it's all up to you to make your kids smart... they are all at the same level on day one...

What is the purpose of this? Good for babies to start bi-lingual but what's the purpose of teaching non deaf babies sign language? I think it would be great to teach a child this after they've learned to speak as they should.

I'm not being scarastic at all, I'm just really asking what is the purpose?

I have no idea.

Thanks

Gabby

it's just something I seen last night that @ a tweetup blew me away
I'm going to try it, I think for one, it's nice that the baby has a way to communicate before they can speak :)

That presumes that babies are only capable of learning one language at a time, which is not true. Many children are multilingual because their parents and family come from different countries and backgrounds, or their parents starting teaching them multiple languages from infancy. Just because it's sign language, doesn't mean it's going to be any different to learn or take away from verbal speech any more then a second verbal language would. A hearing child with two deaf parents doesn't grow up incapable of speaking verbally any more then a Spanish child with two Spanish speaking only parents doesn't grow up not learning English or whatever the official language of the country they're living in. The benefit of this is two fold at least. One, learning two forms of communication will make them a better communicator to begin with, and two, well, it's not like there's a shortage of jobs that can use people who can sign in addition to whatever skills they have.

Thanks Loco, Dig, Interesting stuff. :up:

Whatever floats a parent's boat is what I say. If it doesn't hurt the child, it can only help in the long run I suppose. This is if the parents keep up with it? Do hearing parents usually keep up with sign language t/o adolescents? If not, sort of seems like a waste of time if they don't continue to through maturity.

Night

Gabby

We kind of have to teach our daughter sign language, at least as much as she can manage, as it's likely she won't be speaking for some years, if at all.

we will continue it to some extent I'm sure :)

Great thread Loco ;)

I have two kids, they are 10 and 9, I guess this is the time when everyones wrong and they are always right ;) The problem is that when you have children, make the most of it as they grown up so quick, I really miss it now from when they were babies :o

All those sleepless nights and feeding every two hours and changing them every 5 minutes, Little jars of baby food and struggling to come home with a massive box of 50 Nappies/Diapers, so yeah in a funny sort of way i really miss it.

Roll on Grandkids :D

UK Ditto here. I'm feeling so old....I miss those days too! :oSeems like just yesterday. I think if I had to do it all over again, I might incorporate sign language with verbal. Couldn't hurt I suppose.

I'm thinking of printing off a banner with some signs that babies have learned in the past. I need to learn them first :p