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Baby crying. People singing children's song.
Babies actually want to be able to communicate before they can form the words.
Woman singing and signing song with daughters. Then they thought that signing was the best
because they couldn't vocalize but they could yet use their hands.
It's not mom, it's mom. The parents know. It's like baby talk.
My friend, she once signed a song and it was so beautiful in her expression.
Teacher instructs parents and babies how to do sign language in class.
When people get really upset or emotional, often we don't know what to say. Our words
are gone. So having a physical language can help a lot.
Boy signs alphabet with grandmother and mom. With kids, teach them sign language, it connects
both sides of the brain so well and it actually improves their ability later in life in learning
English, and reading and writing. But does it have an effect on whether or not
they want to continue? I don't know. This is mommy. and what's daddy? And this
is daddy. Does daddy live in your forehead? Two are glasses. But one is called a monocle.
Mono means one. Children can learn how to communicate using
actions more quickly than they can articulate words. When Emma was eight months old, we
started doing sessions of American Sign language. I think oftentime parents having trouble thinking
of what kind of routine to put their children in and doing sign became a fun routine. We
would watch, we would take out things like props and say, "Emma, Emma sweetheart, what
is this? How do you sign this?" Emma signs banana. Mother shows correct sign
for banana. How do you sign mommy? Where's mommy? Where's
daddy? Where's John? Goldfish. Mother sings and signs song with two daughters.
When deaf people speak, they describe things holistically. So in fact, you get a picture
versus a sequence of events. Nightclub music at pub for sign-a-oke.
It's just really cool that the language is so visual and so expressive and I'm not really
good with lots of those things being so expressive in the way I speak. Also, really trying to
help me get out of my shyness as well and standing up on stage and performing or organizing
a game or whatever. it's just all kind of helping me that way as well.
Romantic music. While I was born deaf. My first language is
a visual language. If I saw a star, I didn't know the sign for star. No one taught me,
so I used gestures and pointing. It was just my own abilities, my own need to express myself
naturally. My life at school, was not what I would call
the greatest. We were exposed to the oral philosophy, which meant that we were forced
to use our voice, forced to lip read, and sign language was forbidden.
What kind of behaviour do you call this? Wait a minute, stay where you are. This is the
kind of behaviour I would have expected from you.
I was able to sign with my peers. When I got caught, I'd get the strap, I'd get the ruler.
I'd be put in the corner. And I was told that I could not have a meal if I continued in
this way. Even some teachers physically assaulted me because I was using sign language in the
class. Really to important to understand that a deaf
person is only deaf. You don't have to scream at them. You don't have to give them a really
upset face. They know how to interact with you if you just are patient.
I think more people should learn sign language because it's, it may help you. I mean it's
not the same as an official language, if you go to another country, but I mean, some of
the signs they are the same that you would use like water. I want
a drink. My husband and I are both hearing and we had
no reason in the world to suspect that deafness was an issue at all with our family. It took
a very long time for us to pick up our daughter Kristen was deaf. She was very visual. She
fooled us for a very long time. Erin at that time was about four months old and they found
out that she was also profoundly deaf. When my oldest daughter was about two years old,
we switched over to the deaf children's society, which was a signing program and that was when
our world of communication opened up for us with our daughters. My oldest daughter. We
showed her the sign once and she just grabbed it and used it. She was just so hungry for
a way to communicate. It's the green one. The green one? Does it
have a special engine? Yea! Does sign language help him develop his language
and communication? Yes, he uses sign language and it increases
his confidence with his spoken language. And he was able to sign before he spoke, so he
never had that frustration. With my daughter, she's lucky that she has
people in her life that both sign and speak. She already has sign signs and two spoken
words. I'm just so excited she's able to express herself.
I think it's cool that baby sign is happening too. Why? Because it helps people feel more
comfortable with the idea of sign language as well as a communication way.
Parents signing and singing in class People talk about there being language confusion
or impacting the development of learning verbal language later on. I have three nephews that
were raised with a little bit of sign language at six months and on. It just helped them
be able to communicate their needs and their language skills were not impacted at all.
There are hearing parents that come up to me and notice that I'm deaf. They'll come
up to me and say, "I know sign!" and they start signing baby signs because that's what
they are teaching their children. So yea, baby sign is becoming quite popular.
Light. He started to repeat words very quickly. Bear, Bear. Bear, Bear.
I don't want people to be afraid of sign language. I want them to feel, oh, ok, if you choose
that, but I don't feel we should hide sign language. Kids have an amazing ability to
tell adults what they need. Sometimes adults need to give kids more credit.