Dear Sharon,
I love your article. Well, in part because it includes all the information that I give to parents, but it is also more extensive than mine.
In addition to what I give to my clients in writing I usually say:
I am not sure WHY signing helps the child learn to speak, but I believe it is a combination of the following:
(1) the adults slow down their speaking when they think of including signs for keywords at the same time
(2) if the child is more successful communicating with signs, s/he actually receives more models for the words s/he would like to say but can't yet.
(3) signing involves additional parts of the brain and therefore may help with word retrieval (this part is important for children who don't talk much because of severe auditory processing difficulties) -- actually, being bilingual myself, if I can't think of a word in the language I am talking at the time, saying it out loud in the other language usually retrieves the missing word. Quite magic!
I also tell parents that signing is highly unlikely to ever stop a child from talking if s/he CAN. It is much harder to play and sign than to talk and sign. You have to have your hands free for signing!!! And how often do kids have them free? (or adults at a party? It is easier to talk with your mouth full than to sign with a glass of wine in your hand)
I am seeing a hearing child from a deaf family. His mother, who is totally immersed in and identifies with the DEAF community, also says (well, signs ) that it is easier to integrate talking with playing. Even the older nearly totally deaf brother was most likely to say some of the words I was trying to teach him as a toddler when he had both his hands full.
If people are interested, I am happy to share the text I give to my clients, but I don't want to post it in competition to yours, Sharon, which I think is very good and very comprehensive.
Thank you for sharing it.
Susanne
______________________________________
Dr Susanne Dopke
Consultant in Bilingualism
Speech Pathologist
Australian Newsletter for Bilingual Families:
<http://www.bilingualoptions.com.au/consANBF.htm>
website: <http://www.bilingualoptions.com.au>
<susanne@bilingualoptions.com.au>
<sdrw@ozemail.com.au>
ph: (+61-3) 9439 4148
mobile: 0409 977 037
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