how do you teach a toddler sign language?

Question

my daughter is speech impaired and i wanted to teach her to sign.i have asked her speech therapist many times for help but with no success.any help?

she's 2 and a half,she will be three in july.

Answer 1

My daughter, now four, just graduated from speech therapy, and also used sign. It is NEVER too early to begin.
Try searching for Baby signs and there will be sights that offer basic signs for free, check your local PBS for the show Signing Time, it is great, my daughter still loves it. Also Baby Einstiens just put out a baby signs video.
Watch these shows with your child and use the signs while you say the word, help her learn the signs by using hand over hand (use your hands to make her hands do the movements), you may be amazed at how fast she picks up signs, especially for her favorite things. My Daughter was learning them faster than i was, she thought it was funny to make us guess what sign she was using.

Answer 2

My children are not hearing impaired, so I am sure it is way different to teach your daughter. I just sign and say things at the same time. Like when I am getting a drink ready, I say "Do you want a drink?" and sign cup, drink or something like that. Since your DD can not hear(and this is just a layman speaking) I would show her the cup and say and sign cup, do this everytime. I think she will pick it up just as hearing kids learn the sound CUP means the container they get milk from.

My daugher signed her first word around 18 months. Of course it was some mangled toddler interpretation but she still did it.

Answer 3

My children have no impairments, but I did teach them basic sign language as young as 10-12 months. It helped gap their frustration until they could talk. Just do the signing as you speak, she'll pick it up in time - the same as if a child is learning to speak. They are quick studies. Try to do a few simple things, eat, mom, dad, tired, etc. repetitively at the appropriate times. Point to objects & do the sign, and when its repeated reward it with many hugs. Make sure you use signing regularly, it'll become her habit, too.

Answer 4

Pick up an American Sign Language book , library or whatever, and start out slow, like Hi,or eat, then every other day or so, try a new one. I teach pre-school at a day care, and in a short period of time my kids learned 80 of them. Pick the easy ones tho, then you can get a little more difficult after she gets those. It's easier than you might think.Be sure to do them correctly , this is very important.
Good luck!

Answer 5

well if you speak it fluently as you speak constantly sign, avoid trying to drill it in her mind it will only confuse her. Sign and speak she will associate the sign with the words and build from there, though i was impaired when I was younger now the only problem is I have an accent from the south living in the North. That is how I learned most of my languages, someone would talk in the language I wanted to learn and as they are talking would write the english down, now mind you it is a major turn off when you have company over, there attention will be drawn to your hands, though at 2 when she is around it is best to simply explain to your guest why your doing it to prevent ther form getting confused. Did that help?

Answer 6

Well, I'm not sure about how to teach a toddler. But with infants, we just say the word and sign it at the same time. You should first start with easy one-word signs. We use the signs for these words: toilet ("potty"), eat, please, play, milk, water (like water you drink...there's different ones), more. You have to use signs over and over to increase the likelihood that she will use them. Praise her for using signs when she does. Don't punish her for not using signs or doing the signs not completely correct. That will make it harder to get her to sign. If you can tell what she's saying by making "almost" signs for words, then that should be good enough.

Answer 7

You should try Makaton this is a simplified version of sign language and is used a lot for children with Special Educational needs go on to www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies and find the something special website this should also give you links to other Makaton sites

Answer 8

Your daughter is VERY LUCKY to have a great mom like you. Here are a few links that will explain very clearly how to teach your toddler sign language.

http://www.babies-and-sign-language.com/toddler-sign-language.html

http://www.babies-and-sign-language.com/baby-signs-how-to-use.html

http://www.babies-and-sign-language.com/baby-signs-teaching-infant.html

Also check out the Testimonials page "Praise/Photos", which talks about a parent who used sign language with her toddler who was experiencing problems with speech. Inspiring!

Good luck! :-)

Answer 9

if she can hear,,mention an item and show her in sign language,,and try that in everything,,the person who is helping is afraid probably that you might get rid of her if you teach her,,just explain to her that you would like to learn so you can help your daughter,,if she refuses,,i would look for another place to go,,and make sure you tell the other place that you would like to learn so you can help your daughter,,good luck

Answer 10

start with the things she might need like water,hungry,toy. Then go to the abc's and then teach her the hard stuff.