Signing baby or trained bear---grrr....

[dmmetler]

We just finished three days of major events with lots of extended family-first Thanksgiving, then my daughter's first birthday party (which her great grandmother hosted and invited FAR too many people to) then a 60th wedding anniversary party. And, at all of them, invariably someone would see me sign to Alli or see her sign back, and we ended up with people trying to get her to demonstrate. The poor kid had no idea what they wanted, or why they kept doing things like hiding her toys to get her to ask for them, and when I tried to intervene, I was treated like the bad guy.

I think she would have been overwhelmed anyway, but come on, the poor kid is just trying to talk. She's not a trained animal-she's a 1 yr old who has about a 20 word vocabulary and who if she gets overstressed when trying to communicate will go into tears. Just because she talks with her hands doesn't change that!!!

GRRRR!!!!!

Then there's all the comments about signing with a hearing child from people who know nothing about it except that it was in the movie they saw last week. It really doesn't matter if they think she's some kind of genius for it or if they think I'm warping her forever because of it. It's still a lot of discussion over something very simple-she has a lot to say and wants to say it.

Sigh....

[andrealynnj]

Yes, I know what you mean. My sister in law is constantly trying to get Imani to sign for other people, of course out of context just asking her to show the sign for such and such word. Not fun for her or helpful for her development.

For example, Luly tells her, sign apple sign apple, Imani hears "Apple, apple" and when she signs it, she is righteously expecting someone to offer her an apple, and instead she gets applause. She is either confused, delighted, or irritated, depending on her mood, but it doesn't help her connect the sign to the item in question. Most annoying.

And then I have the friend who says I just THINK she is signing. In fact, says he, she is just moving her hands about in immitation and doens't mean anything by it. He has several university degrees (in engineering) and knows where of he speaks.

And I have the friend who is worried that her development will be stunted by the signing so she pretends not to understand when Imani signs for something trying to force her to verbalize a word.

With all these folks around me, it is a miracle that Imani has learned as much as she has and is so well adjusted despite all the well meaning idiocy around her.

[dmmetler]

Well, at least I'm not the only one.

Fortunately, we only see these folks occasionally, and the relatives Alli sees most often are supportive of signing to at least some degree. Since the college my parents work at has an ITP, and the science departments have an REU for Deaf students/Scientific interpreting training program, they're very used to ASL as a valid language, and think it's neat that Alli is learning it early-my mother is looking forward to taking Alli to the building so that she can talk to the students. My SIL signs (baby signs) with her own children, so while we have some "doctrinal differences" and I sign much more seriously than she does, she at least understands WHY I'm doing it-and picks up that Alli is trying to communicate even if she doesn't quite get what she's saying.

I just wish they'd understand that if you take a ball away from a child and she's saying "BALL", "BALL" "PLEASE BALL" , it's not cute-it's bordering on abusive! Just because she's signing doesn't mean that it isn't just as upsetting to her as it would be if she was saying it-but apparently, it takes her getting into tantrum mode for them to understand what she's trying to get across.

[amiller]

I think we've all been there - but my line is "I am so excited that you're interested in her signing! She gets a little shy though in a group, and I feel like pressuring her is a bad idea since she is still learning to communicate with us. If you keep an eye on her, though, she'll sign - and I promise to translate everything we sign to each other!"

I find that gets people of her case without offending them!

[Antonia]

My daughter don't respond to such signs.
Her oncle wanted to make her say "rot" (that's German for red) and she heard hm say it over and over and than signed back "boat". :p

Antonia

[Kei_as_in_K]

It was interesting to watch how William's Early Intervention team modified their testing to suit him. Getting him to 'perform' or show what he knew was a hit-or-miss event. Eventually at their annual evaluation, he 'trained' them to do things his way. They learned he wouldn't respond to silly requests like "Take the hat, put it on the train, then put it on the block", but when I asked him to 'take the hat, put it on the doll, then put it on Mommy', it made sense and he would do it. Same thing with signing for him... he wouldn't just sign because someone asked him to, he'd sign because he was making a request or signing for something you had.

[c01dunlap]

...Eventually at their annual evaluation, he 'trained' them to do things his way. They learned he wouldn't respond to silly requests ...
Hee, hee... Way to go William! ;)

[ImJAZZed14]

We had that happen over Thanksgiving too. It was the first time that my in-laws had seen her sign so everybody kept asking her to sign EAT over and over again at the dinner table. Luckily she was eating too so it wasn't too confusing for her. Good luck!!