Welcome! Let's get to know each other! [Archive] - Signing Time Forums

Rachel

11-04-2005, 06:38 PM

I am Rachel Coleman :-)

I have 2 girls, Leah age 8 is deaf and was the inspiration for Signing Time!

Lucy age 5 has spina bifida and cerebral palsy. Lucy was our first "Signing Time Miracle!"

Lucy had fetal surgery to correct spina bifida at 22 weeks gestation. She was born a 32 week-er. Around 9 months she was diagnosed with CP, mixed tone. At age 1 she had surgery on her eyes to correct bilateral strabismus. When Lucy was 2, she had no words and no signs. Her neurologist warned us that very soon she would be diagnosed as mentally retarded, since she had no way to communicate and probably never would.

Well as most of you know, Lucy started signing while watching the earliest versions of Signing Time and soon the words followed. Sign language allowed Lucy to work on the FINEST of fine motor skills. She is no longer completely "stuck" in her body. She has hundreds of signs and hundreds of words.

One of our favorite games is "Stump Lucy" we say a word and she shows us the sign. Like - "Lucy what's the sign for TRADE? What's the sign for LATE? What's the sign for LAZY?" This game sends us all giggling at her vast knowledge!

Lucy is in a mainstream Kindergarten class. She uses a power wheelchair. She relies on her family for most everything, feeding, bathing, getting dresses, brushing teeth, toileting, transfering, brushing hair. She is as smart as can be! She knows the lyrics to thouands of songs. She has a crush on John Mayer. Her favorite color is blue. She is the inspiration for many many songs in Signing Time and Baby Signing Time.

One night we were snuggling and she turned and looked at me and said, "Mom, YOU are VERY special to me!"

I think I could make a song out of almost anything she says, since every single word she says is music to my ears.

StaceyHay

11-04-2005, 10:09 PM

My name is Stacey Hay, and I have 4 children. Their ages are 6 1/2, 5 1/2, 2 1/2, and 3 months. My 2 1/2 year old has been diagnosed with a brain birth defect (Lobar Holoprosencephaly). We started signing with her at 18 months due to the fact that she wasn't talking. She also gets speech, physical and occupational therapy. All the children love the signing time videos, and Julia thinks that Alex and Leah are her personal friends. I hope I can get used to this new format. We are from Northern California.

dmmetler

11-05-2005, 06:17 AM

Hi, I'm Donna. I have athetoid CP (mild, except for speech), epilepsy and structural verbal dyspraxia, so I learned signing (SEE) as an adjunct to speech in elementary special education classes. I then started college as a music therapy major (and moved to music ed after being told that kids with athetoid CP are mentally retarded and having more fights with the MT advisor over my 504 than anyone else in the university. I currently teach early childhood music classes, including a sign and sing baby/toddler class designed to encourage early signing at a local university. I taught music for 8 years in the local public school system, and have always been the first level of inclusion/mainstreaming in every school I taught in. I also did advocacy training while in graduate school, although I haven't been able to be an official advocate since I started teaching since that would put me on both sides at the same time. I am a veteran of a lot of IEP meetings at parent request even now, though.

Alli is 11 months, and was born at 34 1/2 weeks after my having had pre-eclampsia and seizures from 22 weeks on, with the last 4 1/2 weeks being literally the "can we get another day or two, or not). Alli's brother, Brian, was born at 22 weeks due to sudden onset PE and HELLP syndrome (and didn't survive), so we knew that this would be a high-risk pregnancy. Since I had to be on phenobarbital through the pregnancy, we knew that she had a higher risk of developmental issues, even discounting prematurity. Right now, at 11 months, she has gross motor delays, but the developmental ped hasn't decided yet whether this is a long-term thing or simply a sign of prematurity. She is just starting to crawl now, and has mastered sitting up well in about the last few weeks.

However, she is extremely communicative. I started signing to her really from birth, and we got the ST videos when she was 6 months. At 7 1/2 months, she was spontaneously signing for communication, and honestly, I don't know how many signs she has now because she keeps coming up with ones that I wasn't aware she knew, that she's never imitated. She's also developing a lot of "word like sounds", although most of them wouldn't be recognizable as words if she wasn't signing along with them.

I've really learned a lot from the AlexandLeah group, and I'm looking forward to this new forum. I can't wait to recommend it to my baby class parents!

Jerzmomof4

11-05-2005, 08:09 AM

Hi Everyone!!
I love this new board. Although have to be honest, I'm a bit confused with all the options. I've never posted on a board like this before, I know Im still limping my way through the new millenium, LOL.
Anyway.. My name is Dawn. Married for 10 years, Mom to 3 great kids. Jeremy who is 15, with CAPD, ADD. Alyssa 9, developing typically, although loves to be the "drama queen", I'm sure she will get the Oscar soon for that! And then we have our Abby "Dabby doo" who is 4. She has ASD, Severe apraxia, hypotonia and expressive and receptive speech delay/disorder.

We started signing just before Abby's 2nd birthday. It was very slow to start, but we learned the basics, but Abby showed us she wanted and needed to learn more and more. She had learned about 100 signs by the time she was 3. We learned it from the pc, books, friends in church, etc.
This past January when Abby was about 3 1/2 I took her to a "sing N sign" class to incorportate a fun way to use her sign knowledge. We met a great lady Chris, with her little daughter, Aisling, ( I hope I spelled her name correctly) who introduced us to SigningTime. She let us borrow Vol. 5. We quickly bought the first 6 vol. And we have been huge fans since.
I will soon be ordering Vol. 7, 8, and 9. And the board books for Christmas!!!! I can not wait to get them.

Have a great day!!! Dawn

mhart71

11-05-2005, 04:12 PM

I found you over here!
I am Melissa, mom to Thomas, Kaleigh and Garrett. Garrett will be 3 on Nov. 30th and has Down syndrome. I was lucky enough to meet Kei online when Garrett was just 4 days old. It is because of her that we started using "Signing Time" and also because of her that we were able to spend 2 days with Rachel and her wonderful family!

We live in CT and I am a stay-at-home mom. Thomas is in 2nd grade, and Kaleigh in 1st. Garrett has his PPT on 11/18 and we are going to visit his preschool in a few weeks!

lovemy6sweeties

11-05-2005, 05:35 PM

Garrett always makes me smile :)

mhart71

11-05-2005, 06:14 PM

So we're even! Now, if only we could get them together! By the way; what a beautiful picture!!!!

Krista

11-07-2005, 04:01 PM

Hi!
I'm Krista (I know my username isn't very imaginative :p ). I'm a stay at home Mom to 3 beautiful kids. I myself am Hard of Hearing and have signed (SEE) since I was a kid. I started signing with my first daughter when she was 3 months old, though we didn't get serious about it until we found ST just before she turned 2, each subsequent kid was signed to since birth. ;) My second daughter (Anika) is a former 33 week preemie, she suffered HIE (Hypoxic Ischemic Encepholapathy- I'm sure I spelled it wrong) causing her to have low tone Cerebral Palsy. She has benefited a great deal from physical therapy and is ambulatory (when she's not falling :rolleyes: ). Anika also has Chronic Lung Disease/Asthma, Trachealmalacia, Laryngealmalacia, Severe GERD, and is fed mostly through her g-tube. She has speech but it's difficult for those not in our family to understand her because of her low muscle tone. It's also difficult for her to sign due to lack of fine motor skills- BUT she tries so eventually she'll succeed. So gosh, we've been using ST for 3 years!

Rachel; I have to tell you that the songs you sing at the end of the DVD's (especially 1-3) still make me cry even though I've heard them a million times! Partly out of sadness and remembering all we went through in the begining, but also out of the relief of just knowing that other's know exactly how it feels too. I love them!

radienerin

11-07-2005, 04:13 PM

:D Rachel,
the whole Lucy story almost made me cry. I love the when you were snuggling she said mom you are very special to me part. Lucy is soo adoreable and a loving young little special lady! :eek:

I am Rachel Coleman :-)

I have 2 girls, Leah age 8 is deaf and was the inspiration for Signing Time!

Lucy age 5 has spina bifida and cerebral palsy. Lucy was our first "Signing Time Miracle!"

Lucy had fetal surgery to correct spina bifida at 22 weeks gestation. She was born a 32 week-er. Around 9 months she was diagnosed with CP, mixed tone. At age 1 she had surgery on her eyes to correct bilateral strabismus. When Lucy was 2, she had no words and no signs. Her neurologist warned us that very soon she would be diagnosed as mentally retarded, since she had no way to communicate and probably never would.

Well as most of you know, Lucy started signing while watching the earliest versions of Signing Time and soon the words followed. Sign language allowed Lucy to work on the FINEST of fine motor skills. She is no longer completely "stuck" in her body. She has hundreds of signs and hundreds of words.

One of our favorite games is "Stump Lucy" we say a word and she shows us the sign. Like - "Lucy what's the sign for TRADE? What's the sign for LATE? What's the sign for LAZY?" This game sends us all giggling at her vast knowledge!

Lucy is in a mainstream Kindergarten class. She uses a power wheelchair. She relies on her family for most everything, feeding, bathing, getting dresses, brushing teeth, toileting, transfering, brushing hair. She is as smart as can be! She knows the lyrics to thouands of songs. She has a crush on John Mayer. Her favorite color is blue. She is the inspiration for many many songs in Signing Time and Baby Signing Time.

One night we were snuggling and she turned and looked at me and said, "Mom, YOU are VERY special to me!"

I think I could make a song out of almost anything she says, since every single word she says is music to my ears.

ilovemysonforever2002

11-07-2005, 04:49 PM

hello every one thanks for haveing this new site for signing tim e its pretty nice since dont have your emails all filled up and have to delet alot of them april / mark jr age 3 with aparixia

MmaBasotho

11-07-2005, 07:06 PM

I'm Juliet, mom to 21 mo Paula who has severe congenital SNHL. She was diagnosed about two months ago and since then my life has gotten a whole lot easier. Before that I felt so alienated from her. Everything was a major struggle and I had withdrawn any expectations of having a satisfying relationship with my daughter. Not surprisingly I was depressed and very stressed.

But now we know why Paula didn't communicate or make eye contact. She couldn't hear us! I can't believe how simple the explanation is. But it has changed my life, my husband's life and Paula's life, too.

Now that we have started signing with Paula she is really getting the idea that she can communicate what she wants, needs, thinks, feels without just shrieking. That's all she had to communicate with for a long time. Now people keep telling me how quiet it is when I'm on the phone with them - I have to laugh because I was screening it out anyway. Now I don't have to screen it out: Paula signed "help" the other day, instead of getting frustrated and screaming and leaving me completely mystified. She signed "bubbles" yesterday. She is fascinated by flowers, which she signs over and over any time she sees one. Signing has given me a relationship with my daughter.

The ST videos are playing a special part in my daughter's life right now. In addition to learning new signs and new words (a lot of this is learning a sign for something she didn't know had a name, not a sign for a word she already knew), she sees other children signing and signing to music. Like her dad, a music teacher and professional drummer, Paula loves music.

Paula does wear hearing aids, which she is getting used to after two weeks with them. Signing remains our communication focus, although I must say it is wonderful to simply speak her name and have her turn and respond to me.

My ID for this forum is Mma Basotho. I was born in Lesotho, a small country landlocked by South Africa. When I was three days old, my parents' friend, a chief who shared their Baha'i beliefs, gave me that name. It means Mother to the People. Now that I feel able to truly mother my child, it has become much more important to me.

lovemy6sweeties

11-07-2005, 11:21 PM

I'm so glad that Paula can communicate with you now. I am so grateful that Brady can sign and talk to me, and ST has made that so much simpler for us. I know my other children wouldn't have been as engaged and willing if I'd made them watch boring videos or tried to teach them from signing dictionaries (don't get me wrong - I'm sure these things have their place, they just wouldn't have worked with MY crew).

I look forward to getting to know you better and hearing more about Paula's and your triumphs! Yeahhhhhh for Paula!

lovemy6sweeties

11-07-2005, 11:23 PM

I have just recently been introduced to signing time. Both my children are in love. I have 2 children, Olivia who is 4 going on 5 in December. Olivia has Down Syndrome. Olivia has a younger brother Nathan who is 2 going on 35!! :) Olivia has been signing since she was 6 months old, she has about 100 signs, but doesn't use them as much because she is starting to talk more. But since watching signing time I am seeing some return along with the talking!!! I thank Kei for turning us on to signing time and having us now addicted to it!!!

when Brady was first born. When Kei was showing off her ST pictures, I glimpsed some from a 21club playgroup - Olivia is beautiful - I love her red hair :) She has definitely grown since the PP days. Glad to see you here!

lovemy6sweeties

11-07-2005, 11:24 PM

Hi all,
I'm Lorie. I live on the coast of Mississippi and in the midst of crisis here, but I gotta get my Signing Time fix. ;-)
I have 3 children, my youngest James, 5, has Down syndrome. We started signing with him at 16 months and now he teaches it to his regular ed Kindergarten class.
James is actually in volumes 4,5,and 6. He is the little boy in a green shirt. He signs rainbow and several others.
:-)
Lorie

He is such a cutie pie :) I especially love when he signs rainbow and is jumping in the bounce house. His smile is just contagious!

MmaBasotho

11-08-2005, 05:51 AM

I look forward to getting to know you better and hearing more about Paula's and your triumphs! Yeahhhhhh for Paula!

:D
I look forward to getting to know you, too. You have a beautiful family! Thanks for the great picture.

Juliet

Hollie in SC

11-08-2005, 10:55 AM

I see quite a few familiar names/faces from the T21 boards. Hello!

I am Hollie, mom to three boys. Eli is 7, Kyle is 5, and Noah is 17 months!! Noah has Down syndrome and we are working hard on his first sign, "more". We have borrowed Vol 1-3 of ST from the library and my older boys ADORED it!! :D They learned it so quickly. I enjoyed them as well!!! We are also a homeschooling family and it has been easy to add sign into our curriculum with the DVDs. I hope we can get the entire collection with Christmas gift money--but we'll see. ;) I have heard rave reviews on the T21 boards as well as the homeschooling boards. Great job--can't wait to see them all!!!

Katrina

11-08-2005, 05:01 PM

Hi Kei and Christie! Great to see you here!

I'm Katrina mom to Kristina who is 4 1/2 and Brant who is 2 years 3 months. Brant has Down syndrome and is a HUGE fan of the new Baby Signing Time DVD's! His signing has just exploded since we got them and of course it helps that his super cute buddy Brady is on them too! We also have the first 6 volumes of ST which is where Kristina learned most of her signs from (she is a great model to Brant). We're also expecting #3 and hope to sign with our new baby too :) It's great to "meet" you all!

mhart71

11-08-2005, 06:17 PM

hey...I'm here, too! :D

How are you feeling?

andrealynnj

11-09-2005, 12:15 AM

At the pediatrician today, our Dr. said she thought Imani has a Zinc dificiency and that she didn't suspect it earlier because it is almost unheard of in a first world child.

Imani's bag of issues: speech delay, Ezma with circular white dry patches, cold sores, and chronic (and I do mean chronic, going on a year) diarreah with consistent evidence of undigested foods.

Anyone have any experience with any of this? What else might we be dealing with? I lost a lot of confidence in my Doctor today because four months ago she put her on a supplement without zinc, and because she implied today that Imani's speech delay was probably related to my signing with her. Sheesh.

dmmetler

11-09-2005, 05:54 AM

zadruga64

11-09-2005, 01:10 PM

Ihave 28 month old boy/girl twins. My son was recently diagnosed as autistic. I have been doing sign with him since he was about 18 months old after a speech therapist recommended signing time. He has a few signs. His sister has a lot more. They both love to watch the video's.

JennyJHolsinger

11-09-2005, 01:36 PM

I'm Jenny and my 3.8 year old daughter Maddie has severe apraxia/dyspraxia, hypotonia and sensory integration issues. We only started signing with her at age 2, with the help of, of course, Signing Time. My 6 year old loves the videos too and wants to meet Rachel, Leah and Alex and be on one of the videos. Unfortunatley for her, we live in Arlington Va. I'm excited about being part of this forum!

Krista

11-09-2005, 02:36 PM

Hi Jenny!!! Welcome ;)

andrealynnj

11-09-2005, 04:41 PM

Feed Your Kids Right discusses Zinc deficiency as one of the more common dietary deficencies in children, although usually not at the stage doctors consider to be deficient, and few children's supplements contain zinc at any appreciable level, for some reason. So it may not be nearly as rare as your doctor is making it out to be.

Thanks for the title. Do you know if it has any suggestions? I mean, Imani eats what she eats. I offer meat or chicken everyday and somedays she just won't eat it. I NEVER offer her junk. I have started giving her 20 mgs a day supplement but that includes other stuff in more quantities than she needs (which my peds just shrugs off, but I don't trust her anymore) I will head to the library for this book and others but I am feeling very distressed. What I have read about zinc dificiency is that is affects brain development. So I am very sad. ANd if it is a common dificienty then that is HORRID. Why would we let this happen to so many children?

Kei_as_in_K

11-09-2005, 06:09 PM

Glad you joined us! It's a great group of people and so much fun to share our Signing Time stories. :)

Katrina

11-09-2005, 09:28 PM

hey...I'm here, too! :D

How are you feeling?

Hi Melissa! I'm feeling ok. Still pretty nauseous but better now that I have more diclectin, lol. Very tired but that goes with the territory, right? Love the pic in your siggy!

woodsy9999

11-10-2005, 10:11 AM

I see some familiar faces! Kei, Christine,Katrina and Melissa! :D

My name is Belen and I am mom to Reece who is 5 and has Down Syndrome. We love ST!!!! We are in Northern CA. and I look foward to sharing and learning with all of you!

Belen

carievercell

11-10-2005, 01:33 PM

Hi, I'm Carie Vercelli, I live in HOT arizona, and i have 3 boys. One is 14(Kyler), and very much a teenager! The 2nd is 10(Kaden) and has nonverbal learning disorder and severe depression, the third is 8(Kreed) and has autism and seizures and colitis and is very much a handful! Kreed is nonverbal and has many medical needs. He gives us a run for our money most of the time! Whether it's bringing a hose into the house, or catching the kitchen on fire(last week) or running away, or whatever fits his fancy that week! our family is stressed to the max with my youngest, and most of the time we barely survive! It is very hard on my other two kids, and super hard on a marriage, not to mention you dont even have a life of your own anymore! I am not here to complain, but I guess it is what it is! I love ST so much, it has helped my youngest greatly since he learned to sign for his communication. I am glad to be a part of all of you wonderful people. Thanks.

Chris

11-10-2005, 03:49 PM

Hi! I am Chris from Michigan and have a wonderful husband and two daughters. My girls are Alyssa~15 and Sarah~4. Sarah has Down syndrome. Our whole family are huge ST fans and can't wait for Vol 7-9! We have all the other ST dvds memorized.

I have been thrilled with how ST has encouraged Sarah to sign. We have worked with speech therapists, occupational therapists, special ed teachers but nobody could motivate her like the kids she sees on the ST dvds. She knows probably 75% of the signs that are used on Vol 1-6 and Baby Signing Time. I tell everyone I meet who have kids with special needs how much ST has done for Sarah. Then I have to convince them that I really don't work for ST or get a commission. LOL. :p

Something facinating happened last night. My husband had stopped one of her ST dvds in the middle and when I turned the dvd player on, I decided to push the review button to get it back to the beginning. Each time I pushed the button, a black background with just the word was on the tv screen. To my amazement, Sarah signed dog when DOG was on the screen and water when she saw WATER!!! :eek: I was shocked! I had no idea she was recognizing these words by sight. I am so excited and proud of her. :D I just didn't expect that she would learn to read by watching the ST dvds. Thank you Rachel and Emilie!!!

I am also an elementary music teacher. I am currently teaching k-5 in a public school. My husband teaches history and political science at the local community college. My fifteen year old is a sophomore in high school and is learning to drive. :( She is a great kid. Sarah keeps all of us on our toes. She has brought so much life and love into our family and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

Chris

MmaBasotho

11-13-2005, 03:52 PM

I am Rachel Coleman :-)
Lucy age 5 has spina bifida and cerebral palsy. Lucy was our first "Signing Time Miracle!"

...

Well as most of you know, Lucy started signing while watching the earliest versions of Signing Time and soon the words followed. Sign language allowed Lucy to work on the FINEST of fine motor skills. She is no longer completely "stuck" in her body. She has hundreds of signs and hundreds of words.

Rachel. I have to tell you I think about Lucy's story almost every day. I think what you and the moms of other kids like Lucy have shown is that these wonderful human beings only need a key to unlock their great potential - and signing is that key. I'm telling everyone I know about Lucy! I hope everyone in the world can learn that the greatness of a person is not measured by the particulars of her body. The important thing is that you knew this and believed it. Way to go!

Lots of love,
Juliet

trich_driver

11-13-2005, 07:56 PM

:) hi my name is trich i have a son with cp and when he was born he can't walk but now he can walk with a walker thank god for the walker for him he now 16 years old :)

I'm Kei, mom of 6 great kids with a range of ages from 24 to 5 yrs old. William, my youngest, has Trisomy 21, more commonly known as Down syndrome. He was also born with 2 heart defects, both of which were correctly surgically, one at 36 hrs, the other at 6 weeks.
We began signing with William when he was just a few months old, having been introduced to it through his Early Intervention team. William finally started to sign back to us before he turned 1. Once we discovered Signing Time, his desire to sign increased tremendously!
One of the things William loves to do while watching Signing Time is to stand in front of the screen with his back to it, and sign along with Rachel when she sings. His sister Sarah (7½), keeps up with the signs very well.. she can sign the alphabet song right in step w/Rachel! I can't do that yet. Close, but then I seem to get finger-tied! :o

apraxiax2mom

11-14-2005, 01:41 PM

Hi Jenny,

My name is Tara, and I am also relatively new to the forum. My son, Alex, is 3.3 years old and also has severe apraxia, hypotonia, and sensory integration issues. My other son, Hunter, is 19 months and speech-delayed as well (too soon to guess why). Anyway, I just wanted to say welcome to the forum, and it is always good to meet someone who can empathize.

Tara

apraxiax2mom

11-14-2005, 01:54 PM

Hello everyone,

I must confess, I have a habit of reading all the posts, but not posting all that often. So I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Tara, and I have two hearing boys with severe speech delays. Alex is 3.3 years old, and has severe apraxia (completely nonverbal), hypotonia, and sensory integration issues. He is very sweet and gentle most of the time, and very smart. He started signing at about 2 years old, but we just discovered ST around his third birthday (in August--I was looking for videos to help us learn more signs). Now he can sign probably somewhere between 50 and 75 words, and is always eager to learn more. Hunter is 19 months old, and is not much interested in communication of any sort (except whining to get what he wants, of course). He won't sign; in fact, he doesnt even point.
I want so much to be able to help them communicate...Alex is in Early Childhood preschool now and likes it a lot, Hunter gets speech therapy through Early intervention twice a week (but is completely uninterested, and drives his SP nuts!).

Anyway, just wanted to put in my two cents...

Tara

amiller

11-14-2005, 05:00 PM

Jessalyn is 8 and has no medical challenges. Anyka is 3 and she has the whole family's share! She was born with a cleft palate, small jaw, malformed trachea, and incompetent sinuses and eustachian tubes. She had trouble breathing and was trached at one month old. She has chronic ear and sinus infections and an unknown degree of hearing loss. Despite all that, she is an incredibly bright person with lots of character! She signs up a storm and we are so proud of her!

vogiechic

11-15-2005, 08:23 AM

Thank yooooou! I was watching it yesterday and I slowed it down during "grass" and my heart just melts to watch that smile spread across his little face.
Love Brady's picture. He's an angel!!!
Lorie

aligreat

11-15-2005, 01:57 PM

Cassia has a twin sister, Alexandria. Cassia was in the Intensive Care Nursery for her first 12 weeks of life. She is Deaf, and she has other issues as well. She is fed through a g-tube, and she was born with right renal reflux, breathing difficulties, swallowing difficulties, hypotonia, three holes in her heart (two have closed on their own), sacral dimples, and brain anomolies. I think that's it.

Currently we are working on eating by mouth more and more. She started crawling the week before last after only a year and a half of physical therapy. She pulls herself up to standing and cruises on the couch. Her favorite sign is "Thank you."

andrealynnj

11-15-2005, 04:36 PM

I called our local Regional Center for help when Imani was about 16 months because she was not talking. It took almost 4 months to get to her assessment but we finally had it today. Imani tests cognitively above her level, and although she is at the low range of normal for verbal development, she is within the range of normal. I credit ST with a great deal of this because of the words she uses, every single one is in one vol. or another of ST. And so much of her development took place in the last 30 days in an explosion of language. If things continue like this, I have no doubt she will move out of the bottom of the range to the middle by the time she is two.

So the sad news is we don't get services, but the great news is we don't need them!!!!!

I still want to help facilitate her language development so those of you who get speech therapy services, do you have any suggestions I can put into practice in our daily lives?

LisafromNY

11-20-2005, 10:01 AM

My name is Lisa (aka junkforus2004 from old yahoo forum) I'm a busy mom of 2 boys. Michael is 5.5 diagnosed w/ autism (non-verbal;apraxic), and Jason who is 2.5 and talks too much, be careful of what you wish for!
Seriously, we've been ST fans since 3/2003. My husband was recommended the videos by a client, I completely scoffed his $60 purchase of vols 1,2,3. In about a month I was eating my words and scouring the internet for more. My nonverbal boy all of the sudden was able to communicate with sign language, this opened a whole new world for us. We could not believe our little boy had so much to say to us. We've pretty much mastered the signs from all volumes and have bought other countless ASL videos that we can get our hands on to compliment our signing vocabulary.
One of the countless things ST has taught my son is reading and spelling. Not long after he started to sign he started to spell out and recognize/read words from ST. He's carried that over to anything now. My TV is set on CC at all times so he can pair the spoken and written word. I feverishly work on his handwritting so that he can communicate with someone who doesnt know ASL. My husband and I work with Michael all the time, but I have to say this all trickles down to a ST foundation. Even my little guy whom I've had evaluated by our Early Intervention team, scores off the charts cognitively. I think ST helped with that too!
Anyway, that's my story. I'm looking forward to giving and receiving any helpful info in the new forum!

Robert

11-24-2005, 06:43 PM

I am Kei's husband and father to Sarah (8) and William (5).

William and Sarah are both super-signers and we really enjoyed having the Colemans and Browns in our home when we hosted the first ST Hometown Edition Event right here in Charlemont this past October.

I work as a project manager for a construction company. That means you are basically responsible for everthing but in control of nothing. Scapegoat comes to mind!

My favorite hobby is Chasing Kei! Heck she even lets me catch her! The kids keep us on our toes and family time is very special. I also love to draw cartoons for my "Oddzervations" web site.

I love to take Kei camping (4 star hotels only) and roughing it in our jacuzzi tub! Only thing is the kids use it more than we do!

Kei and I are split-aparts. Some of you will know what that means and for those of you who don't, well that story is for another time.

It's amazing how you can find a way to talk about signing time no matter who you are talking with.

Like in the grocery check out... Clerk:Do you want cash back today? Me: Funny you ask that, do you know the ASL sign for Cash. Gee, you don't... you could learn a lot and increase you childrens IQ by using ASL. Clerk: Really? Me: Yeah and you can get this great set of DVD's to help you learn. Here is my business card with their web address for SIgning Time....

You know it just slips out.... We really have fun with it. You should try it the next time you get a chance.

I look forward to meeting many of you in this forum and someday in real life.

Cheers,

c01dunlap

12-01-2005, 12:36 PM

I am Kei's husband and father to Sarah (8) and William (5).
<...>
My favorite hobby is Chasing Kei! ...

Welcome, Robert! If Kei has half as much energy in RL (real life) as she does online, you must have to run pretty fast! Glad to hear from her split-apart (I did look it up :) ).

Happy Signing,

JoJo

12-01-2005, 02:41 PM

Ezma with circular white dry patches, cold sores, and chronic (and I do mean chronic, going on a year) diarreah

she implied today that Imani's speech delay was probably related to my signing with her. Sheesh.

Those symptoms are sure broad. I can see why you and your doctors are having trouble. You've been looking for answers for a long time and have already combed every corner of the Internet already, but I thought I'd share what I would do anyway. If my child had the symptoms above, I would probably poke around on the Internet until I terrified myself with about five or six different possibilities for worst case scenarios. Then I would overreact and request my doctor test her for viruses that she couldn't possibly have. All the way to the office I would tell myself that I was overreacting. WAY overreacting. But I'd probably have the tests done anyway. But I would still feel better when the tests came back negative . . . (<smiles> And if anybody asked, I'd say there's no such thing as overreacting where my baby's health was concerned. I'd just say I was being cautious. <smiles>)

Anyway, I hope you get some good ideas from someone who knows more than I do. And I hope that, should you stay with the same dr., that she does something that inspires you to trust her judgement. But if you choose to switch, I hope you find a doc that realizes what a great Mom you are, how hard you work to communicate, and how concerned you are that your angel (angels, right?) get a terrific start in life.

Good luck!
jojo

I just realized how LATE this post is! Sorry I missed it before. Did you switch docs?

signsofearlylife

12-01-2005, 11:46 PM

Those symptoms are sure broad. I can see why you and your doctors are having trouble.

I just realized how LATE this post is! Sorry I missed it before.

I just thought I'd mention that both my son and daughter had issues early on with eczema and chronic diarreah (and blood in their stool). All of which was attributable to food allergies in my diet (through breastfeeding). With my son I had to cut out nuts and eggs for several months until he outgrew his allergies.

My daughter, Jaina, was a bit trickier. After trying a variety of things, I eventually had to cut out all nuts (including peanut butter, what a bummer), shellfish, chocolate (another bummer), and milk. I have since re-introduced nuts, shellfish, and chocolate, and she is doing great!! We're at over a month with no bloody stool and only an average of one or two dirty diapers a day (instead of 10 to 14 a day since the time she was born!!!). She is VERY petite for her age, although her height and head circ continued to grow even though her weight gain was very minimal. She was at 5th percentile for weight at her 9 month appointment. She turned 1 today and I am hoping to see a substantial weight increase at her check-up on Monday. So, soy milk it is for me until she weans, and it's definitely worth it to see my little girl doing so much better.

Anyway, just thought it might be worth mentioning. Good luck!!!

Yoshsmom

12-13-2005, 04:23 PM

Hi, myname is Kerri and I'm mom to Yosh, who is a fantastic 3 yr old boy with Down Syndrome. We've been using Signing Time for almost 2 years and Yosh loves it. He sometimes shows me signs that I've never done with him that he learned just by watching. Yosh's dad Nd I are both special education teachers and I do Early Intervention.

We knew Yosh would have ds before he was bornand he had a rough start in life. He spent his first 10 weeks in the NICU with pulmonary hypertension. He also had club feet and severe reflux. He's had a couple of surgeries since then, but for the most part he's a happy, healthy little boy and his Dad and I are amazed at how lucky we are to have such a wonderful son.

Yosh isn't talking yet, just a few words, but he signs 20-30 words and phrases. Most often, its "I want book". Yosh loves to be read to and he loves music, which is why he loves Signing Time so much. He's such a happy kid that if he's really crying, I call the dr. Im looking forward to getting to know all of you and letting you get to know us.

EcoMom

12-15-2005, 12:28 PM

My name Cynthia I have a 2 y/o DD who I've been signing to since birth. We started potty training through sign at six months. We're adopting a special needs son from China who was born w/bilateral microtia. We hope to have him home sometime in April or May. He is hearing impaired and we will take the Signing Time DVD's to China with us when we pick him up. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone.

MmaBasotho

12-23-2005, 06:42 AM

We started potty training through sign at six months. We're adopting a special needs son from China who was born w/bilateral microtia. We hope to have him home sometime in April or May. He is hearing impaired and we will take the Signing Time DVD's to China with us when we pick him up.

Hi, Cynthia! We did EC/IPT with Paula, too, starting at 3 mo! I signed with her, too, but she didn't really take to it at first. By the time we found out she is hoh (at 19 mo) she still only knew about four signs: eat, drink, hurt and potty. Pretty important ones, though! Now she knows about 70 signs, so she's made up for lost time :)

Congratulations on your impending adoption. That's really exciting! How old is the little boy? I wonder if he's had any way of communicating - was he in the care of signers? I'm sure he will be very happy to get adjusted to a new family who is all about helping him flourish.

Best of luck!

EcoMom

12-23-2005, 04:07 PM

Hi Paula,

Our son is almost 23 months.We don't think anyone is signing w/him at this time. We're told he has some hearing and "his eyes look like talking" Not sure what that means. We're asking for updated information and hope to have it in a week or so.

MmaBasotho

12-24-2005, 08:30 PM

"His eyes look like talking" is probably a way of saying that he makes good eye contact or that he communicates a lot with his expressions - that would be what I meant if I said that about my hoh daughter, anyway!

Best of luck :)

Juliet

EcoMom

12-25-2005, 11:39 PM

Yikes Juliet, I just realized I addressed you as Paula. Sorry for not paying closer attention.

I am anxious to get my son home. Esp. as we don't know what extent of hearing loss or capability he has to deal with. I hope he's had some means of communication.

It's possible to that they were trying to say something about his eyes light up when you talk to him and it was messed up in the translation.

All I can do at this point is pray and wait. The praying is easy...the waiting is hard!

Did you find potty training easy w/starting early? I know I did compared to my nanny days but people look at me like I'm nuts that we did a modified EC w/sign.

alices_dad

12-27-2005, 09:31 PM

I'm Steve, father to Alice who is coming up on three years and has Down syndrome. She had a stroke at birth resulting in a marked difference in left/right side usage. She also has very low tone and is a late walker.

She signs as her primary means of communication (that and saying, 'no'). It's a joy to see her sign to herself and others and especially cute when she places signs on her parents. Like any kid, she has totally memorized her favorite books. If I start, "In the great, green room..." she'll sign "telephone, red balloon, cow jump moon".

And while we know that she will face her own set of hard challenges, I've been determined that she might as well be polite about it. She signs please, thank you, and excuse me, and like any kid her age, she still needs the cues "What's the magic word?" "What do you say [when you get something nice]?" "What do you say when you burp?"

Alice met Rachael, Alex, and Leah in Charlemont and was buzzed like a bee on honey for the live performance.
http://www.plinth.org/sweetpea/septoct05/septoct05-Thumbnails/8.jpg

amiller

12-28-2005, 07:29 PM

What a little cutie! It is good to get to know both of you!

CNow

12-29-2005, 07:34 AM

Hi, I'm Connie. I'm mom to 4 wonderful kids. Jeremy 25; Danielle 19, Erica 14 (born with ASD/surgically corrected at 2 years) and Alex 2 (adopted from China 10 months ago). We live in Worthington, OH (suburb of Columbus).

Alex is the reason we found Signing Times. We adopted Alex knowing he had special needs (he had a cleft lip and palate). A friend suggested we begin to sign with him as a way to develop a communication method while he adjusted to the English language and also to help him find a way to communicate following his cleft palate repair surgery. During his surgery, the audiologist discovered that he had moderate to severe neuro-sensory hearing loss (55 dph). Little did we know that signing would become such a big part of our lives.

Alex has significant developmental and speech delays and will begin preschool next week (I'm terrified) at a school for the hearing-impaired.

Signing Times has been a life-saver for us. Not has Alex learned many of the signs, the rest of the family has too. It has provided us with the ability to communicate with him and him with us (he has no speech at 2 3/4).

I look forward to using the forum as a way to meet other parents of HOH children and those that LOVE ST. :)

amiller

12-29-2005, 04:05 PM

Alex had a cleft lip and palate. A friend suggested we begin to sign with him as a way to develop a communication method while he adjusted to the English language and also to help him find a way to communicate following his cleft palate repair surgery.

How about anothe mom of a cleft palate baby? My Anyka had hers repaired at 12 months and again at 19 months (she got Rotavirus in the hospital and buster her new palate after 3 days becuase of the vomiting). She has had significant speech delays and is awaiting an ABR test next month to FINALLY determine if she has hearing loss or not! LOL Glad to meet you!

3LittleBees

01-02-2006, 12:48 AM

Hi my name is Denisse (parentsoftwins2003 on yahoo Alex & Leah Group). I have 3 girls Delilah (6 years old) and identical twins Christina & Deborah (2 1/2). Delilah has epilepsy so life can be challenging sometimes. We are blessed that even though she suffers from seizures she lives life like a normal 6 year old. You wouldn't even know unless someone told you or you saw her have one (not a good thing to see). Christina is our "special" twin. At 18 months she wasn't talking and when I tried to talk to her she wouldn't even look at me. At this time when I would carry her she would grab my face and stare at me. I didn't understand what was going on. So on the twins 18 month well baby I spoke to the pediatrition about my concern. She refered her to get her hearing and speach evaluated. Deborah was right on track so there was no need to send her.

We got the speach evaluation appointment very quickly and had to wait about 2 weeks for the hearing. When the speach pathologist evaluated her it was determined she had the speach of a 3-6 month old and they quickly started therapy. The therapist noticed that she didn't look like she knew someone was talking to her and was concerned that she was not looking to see where all the noise was coming from and asked us if we had her hearing evaluated. The appointment was still one week away so she called the audiologist and was able to get us in that same day.

When we got there I wasn't sure what to expect. After the test was concluded the audiologist let me know that it was difficult to test at such a young age. Then the bomb got droped on me :( . He said that even though her behavior was normal for her age she did not pass the hearing test and wanted to see her back in 2 months just in case it was due to some type of ear infection. Well in 2 months we went back and he said that she had bearly passed on the right ear but failed on the left and didn't think it was accurate enough. Our doctors got together and hoped that this was something temporary that would go away with time.

So we have been doing speach therapy for quite a while. The therapist were concern because they did not see any improvement. Around the beginning of the 2005 school year I decided to subscribe to a home school magazine (I home school) and I read an article about Signing Time. I immediately got on the site the twins were 2 and I was so overwhelmed with not knowing how to help Tina. So I ordered the first 2 tapes.

It took Tina about a week before I know she was actually learning something. She came up to me pulled on my dress and signed;"mommy, friend, signing time". I was so excited I started crying. I knew what she wanted. That was the day she started to sign back with the video and she was trying to talk.

We recently went back to get another hearing test. There was no improvement. The came another big bomb. He said and I quote; "Your daughter has partial hearing loss and there is always a possibility of permanent hearing loss" :confused:
I was so confused; she was doing so well and signing. He explained to me that she hears everything distorted. As if I were to put ear plugs in my ears. I was so devistated everything after that was blurry. I went home and I knew I had a set or ear plugs so I put them in. I just sobbed. All I could here was mumbling. I could sometimes pick a few things up but that was it. Having an insite into her world really caught me by surprise. She does not have hearing aids and I really haven't asked why they didn't recomend any.

This was about 4 months ago and Signing Time has blessed my family since then. We are all able to communicate with each other and she tries to talk. It's true half of the time we don't know what she is saying if she just tries to use words, but at least she tries.

MmaBasotho

01-03-2006, 08:10 AM

We recently went back to get another hearing test. There was no improvement. The came another big bomb. He said and I quote; "Your daughter has partial hearing loss and there is always a possibility of permanent hearing loss"

We went through something similar, too, back in September. Paula is our only child (so far), and I had suspected something was wrong because she never answered to her name.

Now that Paula is signing (with MUCH help from Signing Time!) she is doing well at making herself understood. Her hearing aids are helping her develop more speech skills, too. After that initial shock and grieving process I'm pretty happy that it's just a hearing loss (hers is supposedly in the 60-80 dB range, severe, but I think it might be better than that), not autism or some other illness I had feared. We love signing, and our little girl has really come out of her shell.

You can read more about our story on my blog, www. julietmartinez.com.

Nice to meet you! I look forward to getting to know you better :)

tyandsophiesmom

01-04-2006, 08:40 PM

c01dunlap

01-06-2006, 08:30 AM

Hello,
I am Antoinette. I am the mother to 2 children. Tyler age 7 1/2 and Sophia 4 1/2. The halfs are really important to my son. LOL. Sophia has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, bilateral mild hearing loss, dev. delays, and still does not speak. We have been to many. many docs and specialist who have no explaination. Luckily for us we started signing with her at 2, and with the help of ST she has over 150 signs. She will modify some because of poor motor skills but we know what she means. It has been amazing to see here bust out of her shell and try to communicate with others. It's funny how the things that you never wanted to happen or deal with, really do make you who you are!
Hi Antoinette!

If I am correct, Montgomeryville is near Philly. If so, you might be interested in checking out the Philly Burbs Playgroup thread (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32). There is also a posting for a local signing theatrical event on 1/14.

Anyway, as everyone knows, I'm a big campaigner for the ST playgroups (I'm in Ohio, you're safe :p ), as the first one I went to had a huge impact on my Sophie (2 yrs old).

tyandsophiesmom

01-06-2006, 09:46 AM

Thanks for the info, I will have to check it out. Especially sine we a now doing so much better with social events.

D.J.&Cecilie'smom

01-07-2006, 10:13 PM

Hi my name is Leigh and I am new to signing time. My son D.J. was born 3 months premature and has mild cerebral palsy in his legs he is able to walk with a walker. The therapist have used signs like more, eat, etc. I also have a 1 year old(Cecilie) my friend told me about st and I purchased volumes 1-3 and he won't watch anything else. He has trouble communicating even though he can say anything. These videos have made him blossom all I hear is "I want" which is a good thing when he tells me what it is he wants...As soon as Cecilie hears the st song she starts moving her hands she has learned a few signs. I have been debating on which dvds to purchase next. He loves telling me the word that I'm supposed to sign....I'm gonna have to sit down and watch #3 cause I'm driving when he's watching it so I don't know all the signs. I have always been amazed with sign language and think that these dvd's are a wonderful teaching tool....

amiller

01-09-2006, 03:47 PM

anything. These videos have made him blossom all I hear is "I want" which is a good thing when he tells me what it is he wants....

Isn't that so terrific? Even though he is a little demanding at the moment, he is COMMNICATING! I love these stories! Thanks for sharing -

Dawna

01-11-2006, 01:41 PM

Hello Everyone,

My name is Dawna and I am the mother of six children (3 birth children, 2 adopted, and 1 foster child). Tristan, our 2 yr old was born extremely premature (22 wks gestation). He came to live with us as a foster child at 5 mos old, right out of the hospital. His adoption was completed 8/1/05 (YEAH)! We were told that he would probably not be able to speak or walk. He does both! He has a tracheostomy (due to paralyzed vocal chords) and is attached to oxygen, so using his voice is difficult. We started signing with him at about 9 mos. but didn't see much progress until ST! came into our lives! Whoa, what a difference a few video viewings can make! He has pretty much mastered vol. 1-3 and we have started vol. 4-6!

I am looking forward to getting to know you all!

Dawna

c01dunlap

01-12-2006, 02:14 AM

Hello Everyone,

My name is Dawna ... His adoption was completed 8/1/05 (YEAH)! We were told that he would probably not be able to speak or walk. He does both! ...Whoa, what a difference a few video viewings can make! He has pretty much mastered vol. 1-3 and we have started vol. 4-6!
...
Congratulations on the adoption! I have never adopted, but that seems like a pretty long time to have to wait. Sounds like you have a very special family and a great gift of love and parenting to adopt a child in such need.

I am so honored to "meet" you and the other terrific parents and families on this forum. I have heard so many great stories of love, wonder, growth and sheer tenacity to ensure the best environment to allow children to blossom. How wonderful that you found ST, too! :D

teresa

01-12-2006, 07:16 AM

Hello everyone,

My name is teresa, I live in Pretoria, South Africa. I have one child, Zora, who turned 4 years old on Christmas Eve. Zora has Trisomy 21 - Down Syndrome. Zora started using ASL when she was 18 months. The Signing Time videos have really helped. She now knows all of the signs in volumes 1-6 (we have not bought 7-9 yet). One of the most remarkable consequences of the signing with Zora has been that as soon as we introduce a new sign she attempts to say the word. So for Zora the signing has really encouraged speech. My husband and I work hard to keep up with Zora who only needs to see a sign once and then is ready to use it again and again. Zora attends pre-school with typical children who are also learning to communicate using sign language.

I just want to thank Rachel Coleman for giving us such a remarkable tool that we use everyday to communicate with our special child.

lovemy6sweeties

01-12-2006, 02:07 PM

Zora sounds amazing :) Our youngest, Brady, also has T21 :) We love SigningTime too, and are so grateful to Rachel for giving us the tools to help Brady communicate better. Glad you joined the group - I look forward to getting to "know" you and Zora better :)

martin's mom

01-20-2006, 08:51 AM

Hi! I'm Nancy, mom to Martin, who will be 3 at the end of the month. Our journey with EI began just after Martin turned 2. He was not speaking, and what started as an effort to find speech therapy for him resulted in a PDD-NOS diagnosis. Since then we have brought on a speech therapist, developmentalist, ot, and a wraparound team. We live in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, where we are now transitioning Martin into the DART program (for ages 3-5) -- new preschool, new therapists, more wraparound hours -- it's overwhelming!

I was inspired to join this discussion forum because Martin loves his Signing Time videos (we have only the first two right now, but we'll be ordering more, soon!). His speech therapist recommended them, and he has learned many new signs from watching the videos. So have I!

I am also looking for a supportive and understanding community. As Martin gets older, his special needs make him stand out, and I find it difficult sometimes to talk to other parents. Our life has changed so much; it feels as if we are visitors in a foreign country where no one speaks our language.

I am not just Martin's mom; I am also mom to Beatrice (almost 9) and Henry (almost 6). I appreciate all of your stories, and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone!

Mom2ckc

01-27-2006, 08:33 AM

Kyle is hard of hearing since birth. At first is was mild now it's mild to mod. He wears 2 hearing aids. Just got them in Oct.
Still getting used to them. Takes them out a lot. Wears them for 2 hours the most.
He lost one ear mold all ready. He knows how to take his hearing aids apart. :rolleyes:
You have to watch him every second with the hearing aids which is very hard to do when I need to watch the other two kids too.
Kyle has a speech person that comes to the house once a week to work with him. Right now he is having troubles with letters "k", "t" and "g".
Kyle knows how to sign and he loves ST. His fav right now that he askes for everyday is the Farm one.
He would sign signing time when he wanted to watch it now he signs Leah and Alex.
Forgot to mention Master Kyle Tornado (nickname) just turned 2 in Dec.
Kyle has 2 sisters Caitlyn 3yr and Carmelle 5months. Both hearing and both know signs.
Hope to get on a bit more and post. This was my first post here. The board is so very different then the Alex and Leah group.

Happy Signing ;)
I like all the smiles on the board cute...
Mary

Roxanne Morris

01-30-2006, 01:13 PM

Hey y'all my name is Roxanne Morris, i am 24, married, and have 2 kids. My Daughter is Amber ,age 5. She has congenital cmv, hydrocephalus of the latteral ventricles, she has had one shunt placement and 7 revisions, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and a bilatteral hearing loss. Oh and shes wicked smart lol. My son Gabriel, age 2, is a hyper active little boy with his only problem being severe eczema. My Amber has overcome many obstacles. The day we got her wheelchair she learned to walk. It was her second birthday we were ecstatic. She has overcome many surgeries the first of which was at three days old. She has been neutrapeonic and endured Horrifying bouts with pneumonia and RSV. She useed to be a prisoner of her own body. Unable to turn her head or emote at all. Virtually non compos mentus as one nuerologist put it. Now she is a brilliant loving extremely mobile child with unending curiosity..... but she has refused to communicate at all. She is being looked at right now for HFA but for some reason she seems fine to me and her family and teacher, but if we hold an eval she shuts down completely. She refuses sign. It has been drilled into her constantly since we found out she was deaf. It was devastating for me to find that out too because i am a singer and i used to sing to her every day from the day i found out i was pregnant. My husband now her step father is a drummer... and in true drummer style has tought her to feel the beat through loud drumming. lol But my daughter still refuses to use signs. For the last couple of weeks we have been catching this program on pbs and she has been signing away to the boy and girl that look the same age as her and her brother. She tries to sign to her brother now all the time and he has been signing to her too. All day i hear him say, "Amber no!" and sign no to her face. it warms my heart. Anyways thanks for a great program i hope to save up for the dvds some day.

c01dunlap

01-30-2006, 03:28 PM

...My Daughter is Amber ,age 5. ... Oh and shes wicked smart lol. :D Great to hear! That alone can be a challenge. LOL

...My Amber has overcome many obstacles...She useed to be a prisoner of her own body. Unable to turn her head or emote at all...Now she is a brilliant loving extremely mobile child with unending curiosity.
Wow, what a road to travel! Sounds like she is very luck to have you, your husband and brother Gabriel in her life!

...and in true drummer style has tought her to feel the beat through loud drumming. lol But my daughter still refuses to use signs. Good for your husband! I have a deaf cousin (Stephanie, not Joy) who is a drummer, so who knows..? :)

For the last couple of weeks we have been catching this program on pbs and she has been signing away to the boy and girl that look the same age as her and her brother. She tries to sign to her brother now all the time and he has been signing to her too. All day i hear him say, "Amber no!" and sign no to her face. it warms my heart.It warms my heart to hear it too!

Anyways thanks for a great program i hope to save up for the dvds some day.In the meantime, you may also want to check out your local libraries. Many of them do have the Signing Time DVDs available to check out and watch. We had v1-6, and asked for (and got) v7-9 for this past Christmas. They really are wonderful, and I feel so fortunate to have everyone on these forums sharing their different stories, ideas, frustrations and successes!

Oh, another thing you might want to consider is joining a local ST playgroup. Not sure how social Amber is with other kids (or Gabriel, for that matter :) ), but if it would work out, I believe there is a group starting near Houston, TX. Check out the Texas Playgroups thread: http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6. Sandy (sandys148 (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/member.php?u=64)) had identified herself as from "North Houston", and seems to be planning on a being part of a Woodlands playgroup. Being from Ohio, I don't know where Woodlands would be located in relation to you, but thought I'd pass it along.

Take care,

MmaBasotho

01-30-2006, 04:52 PM

It was devastating for me to find that out too because i am a singer and i used to sing to her every day from the day i found out i was pregnant. My husband now her step father is a drummer... and in true drummer style has tought her to feel the beat through loud drumming. lol

Hi, Roxanne!
We're a musical family, too - my husband is also a drummer! It is definitely a special thing that he can share with our daughter (age 2, mod-severe hearing loss). It's always nice to hear about the other drummer dads of deaf daughters :) How's that for alliteration?

I have to say it sounds like your daughter has had the best care imaginable. From what you've written not only does her great spirit shine out, but also the fact that you, her family, didn't ever give up on her or write her off. Congratulations on being such a great mom!

Roxanne Morris

01-31-2006, 11:58 AM

I emailed her right away. There aren't too many mom's in my area that can relate so i appreciate that.

lol That would make a cool concert! Musician parents of Deaf Children! We could put on a light and slide show and blast base under the riser seats lol ......

It's good to talk to people that can understand everything that goes with raising special needs children. Being 24 years old most of our friends dont even know what its like to have kids at all.

Thanks again for the kind words good to meet y'all.

amiller

02-01-2006, 05:16 PM

My son Gabriel, age 2, is a hyper active little boy with his only problem being severe eczema.

Hey - Jessalyn has wicked Eczema too - check out the web for a product called Ultra Balm Premium Blend Udder Balm manufactured by Bio-Sentry Laboratories in Des Moines, IA. It is the ONLY thing that has helped us, and is much cheaper than the prescriptions and has the added bonus of not containing steroids!

Kaylis

02-01-2006, 07:20 PM

I've just joined the forums, but I've been on the Yahoo group for at least 6 months. I'm the mom of two boys, one now 6 (Ari) and one now 2 (Mikah), the second of whom has Down syndrome, a mild ASD, asthma and GERD. Actually they both have the latter two.

A family at the daycare the boys used to attend introduced us to ST (THANK YOU!!!!) and the boys are both fans. Ari has gotten bored with the first 6 since he knows most of the signs, but the new 3 he got for the holidays are still a hit. Mikah has been known to sit for 1 1/2 to 2 hours watching DVD after DVD of ST and fussing whenever one ended. Ari's Kindergarten has been learning signs this year and the teacher said Mikah was much of her incentive. Mikah knows at least 40 signs, babbles in sign, and says a bunch we understand (and much more we don't. :rolleyes:)

Kaylis

Andrewsmom

02-02-2006, 12:33 PM

Hi everyone!! My name is Trisha and I have 4 beautiful children and a great husband. We live in a small town in Massachusetts. My children are Brandon 13, Nicholas 12, Marissa 5, and Andrew 23 months. Andrew has Down Syndrome. He has no heart defects but does have hydrocephalus (fluid on the left front portion of his brain) as well as the hypotonia (low muscle tone). We started signing with him a few months ago and boy did he catch on quick! LOL! All of my children now know how to sign at least 50 words and they really help Andrew alot (and when I forget a sign, I can count on them to help me out too...lol :D ). Signing has really helped to open the communication between Andrew and our whole family.

We currently have the first 3 Signing Time DVD's along with the CD. We absolutely love them! My daughter Marissa's school is having a talent show at the end of the year, and she wants to sign a song for it. I never thought my 5 year old would be able to sign a whole song, but she can!!

I look forward to getting to know all of you on this site. :)
-Trisha

jstacey74

02-04-2006, 10:59 AM

Hi. I am a speech therapist for elementary age kids. I have a 19 month old who was born with an arachnoid cyst on his brain. He had surgery at 11 months and then had to have a VP shunt installed a month later b/c he developed hydrocephalus. At 17 months we found out he had a subdural hemorrhage. He started in EI at 7 months and just tested out for needed PT and OT, but is still very delayed in his speech. He is at a 10 month age for this. We have used some sign for him, but have decided to make a very concentrated effort now. He's an amazing little guy, but has had so many struggles in his short life. I am glad to find a forum here!

Jill

kidneykid

02-04-2006, 11:00 AM

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Tammy and I have 2 children. Alexis age 5 and Kayden age 1. Kayden was born with Chronic Kidney Disease. His kidneys stopped growing in utero and are only half the size that they should be. He will at some point need a kidney transplant.

Because his kidneys don't work, he has no desire to eat. Apparently if your kidneys don't work right you don't want to eat, you throw up a lot, you are tired and so on. I never realized how much your kidney actually did until his weren't working.

Because he won't eat he we feed him through a G-Tube. When he was about 4 months old he stopped eating with a bottle so we had a Nasal feeding tube and then we went to the G-Tube. He stopped taking a binky at 6 months old so he never had the oral development that was needed to talk. He has a hard time communicating his needs and gets really frustrated. Early Intervention started with the sign for "more" and he picked up on that and now I think he really has the desire to learn and communicate through signing since he doesn't know how to talk. I am really excited to learn signing also and to be able to communicate with my child is really exciting.

jstacey74

02-04-2006, 11:03 AM

Andrew has Down Syndrome. He has no heart defects but does have hydrocephalus (fluid on the left front portion of his brain) as well as the hypotonia (low muscle tone). -Trisha

Hi Trisha! Glad that you have had good luck with signing. Does your little guy have a shunt for his hydro? If so, has he had any compllications?

Jill

Andrewsmom

02-04-2006, 05:59 PM

No Andrew does not have a shunt. We have to go for another MRI in a few months just to make sure it is not getting any worse. If it stays the size it is (or goes down at all) they will not put in a shunt. He has cortical dysplasia, which is what is causing the hydrocephalus in his case. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't get any larger.

I hope you don't mind me asking but does your little one have hydrocephalus?
-Trisha

jstacey74

02-05-2006, 05:19 AM

Trisha-Hi. My little guy got a shunt when he was about a year old. He first had an arachnoid cyst putting pressure on the right side of his brain, which was causing a left side semiparalysis. After the first surgery he developed aseptic meningitis, and then hydro as a result. So they had to shunt him about a month after the first surgery. We haven't had any shunt failures yet. He did have a bleed three months ago that still hasn't been explained. We go back soon for a CT Scan to see if the bleed has reoccured.

I am really anxious to help my son start communicating. He makes all kinds of sounds, just not intelligible words!

Jill

Andrewsmom

02-05-2006, 06:15 PM

Wow Jill. I hope he continues to do well with the shunt. I know how scary it is for us every time they want to give Andrew another MRI. I can't imagine having to go through having a shunt put in. It sounds like your little guy has been through alot. I hope all continues to go smoothly for him. Andrew will be going for his first CT scan in a few months. I'll have to talk to you as that date comes closer. I'm sure I'll have LOTS of questions for you (if you don't mind :) ).

-Trisha

angiern

02-09-2006, 10:13 AM

My name is Angie and I have 3 children. They are 13, 10, and 5. My 5 year old has a Mitochondrial Disorder. There are periods of time where she loses her speech, maybe not completely but enough to where she can't effectively communicate. A mitochondrial disorder is a degenerative life threatening disorder in which the body doesn't produce enough energy (for cells) to function everything. We picked up the ST videos and love them!!!! I am also looking for some adult signing videos and so wish ST had some of those!!! But since they don't does anyone have any recommendations? I am hoping to expand my sign vocabulary to help Tolya pick up on. It is good to meet all of you!
Angie Z

c01dunlap

02-09-2006, 12:28 PM

...I am also looking for some adult signing videos ...does anyone have any recommendations? I am hoping to expand my sign vocabulary to help Tolya pick up on. It is good to meet all of you!
Angie Z
Welcome, Angie!

I don't have any good recommendations for "adult" videos, but I've actually found that my spouse and I have picked up vocab much better from the ST DVDs ourselves than we did from our beginning ASL classes that we took several years ago. Watch, and you'll know quite a bit as a foundation! :D If you are serious about ASL as a full language, you might also see about classes & / or getting in touch with the Deaf community in your area. No better way to learn a language!!

So glad you found ST. Hope signing helps Tolya.

Kei_as_in_K

02-09-2006, 12:50 PM

I don't have any good recommendations for "adult" videos, but I've actually found that my hubby and I have picked up vocab much better from the ST DVDs ourselves than we did from our beginning ASL classes that we took several years ago. Watch, and you'll know quite a bit as a foundation! :D If you are serious about ASL as a full language, you might also see about classes & / or getting in touch with the Deaf community in your area. No better way to learn a language!!

I have to ditto what Chris says. My hubby & I have learned so much from watching Signing Time, and between that and using the ASL online dictionaries (which you can find in the How do you sign forum http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154 ) you can learn a lot.
Also as Chris suggests, you can look into classes locally.

Welcome to the group & we are so happy to have you here.

Roxanne Morris

02-10-2006, 01:36 PM

I hope you don't mind me asking but does your little one have hydrocephalus?
-Trisha

Hi Trisha,
Im Roxy. My daughter Amber, age 5, has Hydrocephalus of the latteral ventricles. She had a VP shunt placed when she was 3 days old. 3revisions later it was changed to a VA shunt. 4 revisions after that (july 2004) she was changed back to a VP shunt. The shunt itself isnt as scary as what a child may go through without one. If you need any support let me know. I was the den mother of the shunt moms at hermann hospital for 2 years lol. We spent the first year or two of ambers life in surgery it seems. I just thank GOD all the time that there is a surgical solution for hydrocephalus in most cases.

Roxanne Morris

Roxanne Morris

02-10-2006, 01:43 PM

I don't have any good recommendations for "adult" videos, but I've actually found that my hubby and I have picked up vocab much better from the ST DVDs ourselves than we did from our beginning ASL classes that we took several years ago. Watch, and you'll know quite a bit as a foundation! :D

I also have to agree I haven't ever heard of a good "adult" videos. I took ASL classes when i was younger, but learned more from our Speech therapist and Signing Time than i have anywhere else. I find that learning at a pace right along with my kids has helped me as much as them. cause when i try and get all fancy with it i end up speaking what my husband calls the sign language equivalent to pig latin. If that tells you anything.
Roxanne Morris

angiern

02-10-2006, 03:31 PM

Thank you so much to all that have replied. Please don't get me wrong, I have used the ST videos but would love to learn even more. Getting to classes has proved challenging because no one around here is offering them!! This is why I was hoping to find a video. I love the links for the dictionaries!!! I am sure they will get plenty of use! Again, thank you to you all.
Angie :)
(Tolya's mommy)
www.caringbridge.org/visit/tolyazutz

jstacey74

02-10-2006, 07:18 PM

Trisha-Please feel free to contact me about any questions. To be honest, the shunt surgery was amazingly easy compared to everything else we'd been through. We've also been lucky to not have any complications so far.

Jill

Rachel

02-11-2006, 05:15 PM

I have to agree, I was amazed at how Lucy bounced back from her shunt surgery. She had hydrocephalus from spina bifida and we knew this at our 18 week ultrasound. When we had fetal surgery at 22 weeks, her hydro wen down quite a bit. By the time she was born it looked like she had escaped the need for a shunt! Although 99% of children with spina bifida need a shun, only 50% of fetal surgery for spina bifida babies need a shunt.

Finally at age 3 Lucy was shunted, although she did not have the tell-tale signs (sunset eye, vomitting etc.) her her head just slowly kept growing. it seemed like she was naturally able to reabsorb most of the excess cerebral spinal fluid, but a small amount kept making her head row, very slowly.

Finally her head was creating a mechanical disadvantage for her, sitting rolling, head control etc. were not happening so ate the age of 3, begrudgingly we agreed to shunt her.

Knock on wood, Lucy has had no shunt complication to date! And when she woke up from the operation, she was the same old Lucy, even telling knock-knock jokes. It seemed impossible to me that they could put something in her brain and yet she could still retain everything she knew, prior to the operation.

On the other side of the coin, I know children who have had 20+ shunt revisions. It seems like it is often hit or miss. We are hoping THIS shunt is the golden one!

cPatty4CM

02-13-2006, 02:44 PM

Hi! My name is Patty Mullins and I'm currently living in Biloxi, MS... Lorie, we should try to hook up sometime. My dh is in the Air Force, so at some point my residence will most likely change. I have three children: Aaron (11), Joshua (7) and Hannah (4½). Both boys are "typical" but my Hannah was diagnosed with autism last April. I was heartbroken. I was introduced to ST just before her diagnosis and borrowed Volumes 1 and 2 from her school for many months. We now have Vol. 1-9 and she is steadily adding new words to her vocabulary... I'm so proud of her!

Jenng

02-14-2006, 09:15 PM

I'm Jen and I have two boys: Devin (6) and Colin (17mo). I have just started watching signing time on PBs from a recommendation from the state early intervention lady. Colin has receptive and expressive language delay and possible mild developmental delay. We are just not starting the intervention process. So slow. So I was happy to see my son get interested in signing time. I have been shwoing him signs for two months and he now knows two! I just ordered the videos today. I hope this will help him communicate and stop the screaming. My son hasn't been diagnosed as autistic (I know it's early) but I'm scared ot it. I have a 13 year old nephew with autism and his lack of communication scares me. I like this chat room. Sorry about the ramble. :)

Roxanne Morris

02-16-2006, 01:40 PM

I was at keesler once is that where you are? my first husband went to tech school there. Biloxi is a little diamond in the rough actually. MMMM try breakfast at the casinos its usually all you can eat and very good!!!!!!

Roxanne Morris

02-16-2006, 01:42 PM

Rambling is good for the soul! lol welcome and congrats on the signs. This site is a lot of help!

cPatty4CM

02-16-2006, 02:59 PM

Yes, we're stationed at Keesler. Only a few of the casinos have reopened since the hurricane. The whole coast of Mississippi was completely devastated... you probably wouldn't recognize it. Our restaurant choices have changed DRAMATICALLY!

Patty

mightyoaks

02-21-2006, 05:23 PM

Hi everyone! I am so happy I finally decided to come by the website. We discovered the ST videos at our public library and we're hooked! Well, except maybe dh who is probably tired of even Mommy singing the catchy tunes all the time! :D

My name is Becky and I'm the mother of four beautiful children. My oldest had a rough start with first being misdiagnosed with Spina Bifida and later nearly diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. It was in surgery at 17 hours old that the doctors found my dd (now 7yo) merely had a subcataneous hemangioma over her lower spine. They removed what they could and after a week of recovery we went home.

Three years later we found ourselves on the austism roller coaster ride only to find out once again the experts aren't always right. Though she did have a severe language disorder and significant difficult with self-regulation, she did not have an ASD. She has come a long, long way from those early rough starts. Most of her development is age appropriate and she is doing very well in school. Though unable to do so earlier, she is now quickly and easily learning sign language.

We also taught our second child by birth (now 5yo) sign language in infancy. He was understanding sign by 6 months and using it by 9 months. Once he was able to verbalize, he stopped signing. It's all coming back to him now that we have the ST videos and CDs.

Our third child by birth (now 2yo) was able to understand sign by 6 months but has never used sign in spontaneous communication. She is currently with a diagnosis of severe speech impairment and in speech therapy. She understands sign but seems unable to use her hands for communication and struggles to speak though she knows the words for what she wants to say. Dyspraxia is a term tossed around but we're waiting until she's older to allow any dx given our history with our oldest dd. Her therapy is the same regardless of the dx given.

We recently adopted a boy from another country so he is learning English as a second language. He turned 7yo last week and was learning English relatively well, but the ST videos have helped his acquisition of English tremendously. He loves the videos as much as our other children and the signs are bridging the gap between his first language and his second.

We're adopting two more children from our adopted son's country and plan to use sign language with them as well.

Whew! So that's what led us to sign language and Signing Time.

Seakerr

02-26-2006, 09:10 PM

Hi:

I am new to ST but not to sign. I was actually introduced to ST by my daughter-in-law who is using it to teach her 4 year-old and 18 mo ASL. How I wish ST had been around a few years ago.

I have 7 children ages 29 to 8. Our youngest, Jadon has T21 (Down Syndrome) and has been using sign since he was a baby. My daughters started taking ASL in high school and I started taking classes at the local community college. Luckily we live in an area with a very active deaf community, so it is not hard to find classes. Jadon entered preschool with a sign vocabulary of about 100 signs and a verbal vocabulary of about 20. As he has grown older and become more verbal, many of the signs are dropping, but we still use sign when teaching new concepts and when something needs to be emphasized. One of my daughters was diagnosed last year with Meniere's disease and her "spells" cause hearing loss that will come and go, but she is always left with a decrease at the end of a bout. So far she is only experiencing problems with one ear. She has taken ASL in high school and is now pursuing ASL in college and playing with becoming an interpreter and/or using it in her future teaching career. Learning to sign for for Jadon became an unexpected blessing.

Jadon loves ST and how I wish it had been around when he was younger. His current favorite is "ABC Signs". He loves to spell words and is learning to read in school. How he loves to spell words with his magnetic letters and then with his hands. It was so much fun to watch him figure out how to do his name (and what a great fine motor activity!).

I had been a stay-at-home mom until three years ago when I decided to go back to school and get a degree as an occupational therapy assistant. I graduated last year and have been working part-time (during the time Jadon is in school) at a birth-to-three center (early intervention center)where I work with special needs children. I am involved in play groups, home visits, aquatic therapy, hippo therapy and in the center's Fitness Center which is geared to older children. Signing is a big part of my day as I work with my kids. I see the impact of sign daily as children and parents become able to have a means to communicate visually with one another.

I am so glad that I found this website and this forum. I look forward to becoming part of the group.

Vickie

TeresaPA7

03-02-2006, 08:23 AM

Just wanted to say Hi and introduce Nathan and his family.
I'm Teresa, Nate's Mom and Tim's wife. Tim, Nate's Dad and I are married for 23 yrs now. We have 7 children including Nate. Our oldest is 20 and our youngest is Nate at 17 1/2 mo old. We have 5 boys and 2 girls and we praise God they all get along very well.
Nate was recently tested for growth hormone deficiency. We know that one of the biggies with his diagnosis of Chromosome18q- is that since the tiny piece of that 18 is missing so is the housing for the gh. He tested very low so they started him on the Pfizer Bridge Program until we can convince Gateway, his insurance (or someone else) that gh for Nate is an important as insulin is to a diabetic!
He's been on gh for only 3 weeks and he's able to climb the steps w/very little help! He is trying to crawl and sit up from prone when on the floor. He can already do this on any inclined surface (like the couch when I'm tryig to change his diaper=) He's started to "talk" mor. Lots of new sounds and babbling since we started watching ST about 2 mo ago. He's signing 41 words including "r" for red! He's only 17 1/2 mo old! Hannah, his 5 yr old sister just learned her colors only about a year ago at 3-4yrs!
I must say Hannah is a hug help! (A never ending hyper help...lol!) She has taught Nate more signs than we could have ever imagined. Before we got "Signing Time!" videos she didn't even know her alphabet and now only about 2 mo. later she can pick out the letters by sight and sign ALL 26! She can sign her name and she now knows more than 120 signs! I know a 5 yr olds brain is like a sponge but I'm so proud of her=) Drew and David and Tricia and Tim are all learning it through the videos. Dan and his girl, Sami, actually are learning it together through the flash cards she bought.

The greatest of all of this is that we were given the option to terminate when I was 15 weeks preg. I had a fever for a total of 32 weeks and I had very low amniotic flluid for almost as long. I was told by the High Risk group that he would be our "high maintenance" child and it wouldn't be fair to take the time away from our other 6 typical kids.
Well, let's just have a praise party that they were so far off base! Nate began to sign on his own before he turned 1. A SLP evaluated Nate at 1 and it was then we realized he was using about 12 baby signs he created on his own. The amazing thig is the signs are ASL signs to the best of his ability to make them.

Nathan is the special Angel that has come as an answer to prayer for our family as well as for a wonderful woman named Lori Ann in our church. We've been attending there since before Thanksgiving. Sometime in Jan I approached Lori and asked her if she would pray about helping me sign the Worship songs in Church to Nate as he loves to rock and sing and sign "sing" while the music is playing. (He even got to go up front one Sun and put his baby hands on the wooden stage while the musicians played. His tiny baby hands were flat on that stage for more than 20 min! He just closed his tiny little eyes and rocked back and forth to the music...reminded you fo Stevie Wonder=)
Now if that's not Worship than I don't know what is. Here is this baby showing everyone in that Church just how this is done. =)
Anyway, every Sun now more and more are coming to sign with us and Nate sits in his walker (W/no wheels on it so he can't crash the sage and get those Bongo drums=). We now have 2 women signing for Nate! It's the greatest thing to watch this all unfold through the creation of Jesus who made Nathan for a real purpose! He is NOT a mistake and his chromosome piece being missing isn't a mistake either! This baby was God breathed and created just as exactly as God needed him to be to be the blessing and the reason for this new ministry!
Amazingly Nate is not deaf or blind or severely, profoundly MR like the docs forwarned us when they gave us the option to terminate.=)
Also, Nate's church has agreed to allow us to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and form a much needed group called R.O.P.E. (Reaching Out to Parents of Extra-special children). A woman I met at church has a daughter named Angela! Angela is almost 2 and only weighs about 14 lbs. Her body doesn't produce Cholesterol on it's own. She has something called SLO (Smith-Lemli Opitz). She is so tiny and yet such a happy little thing! Amy and I shared that we can't find a group of people w/children w/special needs who don't belong to a "therapy" group of sorts. After only 2 meetings Amy and I had felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to ask the church if we could launch God's ROPE!
This is how ROPE came to be...
Amy writes:
Anyway, on the ride home, I was thinking how nice it was for the two of us to be working on this together, bouncing ideas off each other, sharing the burden. Then verses from Ecclesiastes bounced into my head:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12:

9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
10 If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
That got me thinking of ROPE as a name for our group: Reaching Out to Parents of Extra-special children.
God Bless Caring church!!
Our first meeting will be in late April after the threat of flu season is over since our kids have such low immune systems to start with. The group is for famlies to come and spend time together. We want to share the daily ins and outs of life with these special Angels we have been gitfed with. The purpose though is for us to buid lasting relationships .
Anyway, Lori and now Dorene are signing the songs in Worship for Nate and for our famly and for a few others who feel lead to be part of what God is doing! Oo many want to be able to communicate with the deaf and hard of hearing that this has been something that Lori has prayed about for the last 3-4 YEARS!
We chose to allow God to show us what His plan for Nathan was and out of this obedience comes answer to prayer that we never knew was being sent up to God before our special Angel was born!
Isn't God just the coolest!

Jamye

03-13-2006, 09:54 PM

Hi,

My name is Jamye and I recently got introduced to signing time and fell in love with it. I have 3 little girls. Lydia is 5 years old, Anna is 2 years old and Amelia is 3 months old. My oldest, Lydia is the reason we are learning sign language. She was born after a long induction that went sour, she ended up sufferring from a bleed in her brain. She has Microcephaly, brain abnormalities, adhd, disruptive behavior disorder, apraxia and is basically behind in all areas developmentally. She is doing great though. She can speak some words but doesnt say them with much repetition. Mommy and No are the only words she says on a regular basis. She will call anyone she sees Mommy. Since we have started learning sign language she has really started to make the connection with words and signs. Now that she can sign eat, we often hear her say the word too! Its so exciting. Sometimes she gets mad at me because I want to watch signing time ALLLL the time and she gets tired of it and wants to watch the care bears or her other movies but I just want to learn everything I can about signing.

Its really great to have found this site and know that there are other people out there with kids who are benefitting from signing. I wish more people we know would take the time to learn.

Well, its great to be here and I hope to get to know everyone!

Jamye

TeresaPA7

03-14-2006, 06:47 AM

HI Jayme!
Nate doesn't repeat words often either. He will repeat nearly any sound he hears but not words. I am amazed at how well Nate is making the connection between the signed words and what they stand for.
He recently signed his sign he made up for "pet the dog" when he saw foot prints on the ground! He was about 17 mo and made the connection.
We love Signing Time!

c01dunlap

03-14-2006, 07:00 AM

HI Jayme!
Nate... recently signed his sign he made up for "pet the dog" when he saw foot prints on the ground! He was about 17 mo and made the connection.
We love Signing Time!
Wow, that is so cool!

TeresaPA7

03-14-2006, 07:52 PM

Hi Chris!
Nate has amazed us so often. His tiny body is so deceiving.
At 17 mo he signed "r" and touched a ladies red sweatshirt and next day touched my hubby's red shirt with his "r" sign.
He was playing with his SLP today and we found out he understands many signs! He stopped when she asked him, and shared when she asked him to share. He's understanding the concept of taking turns as well.
We realized today that as I retell his day to his Daddy he is siginging many of the signs I am talking about! He's almost 18 mo.
The funniest part is he has sense of humor with all this. I was recently at the docs office for myself and he was waiting with me for almost an hour before the nurse came out and called, "Zimmerman...".
Nate sat up straight as a stick on my lap and signed "time"! The nurse started laughing out loud. She patted his back as we walked by and told him, "I agee little buddy, it is about TIME!"
The office staff had a good laugh over this.
He often signs time when the nurse is taking someones pulse in the docs offices=)
We are so enjoying our precious gift.

Emilys_Mommy

03-14-2006, 10:13 PM

:) Hi Everyone! :)

My name is Sandy and I am the mother of an incredible little girl named Emily! ;) My husband and I were told at just 20 weeks gestation that Emily had a C-CAM on her right lung and suffered from severe hydrocephalus. We were advised to terminate our pregnancy, but we had faith that she would be strong and grow to be a beautiful child. After meeting with a neurosurgeon, we were again advised to consider termination- Emily's hydrocephalus was so severe that the doctors were almost certain that Emily would have little or no function. :(

Shortly after Emily was born (weighing a hefty 8lbs 10ozs!) they discovered that she also had Pierre Robin Sequence. This sent us into research mode. We learned that this 'sequence' involved a cleft palate, small lower jaw, and an enlarged tongue- all of which would cause difficulty in speaking and eating.

At the age of 2 months she endured 2 surgeries, the later of which involved the placement of a tracheostomy. But Emily was strong! She recovered quickly and life went on without incidence for a few months. Shortly after, she went in for her shunt placement to correct the hydrocephalus.

After meeting with doctors and specialists, we were referred to a speech and language therapist. They encouraged us to begin signing with Emily. We did the best we could, teaching her as many signs as we could. We discovered the Signing Time videos and her signing ability just took off! She learned more than we could ever imagine! (And we took every opportunity to show off her knowledge to the doctors who told us that she would be a 'vegetable' - my husband even went so far as to tell the neurosurgeon that our Emily had "proved him WRONG!")

Emily has been have a very rough couple of months - pneumonia, 4 shunt revisions, and a few infections have made us 'regulars' at our local hospital. During the trying times, the one thing that could ALWAYS make Emily smile were her Signing Time videos. She is a local star too - all of the nurses on the pediatric floors of the hospital know about Emily's signing abilities and love to watch her perform!

Here is a picture of Emily - one of the 'healthy' pictures that we have! She is our little angel and continues to amaze us every day!

Dena

03-16-2006, 01:18 AM

My name is Dena and I am the mom of 2 wonderful children. My son Doran is 7 and had multiple disabilities including severe developmental delays & CP. My daughter Caytelyn is 3 1/2 and is as sharp as a tack. Because my son is very small for his age strangers always ask me if they are twins. Sometimes it feels like they are twins. My son is obviously the reason I have purchased the signing time DVD's. He has been in EI since he was 6 months old. His therapists have worked tirelessly to teach him sign language with little success. The only sign he has learned over the last 6 years is more. Just recently he learned the sign for eat/drink....he uses a combination sign for both. I purchased the DVD's on Feb 7th and within 2 weeks he was using the 'yes' sign and understanding a handful of other signs. His teachers and therapists at school are very excited with the results they are already seeing. My daughter is picking up the signs with almost no effort at all and even uses them with her speech when she talks. She bursts into ST songs anywhere and everywhere she is. I am amazed at how engaged they both are when the DVD's are on. They already had a great love for other educational DVD's (blues clues, dora, leap frog etc) so the ST collection fit right in to our routine. I have them running every chance I get. I purchased all 9 of the DVD's and I can already see they are worth their weight in gold. I can't wait to see how much progress they both make in future months.

TeresaPA7

03-16-2006, 08:24 AM

Dena,
I love the HOPE ST brings families! Even after years of being "stuck" isn't it so exciting to see your son's progress so quickly with ST?
I am in awe of how times have changed. Used to be once MR was diagnosed or there wasn't any progress beig made it was as if there was no more hope offered.
ST offers a new hope for all who are willing to try.=)

c01dunlap

03-16-2006, 10:48 AM

:) Hi Everyone! :)

...Emily has been have a very rough couple of months - pneumonia, 4 shunt revisions, and a few infections have made us 'regulars' at our local hospital...She is our little angel and continues to amaze us every day!
Welcome! What a wonderful story, and how strong your family must be to say 'No' repeatedly to recommendations to terminate ( :( )!!

We have a Prayers thread, http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=597 that I wanted to be sure you were aware of. Please post anytime you want Emily / the family in our thoughts & prayers. It gives many of us great joy to be able to add everyone's precious kiddos to our list.

Just wanted all "newbies" to be aware! :) Oh, and you don't need someone 'in the hospital' to be added to the thoughts-&-prayers list.

Take care,

theresa

03-17-2006, 10:21 PM

Hi everyone!! My name is Theresa (T for short). I've been visiting the forum since it opened and have posted a couple of times---I thought it time to introduce myself. I'm a former pediatric nurse, now stay at home mom to Connor(11), Shea(5), and Brenna(2). My husband, Marty, is a neonatal pediatrician---so you would think we knew it all about kids, but it's funny---we've learned the more you know about kids and medicine--the less you really know!! (in other words, there's always more to learn!)
Our daughter, Shea, was born with Down Syndrome. She turned 5 last August and we were certain she would be talking more by now, but she isn't. When Shea was an infant we taught her several signs on our own (I had a hard time finding good books/videos--BST(Before ST)!!) We got to the point where we thought she was on the verge of speaking so I discontinued learning more signs. Then our daughter, Brenna, was born and I think ?Shea had a developmental setback. Her new baby sister cried alot!! and needed much of Mommy's attention. Shea cried when the baby cried and also loved to imitate the baby instead of doing things I knew she could do! Well, to make a long story short (sorry it's not so short!).... we recently discovered ST(I think it was in Sept.) I can't tell you how happy I am!! Thank you, Rachel, thank you for producing ST. I wish we had learned of ST when it first came out. Shea has been excited watching and imitating Alex and Leah (and Rachel!). She has learned so many new words to sign and has fun saying them with her hands and sometimes with her voice! I'm so excited to communicate more with Shea. She has been frustrated and whining/screeching alot lately, so I'm hoping she will be able to talk to me more with her signs until she can say her words.......
Her teacher at preschool also wants to share with Shea's classmates some of the ST books, movies and coloring/activity pages so the other children will be able to communicate with her.
I can't tell you how much this means to me.....ST has been an answer to prayer!! I'm so grateful to have a group to talk to who have children with similiar special needs.

Sincerely, T

bjcengh

03-17-2006, 10:54 PM

What an incredible story. I'm so proud of your little fighter and so happy that you discovered ST. She is absolutely adorable!

:) Hi Everyone! :)

My name is Sandy and I am the mother of an incredible little girl named Emily! ;) My husband and I were told at just 20 weeks gestation that Emily had a C-CAM on her right lung and suffered from severe hydrocephalus. We were advised to terminate our pregnancy, but we had faith that she would be strong and grow to be a beautiful child. After meeting with a neurosurgeon, we were again advised to consider termination- Emily's hydrocephalus was so severe that the doctors were almost certain that Emily would have little or no function. :(
Here is a picture of Emily - one of the 'healthy' pictures that we have! She is our little angel and continues to amaze us every day!

itsren

03-19-2006, 02:38 AM

Hi! My name is Renee. I'm new to this forum, but not new to Signing Time.

We bought Signing Time Vols. 1-3 when our 4-year-old son, Brandon, was 1. He didn't coo or babble much as a baby and we hoped Signing Time would help. Even with Signing Time, he didn't say much until shortly before age 3. He didn't pick up signing either, even though he watched it over and over, every day. We'd work with him trying to get him to sign with us, too. When he was 3 1/2, he was accepted into the local public school's Early Childhood Education program. We learned he has auditory Sensory Integration issues. He's doing GREAT now! He's quite the chatter bug and is beginning to sign, too. He's a late bloomer, but he's proving to be a very smart boy. When he started communicating - he REALLY started!

Our twins, Bryan and Jessica, are 18 months old. They were 36-weekers. Bryan had a rough start - born first, cried last. Jessica was born 3 minutes after Bryan and they had her bundled up and lying next to me for a few minutes before Bryan made his first cry. Recently, we were told that Bryan probably has some form of Autism. His Dr. said it could very well be high-functioning. Time will tell. Bryan doesn't speak yet - but he is starting to babble and coo. His eye contact is improving and he's finally beginning to come to us for hugs or to give us things. We're keeping faith that it will work out. Bryan seems to be a lot like his older brother was at that age, and his older brother is doing just fine now.

Other than being a little climber and into everything, Jessica has no problems. She spunky, verbal and even signs a few signs.

All three of my kids LOVE Signing Time. They'll laugh and dance to it. Signing Time has been a welcome addition into our family's DVD library.

Missymomoftwins

03-28-2006, 10:16 PM

Hi everyone! Wow, I can't believe how much this website has changed! I have been working with my twin girls with Signing time since Feb 2005. I had the first 6 videos. I had no idea that more videos came out until today when our speech therapist told me (obviously I hadn't checked out the website for a long time :)

Anyway, I am the proud mother of twin girls, Morgan who is typical and Sadie who has Down Syndrome. We have been watching the videos since they were about 3 months old. We started off watching at least one a day now we are down to about one a week but that will soon change! Morgan picked up on the signs like wildfire. Sadie currently knows about 5 signs (that we can tell and see). She does not currently say any words. She is a great imitator. We are so looking forward to the new videos to help expand her horizons and mine too! Perhaps we will see and explosion in her communication!

lovemy6sweeties

03-28-2006, 11:04 PM

Sadie currently knows about 5 signs (that we can tell and see). She does not currently say any words. She is a great imitator. We are so looking forward to the new videos to help expand her horizons and mine too! Perhaps we will see and explosion in her communication!

How fun to have another cutie pie with ds here :) SigningTime has been an amazing resource for teaching Brady sign and speech (although if you read my other posts, our school ST wouldn't agree with me!) Can't wait to get to know you and your girls better :) We love the new volumes, I didn't know if Brady would know all the animal signs, since we knew quite a few, but he learned lots of new signs from volumes 7-9. Now we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of volumes 10-13 - yayyyyy! I bet that Sadie will be signing up a storm in no time. How old are your girls? Brady went through a huge spurt between the ages of 2 and 3, and he is still going strong - I am amazed at how quickly he picks up sign and how easy it is for him to generalize it from the DVD's to everyday life!

Again - glad that you've joined the forums!

Missymomoftwins

03-29-2006, 09:45 PM

aligreat

03-29-2006, 11:26 PM

Wow! Can't believe I forgot one of the most important things, my girls are 28 months! I am so looking forward to her speaking/signing skills. We are trying to get her to walk, stand, cruise. She has mastered crawling (we were ever so happy for this!). She trys to self feed but we still have to feed her in order to ensure she gets her calories. Her main problem is tone. She is SOOO low tone. Watching her makes me realize she is a potential gymnasist. Her flexibility is astonishing! Her heart is fine. No other main medical problems (thank goodness).

I think that once she masters some of her gross motor skills her language skills will sky rocket (at least that is what I have read, children typically can focus on only one area of development at a time). I love reading everyone's posts. It is nice to hear about everyone's story.
My twins are 26 months old. Cassia has gross motor delays, and she is Deaf. She has hypotonia, and it has just been recently that she is starting to take a couple of steps. She loves cruising on the sofa, and we are so happy for the advances she has made. I have often said that all special needs children should have a twin. Have you found that having another little one there showing her exactly what you are trying to get her to do is exactly what she needs?

Missymomoftwins

03-30-2006, 01:38 PM

Aligreat, sometimes having a twin has helped. Sadie is definately her own individual. She chooses to do things at her own level. Before this, she was perfectly content just sitting, then she learned how to crawl. Sometimes, I think her motivation to do things like her sister isn't all that great. However, she has recently been getting frustrated at watching her sister do things that she can't (her sister can climb on the bed and she can't etc). As a mom, it is hard to sit there and make her do things. I try so hard not to baby Sadie; but sometimes she does need a fire lit under her butt, so to speak.

I also find that the other typical twin seems to learn compassion at a much earlier age. Morgan is a great cheerleader for her sister (although sibling rivalry does show its horns every now and then).

One of the hard things with having twins and one having special needs is the fact that they really are not twins at all. Morgan is jumping, climbing, talking, signing etc and Sadie is still very much like an infant. Sometimes, I just wish that they would be twins. It would be nice if they could "play" more with each other. But all of that will come in time and then I will look back and say "what was I thinking" :)

Mary

04-17-2006, 03:40 PM

Hi! My name is Mary. I have four children. Two of my children have Fragile X Syndrome. Luke is 6 and has learned how to talk but still signs many things. He has become so used to using signs! Patrick is 3 and has no language skills yet. He is using a few signs to communicate with us. I am so happy to have found this site! My other children are 7 and 16, they are wonderful with their younger siblings. My son John, age 7, calls his little brothers the X Men!

I am also a student nurse. I am currently working on obtaining my RN (16 months to go) and I would like to continue my education to obtain a Master's Degree as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with a special interest in special needs. My children have always inspired me and they continue to do so everyday!

archer210

05-12-2006, 09:17 AM

aligreat

05-12-2006, 08:24 PM

My name is Shawn I live south of Worcester, Ma. My daughter Sarah was dianosed with enlarged vescula acquiducts (deformed coclea) at around age 3. We found signing time throu Sarah's school when we asked for help learning sign they sent home a copy of one of the videos.
So, is archer your last name, or are you a bow and arrow type person? I ask because I used to know someone named Shawn who was a competitive archer.

archer210

05-15-2006, 05:18 AM

archery is a hobby of mine I don't compete in it but I did get invovled with teaching elementory school kids how to shoot several years back. the reason i use it as a login name is it's shorter than my last name.

Jenrose

05-22-2006, 01:48 PM

My dd1 is almost 13, and the baby, "Shiny", is 14 months.

I've been using some rudimentary sign with Shiny since birth, and at 5 1/2 weeks she was diagnosed with chromsome 4q del 21.1-21.3, which means she's missing a small chunk of one band of the long arm of her 4th chromosome. We know of two other kids with the "exact" deletion in the world, and maybe 20 with deletions in the 4q21q22 range--but it's enough that it's now called "4q21q22 syndrome" because the morphology etc. is pretty consistent. We didn't hear from other parents of kids with the deletion until Shiny was maybe 10-12 months old, and I'm glad.

Shiny was diagnosed with a mild-to-moderate sloping HL when she was 9 months old, got hearing aids at 11 months and since then her actual hearing has been improving, strangely enough. She was perfectly well and had no fluid in her ears at 9 months during the testing, yet her hearing has improved not only over the baseline testing, but over a bone conduction test done later. We think that delayed myelinazation (sp?) in her brain may have played a part, as one child who has a deletion entirely within Shiny's range (smaller deletion) was given an MRI and that was a finding. It means that signals from her ears were only making partial and inconsistent progress to her brain. Things are improving rapidly. She babbles now, and vocalizes and now has gestures and handbabble. She can say "milk" in sign, and gets terribly excited at that part of the tape...

It's been quite a journey. The reason I'm glad that we didn't find other parents with the deletion until recently is that the other kids are not doing as well... more medical issues, far more severe delays, huge communication barriers, severe mental retardation. Shiny... we still don't know, but there are more reasons to be hopeful than not right now. She's sitting and pulling to a stand with help. She's developing language and has good receptive language even without her aids in. And she's a sweetie... Such and easygoing baby!
Jenrose

dmmetler

05-22-2006, 01:51 PM

Welcome, Jenrose! I'm glad to see you here (I'm still occasionally on MKB), and to hear how well Shiny's doing!

Jenrose

05-23-2006, 01:58 AM

Nice to see you, Donna!

Miss Shiny rolls everywhere--it's hysterical, but a bit frustrating. I may have to get her a helmet because she keeps bonking her head when she rolls. Then again, maybe a helmet would keep her hearing aids on. Always a frustration. I swear the things are more trouble than they're worth most days. I had to design our own earmolds for her because she'd rip the traditional ones out and then they'd hurt going back in. Ugh.

I'm with you on the non-noisy toys. SHe likes the ones that light up, etc. but her faves right now are a simple wooden pegboard and a shape sorter. The pegboard is 7 pegs of stairstepping height, with rainbow colored "bead" blocks that thread onto them, 1 purple, 2 blue, 3 green, etc. She loves taking them off the board and hitting them together.

MsDylans

05-25-2006, 02:49 PM

I hope I'm doing this right. My son Jake will be 4 in September. He was diagnosed at 14 months with symptomatic epilepsy. He has lesions in his brain causing seizures. They have been tough to get under control.

He only says three words (Yes, No and Mama). I took two years of sign in college 20 years ago and have slowly been teaching him what I remember. Someone turned me on to Signing Times and I'm so excited!!! I just ordered all kinds of stuff and cant' wait to get it!!!

Jake's neuro says he may never speak but he hears and understands just fine so his expressive disorder is so frustrating to him. I'm looking foward to giving him even more tools to help him communicate with the world around him. Looking forward to getting to know all of you. :D

c01dunlap

05-26-2006, 11:09 AM

Good to meet you and Jake! You did fine on the intro! We look forward to seeing more posts from you, especially to hear what Jake thinks of ST! once you get it.

I hope that ST! opens up a world of communication for him. It has for so many other children, and I really love to hear the stories and get to know the parents. "See" you soon!

Honey Smith

06-08-2006, 02:31 PM

Hi everyone,

My name is Honey, I am from Sparks Nevada. My son Johnathan is 6years old and has Charge Syndrome and chronic lung diease. He lost his left lung in julyof o3, due to adno virus,while in the hospital he caught pneamonia, and RSV. His lung collasped and the doctor's here and at Lucille Packard Children's hospital could not get the lung back so he had to have it removed. He also had to have a trache during this time. He had been doing good since then,until December of last year, when his remaining lung partially collasped and we had to call 911. He was in the hospital for two weeks, the doctor's were able to get the lung back up with a chest tube. He was released the day before Christmas eve. HE celebrated his birthdayon DEc 28th and was doing good until January 14, 06. Where his oxygen level dropped and my husband and I had to use the Ambu bag on him. He was admitted into the hospital because the lung had collasped. The doctors here tried to get the lung back, could not,so he was flown to Standford. The doctor's there said he was having pnemothorax and would need surgery. He had to have four surgical procedures. He was in the hospital four three months. He came home in March. He is doing good. He is a little fighter and what keeps us going at times. He has a nine year old sister. We found out about ;) ST. while he was in the hospital, and just purchased them and think they are wonderful.HE loves Leah Farm and The Zoo Train. We are all learningto sign together.Well I just wanted to tell you alittle about our son and to say Hi. Honey

c01dunlap

06-11-2006, 06:11 AM

Hi everyone,

My name is Honey, I am from Sparks Nevada. My son Johnathan is 6years old and has Charge Syndrome and chronic lung diease... He was in the hospital four three months. He came home in March. He is doing good. He is a little fighter and what keeps us going at times. He has a nine year old sister. We found out about ;) ST. while he was in the hospital, and just purchased them and think they are wonderful.HE loves Leah Farm and The Zoo Train. We are all learningto sign together.Well I just wanted to tell you alittle about our son and to say Hi. Honey
Hi Honey!

What a little fighter you have there! Johnathan is lucky to have you two (well, three - a sister too) to be so strong and fight along side of him! I'm thrilled you found out about ST!; it has been quite a gift to many families for communication, and just plain fun. BTW, when we got the vols 7-9, those were Sophie's all-time favorite two for quite some time. :p

If you have not already seen it, we have a "Prayers... (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=597)" thread where people post asking for prayers, positive energy, etc. for their kiddos (and other members of the family). We are all a big family here, and love to be able to do what we can, and know what is going on with everyone's kids.

Take care,

CAmommy2KJ

06-11-2006, 10:48 PM

OK I introed myself in the general forum, but I thought I might do it here too... I'm just going to C&P cuz I'm lazy! LOL

Hello everyone!
I was in a signing time chat week before last and met a few of you then, but I haven't had a chance to post on the forums yet! My name is Renee... I'm married to Frank... I'm a SAHM, he's in the Army currently in Iraq. We live in Tennessee.
We have 3 kids, our daughter Kassidy is 6 1/2, our son Kameron is 4 1/2 and our daughter Kennedy just turned 2. We started buying ST! for Kennedy, who has Down syndrome, last Winter. We own 1-9 but have only opened 1-3 LOL. Kennedy knows about 20 signs and Kass and Kam know them all! Their very favorite is the pizza song! They sign with Kennedy all the time, it's so neat to see!

Let's see... there are pictures of all my family here http://www.ourkjkids.com and Kennedy's story here: http://www.caringbridge.org/tn/kennedyjean . You'll know more than you ever wanted to about us! LOL
Anyway, I can't wait to get to know you all!

Bill

06-13-2006, 10:54 AM

Hi everyone my name is bill and my wifes name is Kathy.
We live in Seattle, Wa. She is a nurse, and I go
to Shoreline Commuinity College for ASL classes.
I love ASL. it is so refreshing!!

please stop by and say hi!

Angela

07-11-2006, 07:12 AM

Hi everyone! I posted my own thread and just seen this one. I just ordered our first signing times last night. My son Andrew has mutiple defects. He isn't for sure diagnosed with any one syndrome except for Pierre Robin Syndrome. THey think possible VATER or Treacher Collins syndrome. He has had a total of 9 operations 4 being with his heart which is all corrected now. He is a little behind in his motor skills and well doesn't talk, just babbles. He is deaf in his left ear and has Microtia Atresia. He also has an unrepaird soft palate cleft. We have a surgery date for Sept 20th set on that. Due to his heart and GI issues he doesn't drink by mouth and just started eatting about 4 months ago by mouth. So according to his ST that has set his language skills back alot. He sayd mamma and nana and a few other words but that it. I didn't get anywhere with his ST so we now have moved on to Early Interventions and he loves all his therapists now. Hos old ST didn't want to teach him signing because she said it will set his speech back. According to all his new therapists they said it will actually help advance it. He has learned please, more, dog, eat,and ball in just a week. Please however is his favorite word. LOL!!
It's nice to have yet another group to belong to that understands the whole wanting him to learn to sign. I'm also an advocate for CCA Kids as well and there are a few parents of deaf children on there. That's where I got the link to this site.
Look forward to communicating with all of you. Can't wait to get my 1st DVDs and see how he is.

Angela

Here is a pic of my son at the zoo...hope it comes through ok!

http://www.croughen.com/images/myspace/zoosmall.jpg

c01dunlap

07-11-2006, 09:05 AM

Angela,

Glad you found us and are joining in! Cute pic of Andrew - at a zoo, perhaps? Thought I saw an elephant in the background. He looks like he's having fun. What a tough start he's had, with so many operations, etc. Must be scary for you, too. Hugs.

I'm also so very happy that your new STs recognize the importance of signing to language development. It is so true, and I think you will be pleased and amazed at Andrew's response to the ST! videos. Sophie's all time favorite is STILL the volume 6 with "Colors of the Rainbow", although with her new fascination with the alphabet, vol. 5 is gaining 'popularity'.

Angela

07-11-2006, 12:59 PM

c01dunlap

07-11-2006, 07:42 PM

Thanks and nice to meet you too. Yes he was at the zoo. First Zoo trip.
He is catching onto the signing very well....but just won't do more...lol!
Yes we have had some major surgeries in the past but he is so much better now. Just need to walk and talk and well drink with a cup. He is also G-tube fed on all liquids.

Glad I went with my gut and seeked another ST.

Hope to talk later!
Not sure where you're from, but you might want to check out the Playgroups thread (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6) to see if there is a local playgroup. Second, don't know if you're aware of the regular ST! chats. We have one Wednesday night starting at 9pm Eastern time, the one Thursday starting at 9pm Eastern time often includes Rachel (used to be Wednesday, not sure if it will be switching back, so watch the calendar), and one Friday afternoons at 1pm Eastern time.

Angela

07-16-2006, 04:06 PM

Oh ok thank you for that news. I'm in Jacksonville Florida!

Thdoy2

07-22-2006, 10:38 PM

I discovered ST shortly after my first son Randy was 23mos and just diagnosed with a mild-mod SNHL. He was not speaking at all and his Hearing Itinerant encouraged us to teach him sign. He and his older sister (and me!) were hooked immediately and started signing shortly after. It's several years later and in addition to his apparantly progressive hearing loss, several other issues have cropped up.

In the 3 years since he was diagnosed, he was also found to be Globally Delayed, Speech Impedament, Sensory Integration Issues Asthma and the most worrisome of them all are his Gross Motor Skills. At his last IEP(for preschool) his PT said that his Skills had regressed slightly. I took him to a Neurologist in May who did an MRI that found nothing, but told us to monitor his progress and follow-up in ~6 mos. Within the past 2 weeks, he has started to tire easily and have difficulty with bladder control. So now he will probably have more tests done, which scares the stuff out of me & dh. Well, with our cutie Randy--life just never gets boring!

BTW, his younger brother has been learning sign since birth and now has over 100 signs and is ahead in his speech!

c01dunlap

07-23-2006, 05:28 AM

Sange,

Glad to "meet" you here. How terrific that you introduced ST! and sign language to Randy and have given him the means to communicate at an early age, and have the whole family involved! :D

BTW, we do also have a "Prayers for our Little Ones (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=597)" thread where you can post requests for thoughts and prayers any time you and your family has a need. Just wanted to be sure you saw that.

Good luck with the upcoming tests. I hope that the medical community is supportive and can help with Randy. Take care,

Evie&HopesMomma

07-24-2006, 02:02 PM

Hi,

I'm Laura, Mom to two incredible daughters. Hope is 4 and has hydrocephalus and some behavioral issues. Evie is 1 and has reflux with a g-tube & feeding intolerance. We found ST on PBS by chance one Sunday morning. Sign language had been suggested to help the 4 year old communicate better to lessen some of the tantrums and things. Well, as you can imagine, Hope was hooked from the first episode. To our amazement, our little Evie who had only ever said "mama" and "dada" began signing to tell us things. The best was last week, when she was looking at a cat that had wandered onto the patio. She signed "cat" and said "gat! gat!". I feel so blessed to have found ST and this forum. I've read a lot of the messages, and this is truly a great group of people. Thank you so much! L

c01dunlap

07-25-2006, 07:44 AM

Laura,

Glad you found ST! (and the forums). How exciting that Evie has a new way to communicate, and is blossoming!! :D We've found signing to have a great impact on our family as a whole - Sophie hasn't had tantrums like other kids, and we've all had the bond of learning a new language and teaching others. It is so cute to see Sophie teaching anyone (adult or kid) that expresses ANY interest whatsoever. :) Maybe Hope will find fun in doing that too someday.

Also, don't know if you've checked out the Playgroups forum (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6), but we've found that to be valuable reinforcement too. Actually, that's where we met and made friends with a Deaf mom and Deaf toddler -- the *best* way to learn and practice the language for sure.

blessedmom2meg

08-18-2006, 04:38 PM

My name is Elizabeth and I am the proud mother of three! I have two sons and one daughter. They are ages 7,5 and 1. Our daughter was born to us last year with T21 and along with that came a very serious heart defect (three defects actually). She had her surgery when she was 4 months and thanks to some of the best Dr.'s I have ever met in my life she is now healthy and happy. We started Signing Time with Meg about 4 months ago and I have to tell you I thought it would never come! Then one day when I was almost at the end of my rope thinking she would maybe never get this, she signed "more" while eating lunch. I asked her if she was asking for more cheerios and she shook her head yes!!!! For some reason that moment was the assurance I needed to know that everything was going to be ok!!! I am so greatful for this program and to be a part of this forum! It does alot for my heart to know that I am not alone!

Blessings

Eliz

aligreat

08-18-2006, 05:53 PM

For some reason that moment was the assurance I needed to know that everything was going to be ok!!! I am so greatful for this program and to be a part of this forum! It does alot for my heart to know that I am not alone!

That is exactly what I love about the forums and about ST! in general. The first time I saw it I knew that I wasn't alone as a hearing mother with a deaf daughter. It is great that we have a place to share our stories, our trials, and our triumphs.

lovemy6sweeties

08-18-2006, 10:20 PM

[QUOTE=blessedmom2meg]My name is Elizabeth and I am the proud mother of three! I have two sons and one daughter. They are ages 7,5 and 1. Our daughter was born to us last year with T21 and along with that came a very serious heart defect (three defects actually). She had her surgery when she was 4 months and thanks to some of the best Dr.'s I have ever met in my life she is now healthy and happy. We started Signing Time with Meg about 4 months ago and I have to tell you I thought it would never come! Then one day when I was almost at the end of my rope thinking she would maybe never get this, she signed "more" while eating lunch. I asked her if she was asking for more cheerios and she shook her head yes!!!! For some reason that moment was the assurance I needed to know that everything was going to be ok!!! I am so greatful for this program and to be a part of this forum! It does alot for my heart to know that I am not alone!

I, too, am blessed with a cutie with T21 :) Signing has been a wonderful bridge for communication for our family! I know that you will find it to be, as well! Whoooo hooooo Meg on your new sign :) Can't wait to hear more about you all and get to know you :)

dennis2kang

09-06-2006, 02:55 PM

Kei_as_in_K

09-08-2006, 05:53 PM

Hi-
I am new, first time posting! I am Miriam and the mom to 2 1/2 year old Nicholas who has Down Syndrome. We just started signing times about two months ago. Nicholas can do about 10 signs on request but unfortunately still can't to communicate. I pray that I can learn a lot from you all so that I can help Nicholas before he goes to the school district where I don't hold out much hope for them teaching him.

Miriam.

Miriam, 10 signs is great!!!! William was 2 before we discovered Signing Time, and despite having been teaching him some ASL from a few months old, he really only had a handful until ST!
Just keep practicing with Nicholas & sometime when you least expect it, he may shock you with just how much he's been paying attention. He might show you all at once.
When he does start going to school, try to make sure that his IEP states using ASL as part of his communication.

NevillesLostToad

09-08-2006, 11:08 PM

My name is Aprilyn and I am mom to two wonderful little boys. Nathan is 7 and so hyper. We think he could have ADHD but we're not sure and not willing to medicate him quite yet. Marshall is my preemie. He was born at 33 weeks and is now 22 1/2 mo. He has been a HUGE handful from the moment he came home from the NICU. We had a doctor agree with us that Marshall has some serious problems that need help. We've had to switch Pediatrician offices 3 times now to get someone to listen. We know he has Sensory Integration Disorder. We're pretty convinced he has ADHD and we are also pretty convinced he has Asperger's Syndrome. It's tough to deal with him every day but with the Lord's help, we manage. He still doesn't sleep through the night even with meds to help him sleep. In July he had a sleep study which showed severe OSA. He immediately had his tonsils and adenoids removed (although they couldn't remove all because he might have a cleft palate). She also clipped his uvula so now all he has is a stubby! I almost forgot-- we watch Signing Time and he knows probably over 100 signs. Unfortunately, it doesn't help his behavior at all. :( He is learning his colors and loves to sign them.

Well, that's all for tonight. I'm really tired. I'll check up on this board tomorrow. How do you get pictures in your email?

-Aprilyn

c01dunlap

09-09-2006, 05:17 AM

Aprilyn (what a pretty name!),

Glad you "returned" after a bit and posted in this forum. Since you mentioned it had been a little bit, I looked up your original intro post (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10875#post10875). You must be exhausted! {{{Hugs}}} on that!

First, here's a link to a post (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4588&) that should help you get a pic into your signature. Look forward to seeing what pic(s) you choose to add! :D

Since you mentioned Asperger's Syndrome, I did I quick search for you there -- there were a couple of threads that popped up, and I noticed that one of our regular posters, Lesliej (Hi, Leslie!) has a daughter with the same. Here's a link (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1603&) to where she mentions that.

As you get time and energy, feel free to post questions or just share your day or week in this forum. I do not have a Special Needs child myself, but have learned SOOO much here, and grown to respect all of the parents that face each day (& night :eek: ) with such strength, love and faith.

ST! Hugs! Let everyone here know how we can help and support you.

aligreat

09-09-2006, 12:11 PM

My name is Aprilyn and I am mom to two wonderful little boys.
Well, that's all for tonight. I'm really tired.
Gee, from your handle, I thought your name would be Trevor. ;)

You don't have to appologize for not posting. If anyone understands being too tired/busy/frazzled to get to a computer and type, it will be other parents of children with special needs.

Miracle26wkr

09-22-2006, 01:23 PM

Hi there, I am Mandy mom to Noah who is almost 2 1/2 that was born at 26 weeks. I have been signing with him for over a year now and he is finally starting to sign back more. He has cerebral palsy, brain damage, possible autism, and the music and singing with Signing time helps get his attention. I am getting better with the signing and am trying to use it everyday. I have started teaching family members so that they can communicate with him as well. He does speak but its very delayed and often mumbled.
I think sign language is so beatiful to watch, I cant wait until I get better at it!

sacmom

09-24-2006, 06:34 PM

Hello everyone! My name is Julie and I am a SAHM of two boys. My oldest, Brandon, has Autism. He is the reason we started getting the ST DVD's as his speech is very limited. My husband and I had our doubts about ST when I first heard about it (on another forum), but we were amazed at how both our boys love watching the DVD's and sign along with the them. We currently have ST 1 through 6 and just ordered 7 - 9 a few days ago. I can't wait until we get them! :)

kctahoe

09-28-2006, 10:48 PM

Hello. My name is Kim, and I am wife to Ray and mom to a wonderful baby boy, Charlie (born January 2006). Charlie was diagnosed with Down Syndrome when he was 2 months old. Charlie also has a moderate SNHL, and wears hearing aids (when he's not trying to eat them, that is :o ). He is such a blessing and a light in our lives. We just bought the BST video's for him, and have been using some signs with him already. I am hopeful that using sign language with Charlie will be a positive step in communicating as he grows. Glad we found this forum.
--Kim

brenkachika

10-10-2006, 07:17 PM

Hi, my name is Kerry. I have four great kids. Brenna is my oldest, she is 7. Katie-Jayne is 6. She had chronic ear infections as a baby and we signed a lot to help her communicate. Then at age 2 she had a traumatic head injury. At my parent's farm a very large horse kicked her in the head. It was a long recovery. She overcame many obstacles, to include a tremor in her right hand. Now in the first grade, we are seeing signs of learning disabilities and are having her tested. She's a spunky kid, and I am sure will be fine. We just have to find the right way to help her learn. Christian is 4 and in kindergarten already. He has high functioning austism and has a full time skills trainer to help him thru his school day. He is very smart and ambedextrous! However, he never picked up on signing. He avoids eye contact and I think that may be part of the reason why. My baby is 18 months old. He is actually my foster son, and in March will be my forever son! He may have had some alcohol exposure; he has poor oral facial muscles. He was behind with his speech developement, but has hit a kind of language explosion and is ahead! He signs bits here and there too. We all live in Hawaii and just got to see Rachel, or as my kids call her, Leah's mom! It was a lot of fun and I am really excited to have found this forum.
Aloha from Kerry

suemac

10-11-2006, 12:25 PM

Hello Everyone,

I have tried to read as many of the posts as I could, but I think I will have to just try to keep up with the new ones. There are so many!

I have five children, the youngest, almost 6 has Down syndrome and apraxia. We have bounced back and forth with communication helps for 3 years - since his diagnosis of apraxia. When he started kindergarten this year it hit me that he may NEVER verbally communicate ( he tries, but it is very difficult). That is when we decided to focus on sign full-time.

Since that time he has been "liberated"!! He signs as much as we can teach him. For the first time he is telling us about his day instead of just answering yes and no questions. He is so happy! He showed his teacher that he knows the whole alphabet by fingerspelling them all! He does make sounds - I think the signing is actually helping his motor-planning in that respect.

Now for help! I am currently taking as ASL course, my family and extended family are also learning ASL so they can talk with him, but I'm not sure how he will progress into a full-fledged signer. He school teachers and aides are learning signs, but not sign language. His classmates - same thing. How do we take it another step. If he learns to talk in the future - great - but that is a long way down the road. We do not have a deaf community in our area - so there aren't any children he can communicate fully through sign. How is he going to learn??

On another note - I would really like to teach him to pray in sign. How does one say "Dear Heavenly Father" - and are all the other signs the same as if you were just talking to the neighbor next door?? May seem like a silly question, but I just don't know.

Does anyone know where we can get more glosses? Those have been so helpful to me to teach my son the full songs. He LOVES signing time!

Thanks for listening and for your help.

Susan

c01dunlap

10-11-2006, 02:17 PM

Welcome everyone! I'm so excited to meet some more new families here. Thanks so much for introducing yourselves! :D

Hello Everyone... Since that time he has been "liberated"!! He signs as much as we can teach him. For the first time he is telling us about his day instead of just answering yes and no questions. He is so happy! He showed his teacher that he knows the whole alphabet by fingerspelling them all! He does make sounds - I think the signing is actually helping his motor-planning in that respect.
Woo Hoo! Way to go little one! What a wonderful gift you are giving him. Sounds like he's just bursting with things to say!

Now for help! I am currently taking as ASL course, my family and extended family are also learning ASL so they can talk with him, but I'm not sure how he will progress into a full-fledged signer. He school teachers and aides are learning signs, but not sign language. His classmates - same thing. How do we take it another step. If he learns to talk in the future - great - but that is a long way down the road. We do not have a deaf community in our area - so there aren't any children he can communicate fully through sign. How is he going to learn??
Well, I would encourage you to come visit and perhaps join our online ASL Study group (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1673). We have "expert" forum members (some are Deaf; interpreters; those with Deaf family members) join us in some of the regular chats, and they help answer questions, share regional differences, brainstorm with us to see where we can go to make contact with the Deaf community. You are quite right - that is a key! Also check out the Deaf Events in your area (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1923) thread. Perhaps there is one near you!

And, finally, I highly encourage ALL of you to seek out ST! playgroups (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=6) in your area (or start one!). We met our Deaf friends there (Vonnie, mom, & Jelani, 3 yr old).

On another note - I would really like to teach him to pray in sign. How does one say "Dear Heavenly Father" - and are all the other signs the same as if you were just talking to the neighbor next door?? May seem like a silly question, but I just don't know... Susan
In links to online dictionaries (http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154), there is a link to ASL Dictionary of Religious Words (http://valleybible.net/deaf/aslmenu.shtml). If you have a Deaf church (or a church that uses an interpreter) nearby, I would encourage you to visit them too! I've learned a little through teaching some at our VBS, and more by watching our Deaf cousin's hubby interpret prayers for her.

suemac

10-11-2006, 03:06 PM

Thanks for all the information. I didn't know there was a study group. I looked it over and will try to figure out how to sign up and get involved. The kids are all coming home from school and I am finding it hard to concentrate at the moment :D

Jacana

12-29-2006, 01:21 PM

My name is Niki - my nickname is Jacana, so either is fine. I have two boys. Dustyn is 10 years old and has many 'conditions'. He has CP, is tri-plegic, MR, and uses a wheelchair to get around. We taught Dustyn 5 simply signs when he was 3 because he was non-verbal. I remember the moments of insurmountable fustration not being able to communicate with my child. When my second child Caleb was born (now 5 3/4 yrs)... his ears were a constant problem. Finally a huge celestoma was found which had destroyed all the ear bones, masseter, mastoid, and the ear drum was 90% perferated. We have had 4 surgeries since age 6 months of age. The most recent surgery was in July rendering his left ear completely deaf. His right ear hears about 80%. We are being proactive in tryint to teach signing to improve communication in loud places, and to have a language in place should we ever loose the right ear (which has a perferation also).

We fist heard of signing time 4 weeks ago after searching high and low for a child level ASL class, and finding none! A admin person at the boy's school recomended ST. She has 2 hearing children who she taught ST prior to age 2 and did wonders for them. I was so excited, I went straight home and searched for the DVDs. Unable to afford to buy them, we have been checking them out at our local library where there is a waiting list. We have been able to get 1-4, and 7 so far. We have watched those at least 3 times each, and Caleb already has about 60 or so signs he can remember when I test him. It is AMAZING!!! It is giving him confidence we never thought he could have. I am eager to learn more, and to find out what to do when we finish all 13 of the ST dvds... what's next?

I hope to be both an assett and to learn from this forum. Thanks for the oppertunity to participate in this group. My areas of expertice is with horses, service dogs, and dentistry. My personal life experiences with two disabled children has opened my eyes to a whole new world, and I may be able to help others with the tools and reasources I have found this far.

I'ld love to chat with anyone - anytime!
Niki

mom2E&G

12-29-2006, 06:45 PM

Hi Niki
Welcome to the forum. I just joined recently too. I have two daughters (5 yrs. & 17 mos) both HOH. We got hooked on signing time a few months ago and my older one now knows so many signs.....my youngest is starting to sign as well. And like your son, signing has helped my five year old become so much more confident in her communication and also provides her with a sense of control as her hearing loss can sometimes leave her feeling frustrated if she can't communicate effectively. I am so thankful to have found Signing Time....nice to meet you.
Chrisann

jenml

12-30-2006, 11:02 AM

Welcome Niki!
Glad you found this group... lots of helpful and friendly people to chat with here. Your children are beautiful!
Welcome....

brenkachika

12-31-2006, 01:46 AM

Welcome!
I would love to learn more about your service dog. My sister raised three leader dog puppies thru high school and college. She loves dogs, and has thought about a career training service dogs. Currently she is in college and fluent in ASL. I am trying to convince her to take that test to be an interperator. She thinks she needs more practice. Anyway, whatever you can tell me about your son's service dog, I would love to learn!
Oh, and my name is Kerry, I have 4 kids. My son who will be five tomorrow is high functioning autistic. He is currently tying to sneak a peek at his presents! Silly boy, they are wrapped! I am making him a bar code birthday cake - he has a fascination with bar codes.
-Kerry

mrupp

01-02-2007, 09:39 AM

Hi Nikki,
I just read your post and wanted to welcome you. I have 2 girls, 11 and 4. I guess I felt a bit of a connection because of the ages of our children and your animals. :) We live on a farm with cattle, horses, chickens :eek: and a dog :p . Our 4 year old started us on the Signing Time adventure. She has multiple issues related to her prematurity. Signing definitely has been a blessing to our family.
I also have a QH that is my best friend and nemesis rolled into one!! LOL! :D My 11 year old has a Registered QH/Pony mare. She is due in March so our family is growing.
What part of the world do you hail from?
I look forward to hearing from you on the forum!! Glad you found your way to ST! and the forum discussion.

Jacana

01-02-2007, 12:58 PM

Welcome!
I would love to learn more about your service dog. My sister raised three leader dog puppies thru high school and college. She loves dogs, and has thought about a career training service dogs. Anyway, whatever you can tell me about your son's service dog, I would love to learn!
-Kerry
Kerry,

When I began investigating to find a service dog for my son, I was shocked at the cost involved with buying one, and the 5 year waiting list for the donated dogs. At the time, I felt my son really would benefit from a service dog. SInce I have trained horses for many years (most of my life), I thought training a dog could not be much harder. I took a few on-line courses, read several specific training books, joined a service dog training on-line program, and got started. We looked for several months to find the right puppy to train. I completely believe that starting with the right dog is more important than anyother part of the training process.

Over a period of 1.5 years, we trained Buddy ourselves. My husband and I tag teamed, completing the hours of homework required eack day, outings, socialization, and journals required. Buddy passed his Canine Good CItizen (obedience) test at 6month of age (he was capable of passing it earlier but AKC has a minimum age requirment). He passed his public access test at 8 months, and now is basically finished with his training. Of course, training never really finishes, it is an on-going process.
Buddy is able to: pick up objects you drop or need from the ground or table, or counter; put items into trash can, sink, washing machine; bring items to you by name (phone, keys, towel, shoe, toy, etc); open and close doors; push elevator buttons (or other buttons); hold waterfountain on while you drink; stay for a long period of time in the same place even when he can not see you; avoid major distractions such as food (which he is not allowed to eat), fire alarms, sirens, people oriented distractions (such as a stranger calling the dog away from you); helping brace you when you need help walking; help you take off your jacket, shirt, pants, or socks; and oh so much more.

The training method I use is called operant conditioning. It is a gentle way of training with positive reienforcement (almost no punishment).

If you want more info, e-mail me!
Niki

Jacana

01-02-2007, 01:11 PM

Hi Nikki,
I guess I felt a bit of a connection because of the ages of our children and your animals. :) We live on a farm with cattle, horses, chickens :eek: and a dog :p .I also have a QH that is my best friend and nemesis rolled into one!! LOL! :D My 11 year old has a Registered QH/Pony mare.
What part of the world do you hail from?
I look forward to hearing from you on the forum!! Glad you found your way to ST! and the forum discussion.

Mrupp,

I am from/in Houston, Texas - well, just outside the city. The city is moving in all around us, so we use to be in the country and now were in the city. My QH Gus is 11 yrs, out of Doc Bar. He is a cutting, cattle, and trail horse. I love to ride trails - Ah to be out of the fences and in the open country - to ride without strings or man-made things. I enjoy being alone with Gus in nature... looking forward to the next bend in the trail, next water crossing, or coming face to face with a wild n furry new friend (just not the slimey ones!).
I wish I lived on a farm. My horse(s) live about 10 min. down the road on a pasture my father owns - it 6 acres situated nicely along a creek that I can ride 100 miles one way - if I have enough time in the day and my tush can hold out that long!

My horseback riding is my escape. I can take care of my boys better after a day or evem an hour of riding. I try to ride at least once every other week. It helps me keep my sanity, patience, and perspective! I am sure we all have some type of activity we do to feel a release. If "you" don't, you really should try to find something that makes you calm your soul, and renews your joy.
When you come on-line - see if I'm here - and let's chat is the chat room!
Niki

TracyFawn

01-03-2007, 12:03 PM

I have 2 wonderful children Noah who is 5 (he's my muse. He's Autistic, Developmentally Delayed, & Speech Delayed) and Abigail (premature) who just turned 13 months yesterday. I live in American Fork, Utah and my son goes to a preschool for autistic children and doing wonderful. I learned about signing times through KOTM who visits my daughter and I am so happy because this has been the only asl program my son has responded to. He would refuse to learn or even attempt to use asl. But now he finds it fun with signing times and we have cut down on the temper tantrums with both children. I have been the only one that has been the translator for my son with other individuals including his father. But now everyone in the family is having fun learning how to communicate with Noah.

signz

01-03-2007, 05:22 PM

Hello Everyone,
On another note - I would really like to teach him to pray in sign. How does one say "Dear Heavenly Father" - and are all the other signs the same as if you were just talking to the neighbor next door?? May seem like a silly question, but I just don't know.
Susan

Hi there,
I'm going to step out and assume you may be LDS? If not, please accept my apology. I have also wondered where to find some of the religious signs, and yes, some of the online dictionaries have some. For Heavenly Father, this is the closest I have seen online:
http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro

Also, I don't know if you have checked out the distribution website, but we have a copy (which was insanely cheap) of the 2005 Primary Outline songs "I will Follow God's Plan for Me". It has the songs "I will Follow God's plan for Me", "A Child's Prayer", "Teach Me to Walk in the Light", "The Priesthood is Restored", "Faith", "When I am Baptized", "The Holy Ghost", and "I Believe in Christ". The cool thing about this DVD is that not only can you watch the entire song signed, it breaks it down for you as well, and you can use your remote to review each sign and learn them at your own pace. We have used it for a few ASL songs in sacrament meeting, which has also been fun for the kids. They have tons of other ASL videos, including many other Primary Outlines. http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&categoryId=13942&langId=-1&cg1=13938&cg2=14147&cg3=&cg4=&cg5=&pageId=3&pageCt=15&sortId=3&sortOr=1

Anyway, just my 2 cents.
-signz

mommyhugz

01-03-2007, 11:09 PM

brenkachika

01-04-2007, 12:10 AM

Hi there,
I'm going to step out and assume you may be LDS? If not, please accept my apology. I have also wondered where to find some of the religious signs, and yes, some of the online dictionaries have some. For Heavenly Father, this is the closest I have seen online:
http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro

Also, I don't know if you have checked out the distribution website, but we have a copy (which was insanely cheap) of the 2005 Primary Outline songs "I will Follow God's Plan for Me". It has the songs "I will Follow God's plan for Me", "A Child's Prayer", "Teach Me to Walk in the Light", "The Priesthood is Restored", "Faith", "When I am Baptized", "The Holy Ghost", and "I Believe in Christ". The cool thing about this DVD is that not only can you watch the entire song signed, it breaks it down for you as well, and you can use your remote to review each sign and learn them at your own pace. We have used it for a few ASL songs in sacrament meeting, which has also been fun for the kids. They have tons of other ASL videos, including many other Primary Outlines. http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&categoryId=13942&langId=-1&cg1=13938&cg2=14147&cg3=&cg4=&cg5=&pageId=3&pageCt=15&sortId=3&sortOr=1

Anyway, just my 2 cents.
-signz

So, I was JUST called to be the Primary Chorister and have to teach a new song Sunday already. I cannot think of anything clever to do with this song. I keep getting the feeling that I should teach it in ASL. I am not at all fluent and it would take some work for me to get it down. The song is a new one and not in the song book. "I’ll Follow Him in Faith" by Janice Kapp Perry. (Here is the outline that the song is in : http://www.lds.org/paprimary/program/PR_ChildrensSacramentMeetingPresentation_2007_00_2 7002_eng.pdf) I would totally need help with this. The other song I would like to teach them in ASL is "Love is Spoken Here." How can I tell wich of the outlines would have this song in it? I am assuming one of them does as it is such a popular song. ANY help or advice will be appreciated.
-Kerry

brenkachika

01-04-2007, 12:23 AM

Hello, my name is Heather, married to Daniel for 4.5 years, and we have a beautiful son, Isaac, age 3.5.

We began noticing something wasn't right when Isaac was about 6-9 months old. By 11 months old we were involved in Early Intervention, and by 12 months we were being introduced to ASL. I was skeptical at first that such a little guy could pick it up, but he amazed us all! Last December 2005 he was diagnosed with a form of autism called Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. He can say four real words: Momma, Dadda, O-pen, yeah. He didn't say Momma until Spring 2006, and I swear I cried when I heard him say it for the first time! Isaac is involved in Early Childhood Education and attends a structured class at the EI school 3 days a week, and also attends once a week for a speech therapy class. We're also involved in Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy through another source and are waiting to see if Physical Therapy is also in our future.

I can't express how grateful I am to meet other moms in my shoes who know what it's like day-in and day-out to care for a special needs child! It makes me feel like I'm not alone!

Welcome - I too have a son with ASD PPDNOS. He was dx just before he turned three and was put in speced preschool. He is highly intelligent and very high functioning. (His IQ was tested at 130, but they suspect it may be higher.) He has come so far it amazes me. He talks, but still poorly. His latest accomplishment is asking "how," "what" & "why" questions! That is a very big deal! He has been mainstreamed into Kindergarten with a full time skills trainer. He just turned five on Dec. 31. He is very happy to be such a big boy. I made him a cake frosted white with a barcode on it in black! His current fixation is on bar codes!
-Kerry

TarheelTuckers

01-04-2007, 05:55 AM

On another note - I would really like to teach him to pray in sign. How does one say "Dear Heavenly Father" - and are all the other signs the same as if you were just talking to the neighbor next door?? May seem like a silly question, but I just don't know.

The LDS Church Distribution Services puts out a Dictionary of Sign Language Terms for LDS (http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&productId=40815&langId=-1&cg1=13938&cg2=14147&cg3=13942&cg4=&cg5=&sortId=3&sortOr=1&retURLtext=Back%20to%20'Sign%20Language'&retURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ldscatalog.com%2Fwebapp%2F wcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FCategoryDisplay%3Fcatalog Id%3D10151%26amp%3BstoreId%3D10151%26amp%3Bcategor yId%3D13942%26amp%3BlangId%3D-1%26amp%3Bcg1%3D13938%26amp%3Bcg2%3D14147%26amp%3B cg3%3D%26amp%3Bcg4%3D%26amp%3Bcg5%3D%26pageId%3D1% 26pageCt%3D15%26sortId%3D3%26sortOr%3D1)
It includes every religious sign I can think of! It has been great in teaching my family and children religious signs.

kmoorern

01-19-2007, 01:23 PM

Hi! My name is Kim. I have 3 wonderful children (11, 7, &5), who my husband and I are attempting to homeschool. This summer my son (7) was diagnosed with an auditory processing disorder.

I don't know if I was in denial or what, but after Christmas we started to research this disorder and was suprised at the information we found and sign language was recommended in helping these children learn.

Well we started 2 weeks ago and WOW!!!! Zane is now flying through is work. I was shocked.

So our family is now on the adventure of a life time and we are all learning to sign. We have throroughly enjoyed the Signing Time videos.

Are any of you familiar with Auditory Processing Disorder? I really want to learn more.

I look forward to hearing from all of you.
KIM

archer210

01-19-2007, 07:04 PM

alway nice to have a new person in the forums to give more ideas and info on the different subjects

quadmom

01-29-2007, 10:50 AM

Hi, I'm Nancy...mom to 6 month old quad boys born at 29 weeks. My littlest has been diagnosed with Auditory Neuropathy. I am over the initial shock and anger at the world phase and have now moved into the what can I do to help him phase. My local mulitples club introduced me to ST and we love it. I am looking forward to the help and great info on these forums. I don't have much time to post, but I do love reading and finding things we can use in our lives (of course this is always done at night when I should really be sleeping!) ;)

nancy
mom to ethan, brayden, joshua and connor (AN)

Roxanne Morris

01-29-2007, 08:49 PM

Well I personally believe you came to the right place. Once all the initial shock dulls and you do as you are doing a strong sense of empowerment tends to take over. You are going to find as the rest of us have (Dad's inclusive) that you are a Supermom. Anyone God has trusted with his most precious of angels has great things inside just waiting to come through. All people are filled with the ability to do wonderful things... as a parent you get the chance to do those. I hope you will find the support and inspiration I have found in this little community. Have a good laugh everyday, make time to watch at least one FOX (idol rocks) show a week, and always eat cheesecake. It's good for the soul. Big hugs hun!

Roxy

silasmom

02-04-2007, 10:26 PM

Hi
I'm Dorie, homeschooling mom of 10!

Our youngest son has unilaterial hearning and has moderate to profound loss in the ear that works. He has several other medical issues and we spend a lot of time in the Dr. office or hospital.

we learned about ST from the ECFS worker who helps us get the services we need for our son's disabilities.

I am so thankful for ST because I have seen a real growth in Silas' signing since we got vol 1-6.

He has a twin brother Seth who is his inspiration. Silas has been through a lot and has a lot more to go through and we are so glad God blessed our family with such a special son

lovemy6sweeties

02-05-2007, 09:28 PM

So glad to have you here! Can't wait to hear more about your family! 10 - wow - I bet that keeps you hopping! I have 6 and think I'm busy LOL

Glad that Silas has a great buddy in Seth :) I think twins would be a blast :)

Shiloh21

02-06-2007, 08:54 AM

c01dunlap

02-19-2007, 05:59 AM

My name is Ashley. I am 21 years old & I am a ParaEducator with a program called Mountain BOCES in Colorado. It is on the Western Slope. We work with Severe/Special Needs Kids in the School. I joined because we work with two of our students on Signing Time, not because they are deaf, but because they sometimes cannot communicate with us. I am excited to be a member.

Hope to talk to you guys. Send a PM if you wanna talk.
Ashley,

Welcome!! Glad to get to meet you here. Do join us for the Wednesday night chats with Rachel Coleman - they start at 9pm EST (I (*think* that is 7pm CST for you). It is a blast, and a great way to get to know a lot of fantastic people (including Rachel, of course ;) ). I'd be interested to learn more about BOCES - I am so much richer in understanding this world of ours by hearing from everyone here on these forums.

Thank you all for sharing yourselves. Sometimes I forget to say that - THANK YOU!!

Jane

03-17-2007, 11:15 AM

I can't believe that I just found this a few days ago! How pathetic is that?!

My name is Jane. I am a mother of two and my oldest, Ben, is deaf. He had bacterial meningitis at 3 months old and now has hydrocephalus, a large developmental delay, and is, again, deaf.

I also have a daughter, Meredith, who was born Dec. 28,2006. We were hoping that Ben would be walking by then but he had a minor set-back in early December and wound up having a shunt replacment. He's STILL not walking but now it's just because he's stubborn. We're hoping to get a gait trainer for him in the near future to force him to walk. We are just at a complete loss of what else to do.

We have our first CI evaluation in April and we are SO excited. Ben is now two and we have been trying to get this evaluation for OVER A YEAR! I couldn't be happier that it is finally coming! Even with his limitations, he is a very bright, happy, two-year-old. He has the BEST personality and just LOVES his baby sister! It's incredible to watch him grow and learn.

Anyway, we LOVE Signing Time! We are currently taking an ASL course at a nearby church but I think I'm actually learning more from the ST videos than class! Ben finds the DVD cases and carries them all over the house until he can convince me to put one in for him! It's too cute! One day I'll get a picture of it.

Just wanted to introduce myself so you'd all know who I am when I start commenting!

Jane

jenml

03-17-2007, 07:03 PM

...., he is a very bright, happy, two-year-old. He has the BEST personality and just LOVES his baby sister!
Welcome, Jane!
He looks like he loves her... look at that proud smile. happy you joined us...

Enjoy.

twice_blessed_mom

03-28-2007, 08:23 PM

Hi everyone.. I have just really enjoyed reading these forums and gleaning as much wisdom from you all as I can. I wanted to introduce myself... My name is Lisa, I am the mother of two boys.

Mason, who is 18 months old, is my second child and the reason I began using ST. He was born with torticollis, hypotonia and we has some mild delays. They said he has something nueromuscular going on so he wil be having an MRI and EEG and chromosone testings to begin. He has no words yet, isn't walking but he is in PT and speech and we have his OT eval friday. We started signing about 3 months ago and Mason is now signing about 5 signs! I am just so glad to see the tantrums stop, and he is so happy again.

I really have to say that I have identified greatly with Rachel and especially her story about how she was so shocked about her second child having difficulties. I have a different story, but I can empathise in a way.

My first son, Aiden was born with a rare liver disease called Biliary Atresia. ( about 200 kids per year in the US are diagnosed with it) By the time he was 6 weeks old he had a major sugery to correct it. We knew it failed, and Aiden began to become very sick. We were told he needed a liver transplant or he would die by his first birthday. Aiden was fading away in front of us. We lived in the hospital with him, it was a nightmare to say the least. At his last hours, he got the call that a donor liver was available. That was 4 1/2 years ago. He has a lot of medical problems that you may not be able to see from the outside, but we just cherrish him and love him like it everyday is the last. You would never know by looking at him that he has been through so much, and we just thank our donor family for every minute with him.

When we decided to have another baby, (mason) all we cared about was that he would be happy. I thought for sure, we would have no issues. It seemed to me that God has a plan for our family and maybe it isn't the "easy" but we have the 'good'.

I know that was a big long story, but I really wanted to share. I can't wait to learn more and to get to know about your precious children.

Sincerely,
Lisa
Mommy to Aiden and Mason!

dcdinak

04-15-2007, 01:13 AM

Hi all. I wanted to introduce myself properly since I've posted and you all are probably wondering, "who is she?" LOL!

My name is Dianne, and I currently live in Alaska but spent 5 years in Florida. So I suffer from too much dark and cold or too much daylight, but never enough heat! LOL!! I'm lucky to be a stay-at home mom of 2 wonderful kids. Alex is a typical 7 1/2 yrold boy and in 2nd grade. His sister Ellie is 2 and a 1/3 :p and has Trisomy 21. She is incredibly happy and convinced that she can get the whole world to smile with her. But her babbling is incomprehensible. We did some signing with her through the Early Intervention folks and her Speech Therapist recommended a few books. It wasn't until a friend gave us their extra copy of Volume 2 that we realized how signing could make a difference. I got on the chat and asked what volumes people would recommend and they said (unanimously) "All of Them!!!!" We have Vol2-6 and 8, and I am amazed!!! Ellie has learned 20+ signs in the few months of watching signing time. She also has learned words for things I didn't realize she knew.
For example - take today. Now, we're in Alaska, and so we haven't been on bicycles since she started signing. We went to the store today. I wandered through the sporting goods/bikes/roller blade area. She saw the bikes and signed as clear as day, bike! I never used that sign with her, and yet she got it! All from Signing Time! I'm sold on getting the whole set and learning as much ASL as I can. My son tries to sign the songs. We both are blown away by Rachel's ABC's and we love the silly pizza song.

Our local Down Syndrome chapter had their annual dinner tonight. I mentioned Signing Time to them and will try to bring it up more at our next regular meeting. I'm so excited because our local PBS station will be carrying ST! starting in May. Yippee!!

Jenny C.

05-28-2007, 08:44 PM

Hi, I just joined, I've been to the website before to order the flash cards. I'm a stay at home mother of two. My oldest, Madeline (Maddy) is almost 7 (in July) and is in the 1 rst grade. My youngest, Clare is 3 1/2 yrs has PVL, oral adversions, low muscle tone, sensory processing disorder, non-verbal but can hear. She is learning als from the Signing Time DVDS. Her theropist at Early On (early intervention) are very impressed at all her signs, we lost count on how many she knows. She knows more than I do, she is alo puting two together. She has no verbal words but she can make animal sounds, and can follow directions with sign and with out. She has some trouble with just vocal directions sometimes sepecialy if its a word she hasn't heard before then we sign it. Maddy is also doing sign and will interpit for Clare if I'm not around when they are playing with freinds. Maddy is also protective of Clare and is Clares biggest support.

Jenny, Clare 3 1/2 yrs. PVL, oral adversions, low muscle tone, sensory processing disorder, non-verbal but can hear, Maddy almost 7 yrs, adoring big sister.

CodysDad

05-29-2007, 12:16 PM

Hi, all! Cody's Dad here. Cody's a 6-year-old great little boy who's intelligent, playful and often a little mischievous. He has a severe case of Childhood Apraxia of Speech. Progress in overcoming his condition has been very slow and we're looking to add sign language to his everyday therapy. As of now, the school system is prepared to only allow him access to a picture book if his wants/needs can't be articulated. Since we don't think it's possible to communicate in sentences through pictures of nouns, we look to show the school a thing or two and have him provided with an interpreter/aide who can understand sign. The entire family is learning through various sources, but we all love to sit and watch Signing Time! We just received the first three volumes last week and already we're hooked!

JoeyMom

06-11-2007, 07:08 PM

Hi! I'm Manda, and I'm new here! I have a 5-year-old autistic son who is learning ASL, and we are learning it right along with him! My Joey has some apraxia and a lot of difficulty with auditory processing, and does a lot better with communication if he has visual cues. His Sunday School class was presenting a song to the church one Sunday, and Joey was having a lot of difficulty keeping up, as usual, and he was getting very frustrated- until the lady in the front row started signing for him. Suddenly, he could sing along! He is really enjoying signing, and loves the Signing Time videos- he finds them comforting and fun.

I also have 3-year-old Andy, who has an articulation dysfunction. He is also learning to sign to help him develop language and to ease stress while he undergoes therapy this summer. He'd have little choice anyway, since Joey is hogging the TV with "Sign Video! Sign Video!" ;)

We haven't found many autism families who are using ASL (PECS is far more popular because of fine motor issues), so its nice to find a spot here where we can gush about how well Joey is doing with his signing, and hear all about other families using ASL. I'm glad to have found you guys! :)

jenml

06-12-2007, 07:34 AM

......so its nice to find a spot here where we can gush about how well Joey is doing with his signing, and hear all about other families using ASL. I'm glad to have found you guys! :)

Gush away... we all love to hear it.

Mom2cmgrej

07-02-2007, 05:52 PM

Hi,

My name is Stacy and I have 3 children. Cynthia is my stepdaughter and is 15 1/2, and my husband and I have two boys together. Gabriel is 6 1/2 and Evan is 2 1/2. Evan is our child with special needs. I quit my job about 18 months ago to stay home because Evan's needs just got to be too much with therapy and Dr. appts. He was diagnosed at 9 months with spastic hemiplegia cerebral palsy caused by a brain malformation called bilateral perisylvan polymicrogyria. His neurologist told us that if he had seen Evan's MRI first before seeing Evan he would have expected to see a severly mentally retarded child. Well, Evan is our miracle. He is a bright child a little delayed cognitivly but he is making a lot of progress in that area. He started sitting at about 10 months, crawling on all fours at 15 months and walked on his own in April right around the time he turned 2 1/2. One area where Evan is still lacking is speech. He does not really have any words at all, we started using signing about a year about and he probably has about 6 signs that he uses on a regular basis (more, drink, eat, please, bath) I am trying to sign to him in sentences such as (I want drink please) or (I want that). His cerebral palsy effects mainly his left side so he does not use his left hand much if at all but he tries the two handed signs.

We just have video 6 of signing time and it was loaned to us through the infant program that Evan is in. I love it and I wish I could afford to buy the whole set. One thing I was impressed with before I knew that the Coleman family had a second child with special needs was the appearance of children special needs in the video. You just don't see that too often and I thought it was great.

I just can't say enough about the one video that I saw. Keep up the good work.

Jenny C.

07-02-2007, 08:10 PM

Hi Stacy. My name is Jenny my daughter is 3 1/2 and has PVL and CP. She is developementaly 18 to 22 months old and is non-verbal but she can hear. Clare started to sign a little bit around 2yrs old, now she knows over 200 all from watching Signing Time. She has some that she doesn't use that often but she knows them. We asked her therapist if we should be teaching Clare sentences like "May I have more milk please?" and they said not yet. They said that there are differnent ways to sign sentences. There is ALS and Exact English sign. Right now Clare puts two or more signs together to get her needs known. She will do more milk and then I ask her how do you ask and she will sign please. sometimes she will only sign one thing and wait for me to translate that one before she will sign another one. I repeat back to her vacally what she is signing to me.
Jenny

catybarra

07-02-2007, 11:51 PM

Hi!

My name is Cathy. I have four wonderful kids. Leigha is six years old and she is just finishing up Kindergarten. Robert, Noah, and Matthew are two years old.

The fact that I was pregnant with triplets was a shock, as it doesn't run in my family (until now!). I found at 10 weeks I was pregnant with triplets. Two short weeks later, my water on Baby C broke. I was told that Baby C wouldn't make it more than a few days. Baby C was a fighter, and later named Matthew. They were born at 27 weeks (Robert is my impatient one) within 18 minutes of each other on Easter morning.

Due to the fact that Matthew had barely any fluid from 12 weeks to 27 weeks, he had many complications. The worst problem that we faced was chronic lung disease. We nearly lost him many times during their 98 day hospital stay. It took awhile for me to learn that he had a webbed elbow, minor webbing of neck and knees, and major knee contractures. He looked like a frog for long time (nothing wrong with that, Hopkins!).

My boys are now 2 years old. Matthew has just recently started sitting up on his own. He can pull himself into a standing position (to hit my TV with anything he can) as long as he has support. Shriner's hospital ruled out arthrogryposis, although it can be used in a broad sense. He is still drinking out of a bottle and eating baby food due to severe food aversions (doesn't like anything chunky or texture in his mouth). In the past 6 months we have really worked on getting him to eat some regular food.

I really have no experience with disabilities, and I don't always feel like I am the best advocate for him. I tend to rely on what I am told instead of searching out better answers or options. I did fight to get him to Shriners, so I guess that's a start for me. We are hoping that he will begin walking in the near future! If anyone has any similar situations I would love to hear from you. Right now we are starting to use Dynasplints at night to stretch his legs (the ones they gave us are too big, we are waiting for the smaller sized ones).

I began using sign language with my boys last year. They have really picked up on it! Noah can sign the silly pizza song, signing the toppings before Rachel does sometimes. They have that triplet-talk going on, so I am thankful for ST and sign language.

I am looking forward to getting more involved with the forums!

abbasjoy

07-24-2007, 11:13 PM

Just wanted to say "Hi." My name is Joy and I have 3 children, all girls. I live in Paso Robles, CA. My oldest (almost 7) learned to sign at about 6 months and was so helpful with teaching my 3 1/2 year old how to sign as a baby. We loved watching all the Signing Time DVD's together. My third child, Audrianna Faith was born this past April and right after her birth I was told they though she had Down Syndrome, which they were right. She is doing well, but boy has it been an adjustment for us all. One member of her early intervention team discouraged signing, saying she'd never be able to do the signs. While I still am going to work on it with her, regardless, I was encouraged to read the various success stories in this forum. Thank you all for sharing.....it is tremendously encouraging!

Sincerely,
Joy
Mother to Mikayla Joy (age 7-in sept.) Isabella Grace (age 3 1/2) and Audrianna Faith (3 mo. born April 17, '07 with Down Syndrome)

lovemy6sweeties

07-25-2007, 12:59 PM

One member of her early intervention team discouraged signing, saying she'd never be able to do the signs. While I still am going to work on it with her, regardless, I was encouraged to read the various success stories in this forum. Thank you all for sharing.....it is tremendously encouraging!

I just wanted to say Welcome and congratulations!!! I am proud of you for not letting that member of the EI team discourage you. My son Brady started signing at 13 months and we have never looked back! At 4 years old he knew about 400 signs, and although his signs weren't always accurate (he has poor fine motor skills) they were close and as he has improved in fine motor coordination they are much closer to the actual sign. I have quit counting signs, and Brady doesn't sign quite as much as he used to, as his verbal skills are improving, but, I want you to know that signing was a lifesaver for us for a couple years when he could not communicate verbally, but was a great signer! And - every time a new SigningTime DVD set comes out, his signing and verbal vocabulary increase. He had a HUGE spurt when 4-6 and 7-10 came out - it was so fun to see! And, because children with DS are, for the most part, very visual learners, whenever I pair something with a sign, Brady learns it so much easier and he doesn't forget. Sign has been such an amazing learning tool for him, and I am so happy we decided when he was tiny that we would learn it and teach it to him :)

Again - congrats on your baby girl and welcome to adventures with T21 :)

abbasjoy

07-26-2007, 01:30 PM

Thanks Christie,

I am excited to be on this journey with my little one. Fortunately my two older both used Signing Times and know many signs. I talked with my oldest today about begining to use those signs with Audrianna (the litte one.) I'm very excited to see what happens!

5TAL55

07-27-2007, 07:02 PM

Joy,

Just keep signing to her, she will pick it up!!! They learn so much and so quickly.

costel22

08-14-2007, 07:56 PM

I am a Special Education Teacher of students with different types of disabilities grades 3-5. This fall I have the privilege of working with a student who hears, but is unable to produce much language, (not sure of the medical reason for this as yet), so she signs and has a full time interpreter at school. The interpreter introduced me to Signing Time and the forum, so I am on a steep learning curve! My students and I will be learning how to sign. Yea! Together with the interpreter, we are planning daily signing lessons and a Sign Language Club, so that we can all communicate with her.

If anyone has any advice, suggestions or resources for me, I would be grateful. I want this child to feel welcome and a part of our classroom as well as establish a partnership with her parents.

lilgestures

08-16-2007, 01:48 PM

I am Stacy and mum to 3 wonderful children. My duaghter was adopted from India at the age of 1 and we used sign language to help her communicate and learn English. She loves ST and watches it daily. We saw Rachel in Grand Rapids and Ehlena was so excited to see her in person! Our daughter has polymicrogyria which causes her to be spastic CP, mostly affected on her right side. My boys also watch ST and enjoy it.

LizzeeB

08-23-2007, 05:57 PM

Hi everyone, my name is Elizabeth and i am from Utah. I have 6 children ranging in ages of 20 to 2. My youngest son was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 2(he is 2.9 years old). A family member who has children in many of the signing time videos, introduced us to ST and we are so grateful. Hunter had about 5 words when he was diagnosed. 9 months later he has about 50 -60 words and signs. We had the pleasure of going to the show that Rachel and her staff put on at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. It was so fun, we even got a wave from Rachel as she was behind the scenes before the show. Now that we have a great way to communicate with our little guy i am desperate to take ASL classes to make it our second language in our home. So if any of you have some suggestions for me, i would love that.

Lynja_the_ninja

08-23-2007, 10:47 PM

welcome to all of you . LizzeeB good to see you finally posted here. :)

KatiesMom

09-07-2007, 05:10 PM

Hi I am Krista, mom to Katie who is 8 years old and deaf. We live in Reidsville, NC.

LuvMyBrother

09-17-2007, 02:56 PM

Hello everyone! My name is Qadoshyah and I'm the 18 year old sister of boy/girl twins and the oldest of 11 children. The youngest two the twins who are 2 1/2 years old. The boy has Down Syndrome. We use some sign language with my brother and he has several signs he does. We also use some cued speech with him. I hope to get to know some on here. Thanks! Qadoshyah

taylorcamel

09-18-2007, 02:50 PM

I posted on the intro thread but thought I should introduce my special little girl here as well.

Re-introducing myself

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jennifer-Mom to 3. Taylor 14, Cameron 5, and baby Kaylynne 20 months. Wife of 15 years to Jeff. My hubby and I both work at a children's hospital for kids with special needs.

Kaylynne was born with a clubfoot (they thought her ankle may have actually been broken) but other than that she was healthy. She was in the special care nursery due to some problems regulating her blood sugar levels.

Once she was a little older we noticed she was taking a little longer to reach milestones than her brothers had but she was still doing everything she should in her own time. We tried not to worry too much.

Her clubfoot had mostly corrected itself with exercise. She would not support weight on her legs though. They did x-rays and ruled out hip displasia but could not figure out the trouble. When she turned one and was not attempting to pull up she was classified as developmentally delayed in her gross motor skills and qualified for early intervention services. She has been working with a PT ever since.

In all other areas she seemed to be developing typically. She was fitted for bilateral SMO's to support her feet/ankles in May. During a visit with her orthopedic doctor he told us he thought she had mild hypotonic cerebral palsy. Her pediatrician confirmed she suspected it as well. We are still waiting for insurance to give us the OK to see the neurologist for a MRI.

She is super flexible and prone to injury because of her low tone. We think she may grow up to be a gymnast or a contortionist. LOL We do not know what caused her CP at this point, don't know that we ever will for sure.

Once again we were so thankful that we had been using ST from the start with her. The pediatrician felt she was severely speech delayed and probably would have told us she was mentally delayed as well. We know better. She has shown us how smart she is because she can sign to us. She may be slightly speech delayed but we know she can catch up.

It is so wonderful to be able to prove that the light we see in her eyes is more than just our bias as parents. It is her happiness and intelligence showing through. She may not be able to show us verbally all the time but she can sign and that gives us proof. She just started to walk at 20 months. We are so happy for her. What a wonderful gift she is!

roz

10-11-2007, 12:47 PM

I have been a member for the last 9 months but my computer fried and have not been able to be here till now. Glad to be back and start the fun on the site again!

Tiffany

12-11-2007, 09:54 PM

Hi everyone! My name is Tiffany and I am new to the forums here, but not really to signing time. I am mom to two children. My son Oliver is 19 years old and has no delays. My daughter Rose is almost 2 and is deaf and very small, but she has no other delays.

Rose received a cochlear implant in February of 2007, and she's doing well with it. She was born after a disastrous pregnancy, and was luckily resuscitated at birth, so we were just grateful she was alive at all, and very surprised when it was discovered that her deafness was genetic (connexin 26).

We live in Utah, actually just a short walk from the Signing Time offices. We are, however, planning a move to New Zealand, where my husband is from.

Rose LOVES Signing Time. She amazes us with all of the signs that she has learned. It's amazing that she is actually FINALLY starting to communicate with us, and Signing Time is responsible for that! She is also getting some great verbal help from the DVDs as well. But the best thing is that my husband is actually learning to sign! That's the true miracle!

Lynja_the_ninja

12-12-2007, 10:15 PM

welcome. Thanks for sharing your story.

lillysdad

12-13-2007, 02:43 PM

Just wanted to stop in and say hi. Im new here, and left my rather lengthy story about my involvment with the signing time movies. To sum it up, I have a deaf 3 year old daughter with bilateral cochlear implants. I am a cop that works in a middle school. In the school, there are special ed class that are )for the most part) comprised of down syndrome and autistic kids between the ages of 12-14. I teach sign to them, (mostly by showing signing time dvds, and showing them how to incorporate what they have learned into thier class and home life.
My daughter, whos primary form of commo is oral, still watches them and enjoys them. I am very passionate about exposing her to ALL forms of commo that are used within the deaf comunity. THis way, when she gets older, she can chose her own form of commo that best suits her. If she decides to take off her cochlear implants, and go sign only, OK. Its her choice. But I want her to be able to make a well informed decision, so I have to expose her to all options. As I said, she is three (almost 4) and she hears better than I do, she is about 6 months behind on her spoken words, she is about 6 moths ahead on her speech discrimination. Se reads lips very well, she can use sign and speech to prett much convey any message she wants ( age appropriate of course). She is also well on her way to being a very good reader. SHe can actually read several words already!
It is all about communication! The mode of commo does not matter, as long as the child can communicate.
Sorry, I got a little off topic. Can ya tell I'm a proud daddy?

green.robyn

02-15-2008, 03:52 PM

I new to the ST forums, but my kids have been watching ST for several years. I am a stay-at-home Mom of four kids, including Rachel, nearly 4 yrs old, who is profoundly deaf and has a cochlear implant (it only helps a little). I've read through a few of the posts here and it makes her stack of problems seem like so little! She's has four operations to get her implants right, after being turned down twice, and she's worked with doctors at four of the best CI centers in the country. We've been very blessed!

KKzGrandma

03-24-2008, 08:54 AM

:)Hi! I'm grandma to Kaelynne (4 in April) and Harold (7 months). After going to doctors with our suspicions for what has seemed like forever, we finally got the diagnosis we had suspected all along...that Kaelynne is deaf. We even had a doctor tell us that she was not talking because he suspected Einstein Syndrome. We kept going for second, third, and fourth opinions...kept asking for a hearing test, too, which everyone initially told us was unnecessary. Now we have the diagnosis confirmed. Kaelynne needs to have one more test under anaesthesia, but in the meantime some hearing aids are being made.
We are really glad we began showing K.K. the signing times videos when she was a baby. That has kept communication open between us. We wish she was diagnosed earlier so that we could have started speech therapy earlier.
However, all in all, we know we are blessed that this is the extent of K.K.'s problems.
We are reading up on deafness and forging ahead...looking forward to making an already happy little girl even happier.
If anyone has any suggestions of good books for us to read, that would be so appreciated.
By the way, we live in Japan, outside of Tokyo.
Sue

purplewowies

03-24-2008, 04:51 PM

We even had a doctor tell us that she was not talking because he suspected Einstein Syndrome.

What is Einstein Stndrome? Is it similar to Asperger Syndrome?

grojas

03-24-2008, 06:52 PM

Why can't we do mandatory hearing and vision screenings on all kids early on so we can identify as early as possible if there are hearing and vision issues?

This Reading Rockets on-line video segment is interesting.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/16683

"A Chance to Read," a new PBS show produced by WETA Washington D.C., highlights new strategies driven by emerging research that shows what schools are doing across the country to help children with disabilities find success.

I also like the Signs of Literacy project by Gallaudet.
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/sol/

Lynja_the_ninja

03-24-2008, 07:12 PM

It is nice to meet you.
here is a link to a list that people here have suggested.
http://www.signingtime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111&highlight=reading+list
have fun reading.

KKzGrandma

03-25-2008, 06:13 AM

Hi, Thanks for all of the replies. I'll check out those links right away. I'm not even sure if Einstein Syndromeli is a correct medical term or not. However, it appears that some highly intelligent children have a difficult time processing speech. This is mostly found in boys. (Kaelynne of course is a girl, but the doctor thought that she could be one of the very rare ones.) It's different from Asperger's, as I understand it, since it is not a form of autism. Though we are quite sure Kaelynne is a bright little girl, we are glad to finally have a diagnosis that is on target. Now, we can work toward doing what is best for her.
I, too, wonder why mandatory testing for vision and hearing are not done. The sooner we know about these things, the brighter the outcome will be for our little ones.

Sue

BekahsMom

03-26-2008, 03:51 PM

I can't remember if I have introduced myself or not. I have lurked here off and on for about a year but thought I should join in.

My name is Mellanie and I have three children - Ryan - 8, Rachel - 5 and Rebekah - 2. Rebekah has Kabuki Syndrome. She has major gross motor delays due to severe hypotonia & hypermobile joints. She is getting fitted for orthotics and a reverse walker next week and we are thrilled! I think it will be so beneficial to her to have some good support as she is trying to learn to stand and eventually walk. Her hypotonia also affects her oral motor abilities, so we began signing with her very early (I think around 9 months - as soon as she had a little control of her arms and hands). It helped that we had taught our older two "typical" kids to sign as infants/toddlers, so it just seemed a natural thing to do for her. A friend loaned us a ST! DVD when Bekah was around 1. She has absolutely loved it ever since. I really credit ST! for Rebekah's larger-than-expected vocabulary. She has 70-80 words now and signs almost all of them. Almost every word she knows, she signed first and they almost all come from ST! LOL We are very proud of our little girl and thrilled to have discovered Signing Time!

KKzGrandma

03-29-2008, 10:32 PM

I, too, am so glad we started Kaelynne on ST while she was still a baby (6 months)...we'd watch the videos together and sign to her. Now, she has a pretty good vocabulary and invents her own signs when she doesn't know one for what she wants to express. We told her doctor about this and he was very impressed that she is actively finding ways to communicate. Her HDD was discovered fairly late...she's almost four...but ST has helped her develop her communication. She's very lively and full of questions. We are really hoping her hearing aids come soon. They are on order.

Out of curiosity, what is the Gallaudet Field Trip?

Sue

jessekaa

06-19-2008, 09:24 AM

Hi, my name is Jessica and I'm mommy to three great kids. One of them, my last is named Rachel. She was born with Rubinstien-Taybi Syndrome. We finally found on on Sept 10th 07 just before her 3rd birthday. Is is non-verbal, but is picking up signs and pecs..

jessekaa

06-19-2008, 09:26 AM

JynxGirl

08-18-2008, 10:03 AM

Hi everyone! I'm new here. My name is Jen, and I'm mom to 5 year old Alena.
Alena has autism, epilepsy, sensory processing disorder, tibial torsion and a "very fragile immune system" as her doctor puts it.
We just started using ST this year and it has done WONDERS for us!!! Alena now tells me when she's hungry or doesn't like something instead of just screaming it at me!
This Friday marked the delivery of the rest of season one for us, and I can't wait to get going with her!
I suck at introductions, so if you want to know more, just ask me. :) I'm not shy, and am more than willing to talk. :)

Admin

08-18-2008, 10:20 AM

Welcome! We also have a weekly chat @ 7pm MST on Wednesday nights where you can also connect with other Signing Time fans. Enter the Chatroom (http://www.signingtime.com/chatroom).

aphares

08-19-2008, 05:38 PM

Hi,
I'm Anita and I just joined the online forum this week. We have been enjoying Signing Time! and Baby Singing Time! for about two years. We have four children and our youngest daughter (Mia) has mosaic Down syndrome (just means not every cell has an extra 21st chromosome). Mia (our youngest) is speech delayed and we've been signing with her since about 9 months old. She is 2.5 now and has mastered well over 150 signs. Her spoken words are just now increasing weekly....she recently is trying to sing along with familiar Signing Time songs and others that we sing to her all the time.
We saw Rachel Coleman last week in Norfolk and have renewed excitement for the possibilities of expanding our signing knowledge. Looking forward to joining the online chat again tomorrow if I can get everyone to sleep w/o too much trouble.
I am also happy to report that our public tv station will air Signing Time! again after a long hiatus...Maryland Public TV. I will for sure have my DVR set up to catpure those treasured shows.;)

ST! LeeAnn

08-20-2008, 12:10 PM

Welcome to the group.

degarrettjones

09-07-2008, 03:44 PM

Hello Everyone!

My name is Dianne. I am a SAHM. My husband, Brooks, and I have three children: Britt is 22 yrs. old (and graduating from college in Dec.!), Liam is 4 yrs. old, and Ellie is 2 1/2 yrs. old. Liam has been diagnosed with Verbal Apraxia, Sensory Processing Disorder (sensory-seeking), and tentatively with Central Auditory Processing Disorder. He has very little understandable speech. Ellie was born with a cleft palate and lip, and is slightly speech delayed. ST! has done wonders for our little ones' speech development! Liam has been watching for 2 yrs. now, and singing along with Rachel has vastly improved his articulation. And his signing vocabulary is now amazing!

I joined this forum a couple of years ago, but then became kind of slack with my posts while completing the adoption of our youngest (Ellie). I hope to get to know everyone better this time around!

Looking forward to chatting with all of you!

bjnmom

09-13-2008, 02:57 PM

Hi to all. I'm Brooke, mother to Ben, 14, Joshua, 4, and Noah, 2. Joshua has autism, SPD (sensory seeking), and low muscle tone. He is so loving and snuggly, but has always struggled with language and motor skills. He first started saying words very early, but almost all of his speech is echolalic, although now it is more delayed than immediate. He has made some progress through speech therapy, but it has been so difficult to communicate with him, and for him to communicate with others.

We started watching Signing Time a few months ago, and, as he seems to respond very well to people, especially children on television, he started to pick things up very quickly. The theme-based shows, and songs, have really helped him understand related objects and actions in a non-overwhelming form, but the greatest thing I've seen is his quick understanding of signs and his desire to sign, despite his poor fine motor control. It's encouraging to see him make progress with something, and so wonderful to have a way to communicate with him that he enjoys. He also gets very excited whenever he sees Lucy, and he loves her wheel chair!

My youngest, Noah, has also learned quite a few signs from Signing Time, which has really improved his communication (wish I could say less tantrums:)) and we all have fun singing and signing the songs together. I am so grateful for all the time and hard work everyone has put into Signing Time! Our family is definitely enjoying the results!

momtojesse

10-14-2008, 10:04 AM

Hi I'm Erin (momtojesse). My son Jesse is 3 and has trisomy 21 (down syndrome). We were introduced to Signing Time through our speech therapist from Early Intervention. Jesse started signing at about 9 months old, but since startin Signing Time about a year ago he has signed so much more. ST is also helping Jesse become more vocal. We are in Hampton Roads Viginia because my husband is stationed here with the US Navy.

kaiserfam5

11-23-2008, 10:16 PM

Hello! My name is Leah and I am mom to Nicole (4.5), Joshua (3) and Abigail (9mo). Joshua was a late talker (severe acid reflux and food allergies diagnosed late) and began throwing temper tantrums around 18 months. We started using Baby Signs and it helped a lot. We started speech therapy at 2 1/2 and he seemed to be improving...although no one but me could understand him. We started at a new Speech center around his 3rd Birthday and they seem to think that he has Apraxia. After testing they informed us that he has the vocab/ comprehension of a 4.5 year old, but the verbalization skills of a 20 month old. The months since then have been frustrating. He is becoming more and more frustrated with us not understanding and with a very active 9 month old and a very talkative 4.5 year old, I don't have as much time to stop and really try to figure out what he is saying. I bought a Signing Times video at the recommendation of a friend and he LOVES it. He has learned so many signs from the one video. I am trying to incorporate signs into everything we do...reading, eating, playing, etc to get him to use them more. I am so excited to have the support of ya'll here! Thanks for welcoming us!

brandieguerrettaz

11-26-2008, 09:46 AM

Hello,

My name is Brandie and I am mom to Alex(10), Bryce (7) and Drew (3). My little Drew was just diagnosed in April 2008 with Klinefelter Syndrome and ASD. Drew is non-verbal and when he was 23 months old he qualified for Early Intervention services. He had Speech Therapy 2 times per week, Occupational Therapy 1 time per week, Physical Therapy 2 times per week and behavioral Therapy 1 time per week until his 3rd birthday. Once he turned 3 we now had to do services through our school district pre-k program. With the KS and ASD we will have many obstacles to cross but Drew is able to be in a classroom now. He doesn't participate in a group setting but they have noted him to parallel play with one or two students in the classroom. He seems to want to please his therapists making progress with his gross and fine motor skills. Drew has low tone and has choked on his food since he was an infant. Through intense feeding therapy he has now gained weight and finally chewing his food and not choking as much. He has not made progress with his verbalizations but is making progress each day with his american sign language. ASL is considered his primary language and is on his IEP at school. Drew is the sweetest little boy I know.

I just wanted to say hello to all the other parents of special needs children.

Niamahmi

11-26-2008, 05:36 PM

Hello, my name is Nia, and I am the mother of three DIVINE SPIRITS ages 4, 6, and 7! I began teaching my youngest sign as a baby, and my older two soaked it right up! I was thrilled when a friend recommended Signing Time to me, and we have grown so much with the show! We were sad to see that our local station no longer carries the show, but I am going to order the DVD's! Rachel, Leah, Alex, and Lucy have blessed us in so many ways!

I am in the process of opening a Montessori School in my town for children of ALL abilities! I am working on getting trained Montessori teachers with experience working with Autistic children, as we will service this community as well. As the aunt of an Autistic Child, I have seen how both Montessori AND Sign Language has been a tremendous help for our family!

I hope to hear from other members on a similar journey! Thank you for this opportunity to share! Have a wonderful holiday season!

Nia

Dallas Mom

12-03-2008, 12:48 PM

My name is Katie and I am the mother of Addison (18 months). Addison was born with a unilateral cleft lip and bilateral cleft palate. Her first palate surgery resulted in a fistula (hole) in her soft palate and we just did another palate surgery to close the fistula. Unfortunately, the entire thing pulled apart and she now has a fistula three times larger than the one we were trying to fix--the doctor has never seen anything like it!

We started signing to Addison at 6 months and she signed milk around 9 months. She also learned more, all done, water, please, bird and open but I did not really push extra signs. Due to the fistula she can't build up enough pressure to make a lot of sounds she needs for speech like "d" and "p" and "t" and in the last week we have been watching Signing Time Volume I and II (the only DVDs that our library carries) like crazy. She signs "Leah's" name whenever she wants to watch the show. She is picking up the signs very quickly and I am so proud of her.

I've basically become obsessed with "Signing Time" and if I was a millionaire would buy every single product that they sell! Instead, I am going to start with a couple of the first DVDs and books.

jenml

12-04-2008, 04:40 PM

I've basically become obsessed with "Signing Time" and if I was a millionaire would buy every single product that they sell! Instead, I am going to start with a couple of the first DVDs and books.

Hi Katie,

Good for you for given your daughter signing as a way to communicate! Wonderful.
If you are looking for advice as to which ones to get first (prioritize due to cost... or Santa suggestions for your relatives...) we LOVE ST 4, 5, 6... so much fun and great usable vocab. A bunch of people have been talking about their favorites on the forum (in another part of the forum), and this is a big consensus (but certainly the opinion in our house if we had to pick just a few to brag about)...

amiller

12-04-2008, 05:16 PM

My daughter Anyka was born with no hard or soft palate. She had to have 2 repairs (she got rotavirus in the hospital and the vomiting made her stitches pop) but now, at almost 6, she is doing much better though she gets twice a week speech therapy at school. Signing Time! was the only way we could prove to the docs and therapists that she was not brain damaged! We have been so blessed to have ST in our lives. I'd love to chat with you more off line, PM me!

jenml

12-05-2008, 04:51 PM

Signing Time! was the only way we could prove to the docs and therapists that she was not brain damaged! We have been so blessed to have ST in our lives.

Amazing, Aly!! Good for her! Your daughter's story makes me think about Lucy, too.... similarities.
God bless...

Shushan

12-07-2008, 10:38 PM

Hello everyone. My name's Shushanik and I'm a newbie.
My baby is 11 months old.
Nice to meet you! :)

catybarra

12-07-2008, 10:42 PM

Hello everyone. My name's Shushanik and I'm a newbie.
My baby is 11 months old.
Nice to meet you! :)

Welcome!! I am glad you found us here :) How did you hear about Signing Time? We have weekly chats on Wed. nights at 7 pm Mountain Time. I would love to see you there!

Leanna_mom23

12-08-2008, 02:26 PM

Hello!! Some of you I know from the Wednesday night chats but I finally decided to check out these forums and thought I should introduce myself here. For those that don't know me I am a work at home mother of 3 boys (16, 7, and almost 22 mo old). I have been married to my high school sweetie for almost 22 years. Our youngest has Cerebral Palsy (spastic quadriplegic, w/mixed tone) and recently was diagnosed to also have Chorea. Due to his low tone in his mouth we do not know if he will ever speak so I had mentioned to his early intervention PT that I would like to teach him sign language. She told me about Signing Time on PBS. Sadly it is no longer on PBS but we had ordered some of the shows. Now we have purchased all of the BST products for him for Christmas. He loves Rachel! :D

QuietJack

12-10-2008, 09:11 PM

Hi,
I am Monica, mother of 4 growing boys. My oldest 3 were all early talkers/readers, but my littlest is having some speech delay. He is 15 months now and says 3 words, but only when prompted. At 12 months I realized he wasn't using words and introduced sign. His hearing is 100%, but he just can't shape his mouth right to mimic. A friend sent me flashcards (mocobabies) and his signing vocabulary exploded.

My 10 year old had used Signing Time in a sign language club after school and loved it so I have been wanting DVDS for Jack for some time, but couldn't afford them. I love the YouTube clips but it isn't enough..haha!

I am thrilled that Jack has some ST videos coming for Christmas from his aunt and can NOT wait for him to see them. I know he is going to loose his mind over them. I have been lurking in the forums for a while, but didn't feel cool posting since I had no ST vids...silly, I know.

I hope everyone is having good Holidays

Monica, mom of
Nico, 14, Guitar Maniac
Elijah, 12, Lego Maniac
Skyler 10, Dancing Maniac
Jack, 15 months, Signing Maniac and part time cookie monster.

catybarra

12-11-2008, 12:32 AM

Welcome, Monica! I am glad you found your way to Signing Time! What a wonderful Christmas gift from his aunt. I promise you will love them (and maybe more than he does LOL). Love the hair in his picture!

sweetpeama

12-29-2008, 03:54 PM

Thought I would take the time to introduce myself on here.

I am Tammy mom to Bridget almost 4 yrs old Spirited Child and Anastasia almost 15 months my Special Needs Child.

Anastasia is hearing at least in the higher frequencies in that she doesn't have a severe or profound loss there. At this time due to her age they can not test for a mild to moderate loss in that range or for a loss in the lower to mid frequencies unless we want to go through the hassle of sedating her.

At this time Anastasia is non communicative though she is starting to sign. She makes attempts at milk, mama, more, diaper and eat. More is only in regards to food. She is also trying to talk at currently says aaahhh aaahhh, ba ba (for bottle), ma ma and mum mum (when she wants her mom or sees me) on a consistant basis along with a motor boat sound when she is frustrated and raspberry sound when she is excited. She laughs when she is happy too. She is also attempting to say ga ga, la la, pa pa, and occasionally da da but those are not specific. She does not say pa pa for her grandfather who she is around a lot. Bridget and Anastasia are the children of my fil's retirement and they spend a lot of time with grandma and grandpa so he has a special relationship with them that he didn't get with their older cousins including getting to see them both take their first steps. Da Da is not specific for her daddy.

Since finding out that her hearing is normal most of the family has quite signing with her so I and her sister when she remembers are the ones that are primarily signing with her. My mom is pushing the oral over the sign and has said even if she was deaf that she needs to learn to talk so she can be normal. My Dad is hardly around due to his job which takes him all over the states of MT and WY 9-10 months out of the year so he hasn't had much to say on the matter. My inlaws have made some effort to learn to sign and even ask Bridget how to sign different things. We have lost count how many signs Bridget knows.

Tammy

aligreat

12-30-2008, 01:00 PM

Hi Tammy, we are here to support you. Thanks for posting and sharing your story.

lutheransigner2010

01-09-2009, 10:59 AM

im liz and my younger sister has FAS. some of you might not consider that special needs but it is. also i want to teach special education when i graduate from college

c01dunlap

01-10-2009, 09:51 AM

...I am Tammy mom to Bridget almost 4 yrs old Spirited Child and Anastasia almost 15 months my Special Needs Child....

Since finding out that her hearing is normal most of the family has quite signing with her so I and her sister when she remembers are the ones that are primarily signing with her. My mom is pushing the oral over the sign and has said even if she was deaf that she needs to learn to talk so she can be normal. My Dad is hardly around due to his job which takes him all over the states of MT and WY 9-10 months out of the year so he hasn't had much to say on the matter. My inlaws have made some effort to learn to sign and even ask Bridget how to sign different things. We have lost count how many signs Bridget knows.

Tammy
Welcome, Tammy! My sympathies about the push for oral as if it's an either-or!! Our typically-developing hearing daughter benefitted SO MUCH from our signing with her from birth. At age 5, we still sign with her. Gotta love the ability to "shout" during church service across 5 pews, "COME HERE NOW and SIT DOWN!" without disturbing a soul. :p At any rate, her verbal skills came right on time (a bit early, if I recall), and having a sign to clarify helped us know what she was trying to say and help improve pronunciation on the spot.

Also, lots of studies have shown that signing in parallel with oral enhances language learning. And, conversely, that NOT giving language access to Deaf/HOH children impedes learning. It's a hot debate, I know, so I never argue, just offer those up as food for thought. Perhaps someone can find pointers to one or two of those studies.

5TAL55

01-12-2009, 06:14 PM

im liz and my younger sister has FAS. some of you might not consider that special needs but it is.

What is FAS?

aligreat

01-13-2009, 12:40 AM

FAS=Fetal Alcohol Syndrome--If I am not mistaken. I would consider a child with FAS as special needs. Like all other conditions, the needs vary from child to child.

KarenM

01-22-2009, 11:41 AM

Hi everyone...I'm Karen. I have 6 children, ranging in age from 3-16. My youngest has a severe speech delay, mild physical delay and seizure disorder (probably all related.) She turned 3 in November, and only very recently has learned to say 2 words, "no" and "mommy".

We discovered Signing Time on YouTube in June of 2007 and since then have bought several of the dvd's. I don't know when my daughter will develop all the sounds she needs to learn to speak, but Signing Time has given her the ability to communicate with us. For that, I will be forever grateful to Rachel and everyone else behind Signing Time! :)

StaceyHay

01-22-2009, 04:00 PM

Welcome Karen,
I have 5 children and your 3 year old sounds a lot like my middle child. She is 5 years old and has a brain disorder called schizencephaly. We also feel like you about Signing Time! and are so grateful that it brought us the gift of communication.

Aleasha

03-09-2009, 09:11 PM

Hello,

This is my first time posting. I have searched many places for a "support" type group where I can just chat with others' who have had similar experiences as me. Our son's diagnosis is quite rare, so my search has lead me to more general discussions about developmental delays, rather than about his specific issues. The more posts I read, the more I know that this is the avenue for me to find out how other people are doing, to vent and to ask for suggestions when needed. I want to congratulate the Signing Time staff for developing this sight and to all those who post who display unconditional support to each other!

So about my family and me...(it's not a very short story...)

My husband and I have one son who is 3. He is our greatest joy and is so full of life and happiness. When he was approaching one year old, I was becoming concerned because he did not have a pincer grasp and was not really crawling, or babbling or saying mom or dad. Otherwise, his development had been fairly typical if not a little behind up to that point. It was all pretty subtle and there is pretty broad guidelines as to when kids should be at certain milestones. Being first time parents, we weren't sure if we should be concerned. We had nothing to compare his development to. I think everyone we talked to (including Dr.s) said nothing is wrong and "he's a boy...it will take him longer to do things" and "you're worrying over nothing". Also, I'm a nurse, so I thought I might be just hyper aware of everything and being paranoid. So, we quietly sat back and waited (all the while, doing everything we could think of to stimulate his development). When he wasn't walking at 18 months, I drew the line and took him for an assessment by a pediatrician. Initially, he was diagnosed with a global developmental delay (delay in all areas) and we started a year long journey of multiple tests (MRI, blood, urine, EEG, ultrasounds, Echocardiogram, x-rays, and skin biopsy). They finally diagnosed him with Salla Disease. There are less than 200 cases diagnosed in the world and most are in Finland. I think there are only 2 cases known in the U.S. and we're the only one in Canada. So, we are kind of fishing in the dark and forging our own path with how we do things and what we do to encourage his development.

His greatest strength is and always has been his cheery personality and his social development. He LOVES people and other children. We decided to enroll him in daycare full time with a one-on-one worker, even though I only work part time so that he could be motivated by other children around him. He has made SO much progress since then, although it is lots of baby steps over long periods. He has trouble with balance and co-ordination. He is walking, but often falls after only one or two steps. Some times he can walk up to 10 steps before reaching another piece of furniture of falling. He is the most determined child I know. He has learned to play constructively by interacting with the other children at daycare. Eating is an issue for him as he does not chew and he is at risk for aspiration. We work hard on self-help skills as well. Like many of you, we do not know what the future holds or where things will end up, so we just keep plugging along and stay optimistic and hope for the best. Evey new therapy or intervention we hear about peaks our interest. We are trying chiropractic care and have applied for horse therapy at some point and are looking in to "The Movement Centre". If anyone has experience with any of these, your input would be very welcome! I try to keep a sunny disposition but at times a black cloud looms over and reminds me that his condition is neuro-degenerative and there is a good chance of his development "deteriorating" when he's in his 20's. I try not to focus on this thought though as it does not help us move forward.

Now, on to the most exciting part of it all, SIGNING!! By a complete coincidence, a friend lent us the Signing Time videos when Jake was about 1 year old. He loved them and didn't want to do anything else but stare blankly at Rachel and Alex & Leah. He cried when we turned them off. Well, it turns out he wasn't staring blankly, he was concentrating fiercely. About 5 months later he knew 12 signs. one month later he knew 35 signs and now, 2 years later, he knows over 100 signs! He doesn't use them ALL consistently, just the ones that are relevant. But, he knows signs I didn't even know he knew. Tonight I told him we were going to put bubbles in his bath (something we almost never do) and he signed bubbles!! One of the characteristics of Salla disease is mental retardation and generally limited to one or two words. Signing Time opened up a whole new world to us and him that he may not have ever know otherwise (like many of you). We now have both ST series as well as the Baby Signing Time and Practice Time Series. We are really fortunate as one of the characteristics of Salla disease is having very good receptive language abilities. We could tell that he was able to understand tons of what we said long before he could communicate back to us. The greatest gift is two way communication and genuine interaction. I love knowing what is going on in Jake's head and what he WANTS. It makes me think of Rachel's song "Show me a sign". It makes me wonder how many other children out there are labeled because we are unable to "unlock" what is in their mind. Prior to signing time, Jake would utter occasional "mom's" and "dad's" but there was no consistency and we didn't know if he was saying it with "meaning" (that's what all the Dr.'s ask us) or if they were just sounds. The heartbreaking thing about his words is that they were fleeting. Here one day, gone the next. It was a huge let down each time. Currently, he is using conversational babble since about 2 weeks ago and "talks" a blue streak. We think that we hear familiar words now and then and maybe they will develop in to language. Time will tell. But, for now we have ASL through Signing Time. Our next challenge is to decide what to do for when he enters school. The daycare has been very receptive to learning Sign Language and using it, but it's not a mainstream thing here in the schools. We're looking at possibly using a combination of picture boards and Signing. I would love to hear from anyone who has experience with the transition to school and the use of picture boards vs. signing, etc.

A side note is that Salla Disease is a genetic disorder in which both my husband and I are carriers but do not have the disease (recessive) and we have a 25% chance of having another child who has Salla disease if we choose to have more children. So, we're faced with some difficult decisions including having more children (with options that were presented to us in terms of genetic testing); not having any more children; or adoption. I am interested in finding support or supporting anyone who is also faced with this type of difficult decision.

Well, thanks for listening to my long story!! There is tons more, but I think that's enough for now!!

5TAL55

03-10-2009, 08:43 AM

Aleasha,

Welcome to our group. You do have a very special son. And although his situation is rare, you will find lots of support and friends here.

We have a live chat every Wednesday night from 7-9pm MST. Please come join us, Rachel is there most chat nights.

Lisa

aligreat

03-11-2009, 01:40 PM

Aleasha

03-11-2009, 08:34 PM

Welcome Aleasha,

Both of my little ones have delays, and I have received so much support from the Signing Time! community.

I, too, know what it is like to have a geneticist asking whether or not we plan on having more children. The first time it happened, it almost felt like an accusation. We still do not know the cause of our children's delays, and one of them has been stuck with the umbrella term "multiple congenital anomalies" since chromosomal analysis hasn't shown anything.

My response to the geneticist was that I would not change my daughter. If there were a magic pill to give her to make her "normal" I would not seek it. Her anomalies are part of her. I would not choose to change that.

Luckily I didn't feel "accused" when our geneticist spoke with us. He was pretty objective when he presented all of the options in terms of future children. He will support us in whatever decision we make. I'm just not sure if I like all the options. Would you rather know a specific diagnosis? I went back on forth on that one. It was the thing that consumed my mind most days for a long time. It's a mixed blessing. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. It's harder to "take a crap shoot" and just try for another kid, knowing the odds. He really discouraged us from considering more children until we had results anyway.

Do you want more children ever? Would you consider adoption?

I agree with you, I wouldn't change Jake for the world! I love him to bits and he is awesome just the way he is. But, now that I know what I know, not sure I could purposely have another child that might have Salla disease. Not sure it's fair, with the knowledge I now have.

dragondance

03-18-2009, 01:09 AM

Hi!
Just popping on really quick--I have a dd who is almost 18 months old with Sensory Processing Disorder, mostly vestibular/gravitational/tactile (seeking) plus oral apraxia. She doesn't babble or say any words with consonants (just "yea," "oh," and "uuuu" for up, and she used to say "hi" but not recently). But after two months of signing on our own and with Signing Time she is starting to sign. She's got "milk" and "up/down" and is trying to copy us when we make signs sometimes this week, which is huge as she usually doesn't imitate at all. Her big sister is 3 and is picking up the signs like crazy and loves it too.

Aleasha

03-21-2009, 08:51 PM

Congratulations Dragondance,

That's great that the sign language is coming - what a gift! Welcome to the forum.

Aleasha

MommyAngela

07-17-2009, 06:36 PM

Hi! My name is Angela. I am married to Matthew; we live in North Georgia, near Chattanooga, TN. We have two sons. Andrew turned three at the end of March. When he was little, many of my friends with babies did sign language, but I was not really interested. It just seemed like a lot of work for such a short time since he would be talking soon.

Our second son Benjamin was born in April of 2008. We found out about an hour after he was born that he has Down syndrome. Our lives were changed in an instant. He has had open-heart surgery and intestinal surgery but he is doing great!

Physically, he is progressing well. He has been sitting since nine months, crawling since 11 months, and pulling up and cruising the furniture since about 12 or 13 months. (He is almost 15 months now.)

What I am really worried about with Benjamin is his mind. He is as sweet as can be and is very alert. He pays attention well and babbles sometimes. But he is faaaar from understanding anything that we say. I am not even really convinced that he knows his own name. (He has always passed his hearing; it's not that he can't hear us..he doesn't understand us.)

Anyway, we started signing with him when he was maybe about nine or ten months old. Never having done it, I am having to learn the signs. For Christmas, my mom bought Benjamin all the Baby Signing Time DVDs and CDs. I *love* them! Andrew loves them, too, and since he is three and very smart (LOL), he has picked up on the signs very quickly. Benjamin, however, is not getting anything. Not anything. I know it takes time. I know we just have to be persistent. It's just sad that it's taking so long. Makes me wonder if he will be one of those kids with DS who doesn't talk until he's six.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself!!

:)