachika]

My son is 4, will be five in December, and he has yet to pick it up. He avoids eye contact (high functioning autism) and I think that is why.
-Kerry

[LisafromNY]

We ordered and started watching ST in February 2003 (Mike who is autistic was then 3). I had my 2nd son (Jason) in March 2003, so we consider his introduction to ST in the womb.
Mike started signing that fall (2003)..HOWEVER....he started to spell out (with alphabet puzzles) and WRITE the ST words before he signed them.

Jason started signing as soon as he realized he had hands.

Mike is now 6 and Jason is 3.5 ~ Mike started using words earlier this year and has been gaining verbal vocabulary ever since (he rarely signs, however I keep him acclimated since I do not want him to lose this). Jason, my little terror will still speak and sign at times. He thinks he's funny too, asking for ice cream at 10pm, and when I tell him NO, he signs "I want ice cream" as if I did not hear him the first time! :p

[brenkachika]

I should clarify - my son was exposed to signing since birth, simple signing that his sisters signed. I think that was one of my warning signs that something was not right. He did not sign like my girls did. He still does not, but he is doing well in many other areas.
-Kerry

[brenkachika]

Now I have an answer! He will be five in 2 months, and my son signed! What got him was the Zoo Train. He fixates on trains, and loves the zoo, so it makes sense! He also has recently become excited about camping, and signed "tent!" It's really nice to see!
-Kerry

[c01dunlap]

Now I have an answer! He will be five in 2 months, and my son signed! What got him was the Zoo Train. He fixates on trains, and loves the zoo, so it makes sense! He also has recently become excited about camping, and signed "tent!" It's really nice to see!
-Kerry
Wow, Kerry, GREAT news!! That is so fantastic! {{{ST! HUGS}}} to you and your signing family! (Just read about your 18-month-old's signing 'skills' (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2155) in the other forum thread. ;) )

[sacmom]

I should clarify - my son was exposed to signing since birth, simple signing that his sisters signed.

I should also clarify. I started signing with my boys about a year ago. So Brandon was 8 and Matthew was 5.



Now I have an answer! He will be five in 2 months, and my son signed! What got him was the Zoo Train. He fixates on trains, and loves the zoo, so it makes sense! He also has recently become excited about camping, and signed "tent!" It's really nice to see!
-Kerry

That is wonderful! :D Brandon fixates on sprinklers :eek: , so if it is water related he loves it!

[twinmom]

Hi,
To add a little to this thread, my 22 month old twins have finally started doing a litlle signing, after several months of watching ST, and also getting hand-over-hand instruction.

Each will occasionally sign "eat" and "milk". One signs "more" intermittently, and the other signs "more" very frequently. Imitation is very hard for them, so I think they need the "hand-over-hand" practice in addition to ST (which they love!)

Alice

[itsren]

We began the testing process for Autism and received a diagnosis when our son was 18 months old. Other than screaming and headbanging, he had no other way to communicate with us - no words, no signs, nothing. We were taught to sign with him - but it was the technique that we were taught that made the difference. Using the following technique, it took about 2 months before our son started to sign.

Our therapists began to work with him to find out what would get some sort of positive response from him. We learned that swinging in a swing would. So, we began to swing him and sign with him.

His first sign was "more". We would swing him for a few swings, stop the swing, then using the hand-over-hand technique, form his hand into the "more" sign. I spent hours doing this with him. He finally "got it" and started signing "more" on his own. His other signs grew from there.

Today, at 27 months old, we still utilize the swing to help him learn. It's a holiday weekend - and his change in schedule has caused him to tantrum and "stim" a little more. He asked to swing, so I let him swing. He has swung, off and on, for at least 2 hours today - watching Signing Time the whole time. As I swing him, I can see his little brain is working very hard and we will probably see even more signs emerging. He's finally done swinging and is playing with his toys - but Signing Time is still running in the background.

We installed an indoor swing from our ceiling that faces the TV. We bought one of those plastic toddler swings for about $14.00 and my husband used very large and sturdy eye hooks and heavy duty carabineers to suspend it from (if you do this - make sure you know what you're doing and how to connect it to the wood ceiling beams properly so it is safe).

When we see him get aggravated or start to stim, we put him in the swing and push him. He loves it. And, we love not seeing him break into a full-blown tantrum or stim. Having positive, educational videos like Signing Time helps a lot! His sign language and verbal language would not be where it is today without a swing and Signing Time.

Today, he signs dozens of signs and speaks over 100 words. If he gets too frustrated, he resorts back to sign language. We use a single "help" picture card for those times when he's so overwhelmed or frustrated and can't pull out a word or sign.

[itsren]

I should add that Bryan, my little guy with autism, is a twin and his typically developing twin sister also has a huge impact on his ability to pick up sign language and speech. They have a special bond and way of communicating with each other.

[Bill]

Just wondering if any one has tried Cued Speech to go along with learning signs as a way to promote language?

:p

[twinmom]

I mentioned above that my twins were using about three signs at 22 months.
Now, at almost three, one twin uses between 40 and 50 signs (and more than 100 words), while the other still has fewer than ten signs.

This is interesting because they are identical twins, both autistic, but very different in their communication styles.

The twin who doesn't sign much occasionally uses some pretty hard signs (helicopter, clothes, swing, kite). Then he'll stop using them again. He also went through a short time when he tried to sing along with the song "Lay down on your bed, pull your blanket high, etc." It's so mysterious figuring him out.

Anyway, I wanted to say that after a little more than a year of ST, there is definitely a big difference!

[TracyFawn]

Wow, my son Noah (Bitty is now 6) is autistic and I am at times so worn out. How do you do it? Noah didn't have any language (except his own) until last year when we were introduced to ST. He also goes in spurts of using signs that are a little harder. ST has somehow magically connected a big puzzle piece of his communication. He use to just point or put your hand on what he wanted, now he will give it an effort to tell you what he wants. Although, he does get really frustrated when he can't communicate what he wants and then we have the melt down. But we don't have those near as often as we use to. I must say I admire you.

[roz]

My son Aspen has just been diagnosed with Autism last month. This is not the only thing he has...he is also hard of hearing from a brain tumor as a baby and Chemo. We started signing with him at the age of 2. He didn't pick it up for a couple of years and he still has lots to learn to communicate with us and he is 5 now. I think alot has to do with how old your child is inside there own mind. Aspen functions at a 16 to 20 month old...not really ready to communicate much farther then needs and wants. We work all day with the DVD's and just signing everything we can to him and hope it sticks. Some days he will learn a new sign after a few min. of seeing it, other days he doesn't care to pay any attention to it at all. Don't get discurraged it will happen in time. Remember to try new tactics and find what works for your child. I am doing that all the time now.

[LizzeeB]

hi there,
my name is Elizabeth and i have a 3 year old son who has autism. After being introduced to signing time from family members(Brett and Mandi Hansen), our son went from about 5 speaking words to 50 speaking words and signs in a matter of 3-4 months. And now, 11 months later.....i can't count the number of words and signs he now has. I am looking for some good books on signing so that i can keep it up. He truly uses ASL just as much as speech if not more and we feel that he will always use ASL. So we have comitted to having it as our second language in our home. He is speech delayed by about 18 months, but i have to be honest...it is not so much of a worry knowing that he can use his signs to communicate and that allows us less stress and worry and we can help him catch up on his terms! So, thank you Rachel and thank you Signing Time for helping our days be that much more fun and worry free!

[LizzeeB]

Just a little note...he "stims" as well and when we see him starting to pace and then hum, we either put on ST or pull out his crayons and have him color pictures from Rachel's ST coloring books. This has been an instant stim stopper for us and we can't tell you how cool that is. :D

[purplewowies]

I know an autistic boy (he's not mine i don't have any kids) and he's soooo cute! the only signs he uses are more and eat and he doesn't really use them anymore. he "stims," doing "more" close to his chin. i love signing time, and when his dad told me he knew what it was, i was like "WOW, REALLY?!" until he started talking about thinking the rachel was "hot" :confused: That made me avoid him for about an hour or two. No offense, Rachel!