Signing as a Second Language

The boys are feeling better, though their noses are still like leaky faucets! Henry has eaten pretty well the past couple of days so that feels like an improvement. I'll give more of a wellness update later in the week after we get through the appointments that were rescheduled from last week.

The one appointment that we were able to keep last week was a meeting with our case worker from Golden Gate Regional Center. She came to do Calvin's yearly eval and to talk to me about finally setting him up with speech therapy. So I'm happy to say that we're very close to getting him set up with a therapy play group.

In the meantime, Calvin is starting to say more words! It's hard to understand him, but he's definitely talking. Some of his new words are help, splash, tiger, and bubbles. And he's improving on how he says some of the words he was already using like light. We're starting to hear beginning and ending consonants with that one so it sounds more like "yight" instead of just sounding like "I."

He's combining these new words with his signs to communicate. His doctors (and case workers and everybody else) are always impressed with how well he communicates using sign language. We're super proud of him and, as I've said before, super thankful that it has worked so well for us. The docs (and others) always ask, How did Calvin learn sign language? Well, his dad and I taught him. Then they ask, How did you learn it? And the answer is that we started with a baby sign class and then went kind of DIY from there.

We wanted to go beyond the typical small repertoire of baby signs (milk, more, food, help, etc.) and really try to equip Calvin with enough words to communicate not just his needs, but - to some extent, still limited - his thoughts and ideas. Last I counted (I actually keep a list!), Calvin knows and uses 112 signs. He can combine them into two or three word sentences. This is comparable to the spoken vocabulary of a typically developing 24-month-old.

If you're interested in signing with your child, here are the things we did (and still do!) to learn signs ourselves to be able to teach them to Calvin. It feels like I'm learning ASL as a second language, and for Calvin it's really his first language!

1. Take a class.
If you're near San Francisco, Touch Blue Sky does classes at different locations in and around the Bay Area. We took the one called Playgroup Zoom when Calvin was 6 months old at Natural Resources and we loved Bill White, the instructor. He really inspired me to take sign language seriously. Wherever you are, check out parenting resource organizations to find a class. My Smart Hands is another organization that I like and they offer classes all around the US and Canada.

2. Get an app.
Speaking of My Smart Hands, their app is another nice way to get started. We eventually outgrew the app and needed more words than the app had in it's dictionary, but it was plenty of signs for us in the beginning. There are other apps out there so definitely shop around and read the reviews. It was nice to be able to just grab my phone and look up a word when I found myself talking to Calvin about something I didn't know the sign for.

3. Use a book.
Also from Laura Berg of My Smart Hands, we have The Baby Signing Bible. It has lots of great info about using sign language with little ones and it's another easy way to look up words on the fly. Again, there's other books so shop around, but this is the one I can vouch for :)

4. Google it.
This is what I do most of the time. But I have a specific ASL website that I look for in the search results. Signing Savvy has a pretty extensive dictionary and simple, clear videos. The catch is that unless you have a subscription, their search feature is kind of a drag. You type in a word and it takes you to the entire list of words starting with the same letter, so you have to scroll (or ctrl+f) for the one you wanted. I find it easier to Google "ASL" and whatever word I was looking for, then click on the Signing Savvy search result. Or you could add "Signing Savvy" to your search terms. We should probably just pay for a membership and support them, but we haven't yet. ASL Pro also seems to be a good one. They have a very extensive dictionary.

5. Watch videos.
Laura Berg of My Smart Hands has some videos on YouTube with her own kids, and Baby Einstein also has a baby signs video on YouTube. I've heard good things about the Baby Signing Time series, but never used it myself.

6. Learn from friends. 
Friends who had kids before us set the example of what it looks like to sign with your baby. I feel lucky to have other parent friends who also use sign language with their kids because it means we can learn from each other and also communicate with each others' kids a little more easily. (Mainly it means Calvin can communicate with them more easily.)

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No, I'm not being sponsored by any of those organizations, I've just used their resources and it's been helpful. Here are a few other tips from my personal experience signing with Calvin that might be useful for other parents getting started with signing :)

5 Tips for Signing with Babies or Toddlers

1. Say the word and do the sign together.
I remember being in baby sign class and asking "Um, how do I teach it to him??" And the answer is to simply model the signs. When you say milk, open and close your hand. When you say food, put your fingers to your lips. You don't have to say anything extra. It's the same way they learn to talk, they observe and learn to imitate. They will likely learn the sign first, then start saying the word with it and eventually they'll drop the sign and just say it. You don't have to differentiate between signing and talking.

2. Don't sign "cow" unless there's a cow in the room.
Hee hee. That is a direct quote from Bill White, who taught the baby sign class we took. It means that context is important for building meaning. This is important for teaching new signs. Once your child knows a sign, of course you can refer to things that aren't actually there. Like when Calvin signs the names of the animals he wants to see or expects to see at the zoo, before we are actually there.

3. If it's close, it counts.
A friend with an older kid told me that if the baby does something that looks similar to a sign you've shown him, assume he was using the sign even if you're not sure. So if Calvin was kind of opening and closing his hand, I'd be like "Milk? Oh here's your bottle." And give him the bottle. It reinforces that when he does that action, it has this meaning.

4. Start with a class, then add words as needed.
Starting out with a class is nice because the teacher can help you understand the how and why behind signing with kids. It will also give you a solid repertoire of signs to start with. Eventually, you may find yourself wanting to teach your kid more words beyond what you learned in the class, so then you can turn to one of those other resources I mentioned.

Context is important, so teach signs for things your child is interested in, things you want them to learn about, and things they see around them. Around Christmas, Calvin was learning signs quickly so I excitedly taught him Jesus, Christmas, star, the names for all the animals in the manger, and also Santa, presents, stockings, and reindeer :) Calvin loves animals, so many many of the signs he knows are names of animals. He also knows signs for his favorite foods and toys.

5. Their signs may not look like your signs, so pay attention!
Baby motor skills are wobbly still developing, as is their sense of where their body is in space. So if they do some weird hand thing every time they see a cat, even if it barely resembles the actual ASL sign for cat, that is probably what they were going for.

For example, the signs for pig and frog are supposed to be done with your hand under your chin. Well, Calvin apparently can't find his chin (can't blame him, he barely has a chin!), so he does those signs on his opposite wrist. Weird. Whatever. He knows what he's saying and I know what he's saying.

Keep modeling the signs correctly yourself to reinforce the correct way of doing it, and eventually they will find their chin. Or start talking. Whichever comes first ;) I think making an effort to teach the signs correctly shows respect for ASL as a real language used by many people. Also, I don't want to accidentally say a swear word in ASL in public by doing a sign the way my kid does it!

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I hope this post is helpful! I'm not an expert, I never studied any of this formally, but I'm a busy mama with a speech-delayed kid and our family has had a lot of success with sign language. Please add tips and resources if you have any to share!

Calvin Wellness Update: Head Heart and Hands

As Calvin has gotten older, his specialist check-ups have gotten more spaced out. This is a big relief, especially because Henry is having so many appointments these days! I'll write a wellness update on Henry in a few days after the two appointments he has coming up this week. For now, here's the latest on Calvin after his recent Cardiology and Speech check ups.

Cardiology

Calvin is having an echo-cardiogram done. He was such a good patient! Thanks to Mickey Mouse ;)

His last cardiology check up was in January. They have been monitoring his VSD since he was about a month old. His appointment always starts with an echo-cardiogram, and on occasion he has also had an EKG, but not this time. The last echo he had at around 12 months old was tough. He was too little to watch TV and he was restless and wiggly. But this time he laid there very still and calm and just watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. (Ok, technically he's still too little to watch TV but whatever. Small doses.) They were able to get all the images they needed to check out all the parts of his heart and how his heart is functioning.

The news was good. Not the best possible news, but say, second best. The best news would be that his VSD is closing on its own. It's not. BUT, his heart is functioning basically as if it weren't there. It's not affecting him in any negative or problematic way. His doc said that as long as that continues to be the case, it won't need to be closed (surgically). She even went so far as to say she doubts it will ever need to be closed. She also said that if the time comes that it is causing problems he is likely a candidate for a less invasive procedure using a catheter device which would allow us to avoid open heart surgery. But again, it does NOT require surgery right now or in the foreseeable future. He doesn't have to have a cardiology check up again until he turns 4! Woo hoo!


Speech 
Calvin had a speech evaluation done last week with his SLP (speech and language pathologist), Dr. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson and a student doctor (sorry, I don't remember her actual title!) gave Calvin a standardized evaluation that tested both his receptive and expressive language. There were some pictures involved and also some toys and they would say things like "Calvin, could you please hand me the bear?" [Calvin hands bear to doctor.] and "Mr. Bear is thirsty. Could you give him a drink?" [Calvin pretends to let the bear drink from a cup.] Or they would point to something and ask him to name it, and of course he answered in sign language. He did great. There were a couple of items he hadn't really seen before like a cookie (ha.) and ice cubes. The docs seemed impressed with how well he did. Plus they seemed to think he was adorable. Which, of course, he is ;)

They told me that the average score for the test is 100 and they hoped for him to score between 80 and 115. He scored 100 exactly for receptive language. Which I guess is a C? But whatever. The docs were impressed. I was proud of him. For his expressive language, however, he only scored 70. This makes sense. He only has two words that he consistently says out loud, although at last count he knows over 90 signs. I don't know to what extent the test took into account his signing, but they did tell me it was helpful for me to interpret whenever I could tell he was saying something in sign language.

Without knowing more about the test, the scores don't mean that much to me. What is important to me is that Dr. Johnson is recommending speech therapy due to the big gap between what he understands/knows and what he can say out loud. He babbles all the right sounds, including sounds that they weren't sure he'd be able to make because of his cleft palate muscles, but he won't imitate sounds on command. Dr. Johnson seemed to think that with some focused practice via speech therapy, if we can get him to start imitating sounds he could pick up talking quickly. I think she's right. I think he's so close. He knows so many words and he can make the sounds. But for some reason he's just not ready/willing to put it all together! The next step is to talk to our regional center case worker about getting set up with a speech therapist nearby because Dr. Johnson is too far away for us to see her for regular therapy. I feel good about it. I think it's the right thing for Calvin and I'm eager for him to get started.

Sign Language
Though he is still only saying mama (it sounds like "mam") and daddy (sounds like "da-yee") and occasionally other m-words like milk and map, we continue to be amazed by his use of sign language. His sign vocabulary is growing as quickly as I can learn new signs to teach him. Almost 100 signs! And he has started signing sentences! The sentences are missing "core" vocabulary (words like the, of, and...), but they are still complete thoughts.

The first time I noticed him make a three-word sentence he was eating lunch and had this little bear toy from his Duplo set at the table with him. He signed bread eat bear. And proceeded to pretend to make the bear take bites of his sandwich complete with sound effects p-p-p-p-p! The words seem to be out of order, "bear eat bread" might make more sense, unless he was saying "The bread is eaten by the bear," but I definitely got what he meant! Since then I've seen him sign other three-word sentences like Help Piggie, please, when his stuffed animal Piggie has gotten stuck somewhere or Eat more banana, when he wants his favorite food :)

Yesterday we spent the morning at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and we saw lots of animals in the rainforest, aquarium, and Africa exhibits. Later as we were getting ready for bed, I asked him if he'd had fun and I asked him what he saw there. He told me fish, bird, penguin, butterfly, horse, alligator and frog. All of which we did see, except a horse, but he had been calling the zebra a horse so I think that's what he meant! I was so proud of him for remembering and being able to understand the question and tell me all those animals!

James and Calvin butterfly watching in the rainforest exhibit

And then this morning:
Calvin: alligator turtle
Me: Alligator? Turtle? Did you see an alligator and some turtles yesterday?
Calvin: alligator turtle eat
Me: Eat? ... Bite? Did the turtle bite the alligator?
Calvin: [nodding] turtle eat alligator

And he's right! There was a turtle biting the alligator's tail! Delayed speech or not, I think he is such a smartie.

It is wonderful that he is able to communicate so well. I am optimistic for him learning to talk this year, but I know he will do it in his own sweet time like everything else :) In the meantime, I am considering letting him try out an AAC (adaptive and augmentative communication) app. Dr. Johnson said there was no harm there. It would make it easier for him to talk to other people who aren't familiar with his sign language and it might open up an opportunity for him to express more thoughts than he is able to with signs and even start using core words? It's possible. Also, it is very likely that Henry would benefit from an AAC app in the future. I started looking into apps, but I have hit a couple of roadblocks. The apps that really look the best are very expensive, like Speak for Yourself at $200. Also, the tablet we have is only 7" and on that size tablet the buttons on some of the apps are very small. I'm almost willing to spring for SFY, but I feel like I'd also have to buy a new tablet and the cost for both would be a lot for us.  I'm trying to find a good starter app, preferably free, with a happy medium between the size of the buttons and the number of words on each screen. If anyone has suggestions, please share!

Talking Hands

When Calvin was 6 months old, James and I took him to a series of baby sign language classes. The classes were really more for us than for him. Typically babies who are introduced to signs around that age start using the signs themselves around 10 months. Calvin started using signs right around his first birthday.

A big part of our motivation to teach him baby signs was the fact that 22Q deletion syndrome is typically associated with delayed language development. Somehow the signs are easier for these kiddos to learn and they can use them to communicate when they aren't yet able to use words.

Calvin's very first sign was "more" and the first few signs he used all had to do with food: more, milk, water, cereal, and please. Later he started learning other nouns like animal names, foods, and things around the house like books and toys.

Here are two videos of him at 16 months where you can see him use the signs for "book" and "please." Around that time he was using the sign "please" often to ask for things, and it was great to see him signing, but it was also hard because he didn't always know the sign for the thing he was asking for. That's one of the two big limitations of the baby signing that I've found. The other limitation is that, because of his developing motor skills, the way he does the signs doesn't look like the adult version and some of his signs for different things look identical. We just have to use the context of the situation and do our best to figure it out. For example, the way he signs duck looks just like milk, but if we're playing with toys there's a good chance he wants his toy duck whereas if it's during a meal it's definitely milk. I imagine that it's not that different from interpreting "baby talk."

At his 18 month check up in October, he still was not using any verbal words. He was babbling lots of sounds and had demonstrated about 20 signs, but no words. His use of signing showed that he was able to communicate and that cognitively he is using and understanding language. But it looks like he will need some help developing verbal speech. We started talking about speech therapy with his pediatrician and with our case worker from Golden Gate Regional Center (an organization that will help hook us up with therapy services if/when Calvin needs them). He has an appointment with the speech and language specialists at Stanford (add that department to the team of specialists already following him!) in February, and I think he'll likely start speech therapy after that.

In the month since that appointment, I am very excited to report that he has started saying "mama" and "daddy" consistently enough to be sure that they're real words and not just babbles! It is so wonderful to hear him call me mama for the first time. Feels like it was a long time coming. There are a couple of other words that he sometimes says (or sort of says...), but not as consistently. Those are ball, milk, more, hey, duck, and "all done."

Here's a little video of his few words and a few of the signs he knows. I hate that it's a crappy phone vid, but I am very pleased to share it!

Haha. I blanked on what other signs he knows! I estimate that he uses over 30 signs. Here are all that I could think of :)

more, milk, water, food, bread, banana, grapes, cracker, cereal, please, all done, down, help, toys, play, dance, book, music, mom, dad, Lola (grandmother), Henry, duck, pig, dog, cat, bird, elephant, car, tree, bed, awesome, and (please don't judge me!) Mickey Mouse and  Sesame Street!

We're proud of our little guy, and we're so glad that we decided to teach him sign language! It's a relief to know that he is learning and communicating in his own way.

Here's Your Sign

We went to our first baby sign language play group last week! We are attending these play groups at a local family resource center called Natural Resources and the program is all based on American Sign Language so it's not, like, made-up baby hand motions or anything silly. We went to the intro class about a month ago and I got so excited that I enrolled us in the play group immediately. 

So, experts and advocates of baby signing say that babies can learn to communicate through signing earlier than they can communicate verbally. Lots of pediatricians and speech therapists recommend it, especially for kids who are at risk for delayed language, but really for any baby. Learning signs is supposed to facilitate vocabulary development for when the child does start speaking because they have concrete movements to associate with the words. When you sign to a baby, you also say the words - the point isn't to teach them to communicate with the deaf community, the point is to help them learn how to use language. Communicating with deaf people is just a perk.

It is also said that difficult phases (ahem, "terrible twos") can be mitigated by sign language because a major part of the problem is when kids can't let their adults know what's wrong. So the idea is that babies/toddlers will be able to just tell you through signing that they are hungry/tired/hurt/looking for their blue truck instead of just falling to pieces crying about it. We shall see. 

I've gotten to see baby signing in action by my friends' toddler, Sagan, who is now 18 months old. He has been using signs since 9 or 10 months, gradually increasing the signs he knows and uses. By 13 months he was able to string signs together like phrases, and now he uses lots of spoken words in addition to signing.

Sagan is in the green pants. He wants the other kid's shovel so he keeps pointing at it and then signing "please" by rubbing his hand on his chest. He also signs "help me" by bringing his hands together.

This time my friends are trying to get Sagan to do this cute mouth noise for the camera, but he just keeps signing "all done" with his one hand. :)

I am totally sold on the whole thing. As a literacy teacher, I can see how it will be a great language-building tool. Plus once James and I get the hang of it I'll be able to ask him for a glass of red wine from across a loud party or bar ;)