Monday, June 16, 2008

First Sign and Verbal Imitation!


We went to the Erie Zoo on Sunday to check out the new wild dog exhibit and had two wonderful language events occur. We ate lunch at Panera Bread and Nolan signed "more" to request more bread. His version of the sign is clapping, which is pretty cute.

Later that day he dropped a toy out of his stroller. I said, "uh-oh!" Nolan looked at me and said, "uh!" Now if we say uh-oh or up, he'll imitate and say, "uh!" Very exciting stuff in this house!

We had more speech therapy today and obtained a few more games to play with Nolan. One is sound vs. no sound. This one is very easy and we simply shake an object which makes sound and say, "I hear it" while pointing to our ear. If the object doesn't make any noise, then we say, "no sound." She also gave us some ideas for creating sound opportunities at home, like setting the timer when I'm in the kitchen. When it goes off, I can say, "I heard that! It's time to ...." and then fill in the blank with whatever I was going to do next. We can also have Dennis ring the doorbell when he comes home, and I can say, "I heard that! Who is at the door?"

We also learned some new signs today: uh-oh, again, off, and on. Our SLP is going to bring some sign books by tomorrow so we can look at ASL vs. SEE and start really considering communication choices. We're taking a lot from the auditory-verbal camp, but we're also using some sign language. It is so hard to know what choice is the "right" choice and which one will work the best for our child.

Our former SLP had never really delved into this, so we were flying by the seat of our pants and not really doing much of anything (I was taking some sign language lessons and we had the speech therapist, but there wasn't any real "method" or "plan").

9 comments:

Christian and Lily's Mommy said...

Write it in the baby book! Today was a BIG DAY!

CONGRATS!

elizabeth said...

So exciting! He made a big leap in just one short day! Here's hoping there are many more exciting days to come for your family!

PS: Thanks for adding Deaf Village to your links list! Welcome to the neighborhood!

tammy said...

Congrats on your BIG DAY! That is so exciting!

Thanks for sharing your games. We play similar games of "I heard that ..." (as we point at our ear), at our house with our 3 month old, my older son thinks I'm nuts, I told him I am! :) I never realized all the things that can make sounds in our house that are now a teaching tool too!

I would love to add you to my blog as a link. Would you mind?

PolyglotMom said...

How exciting for you! I found your blog after searching on google for "pilot caps". Your list of deaf/HOH blogs lead me to many other inspiring blogs. Thank you for that!

Troop 220 said...

I think it is great you are looking into different communication modes. Isn't that what it is about, communicating and finding the way that is best for your child? In our house we decided on ASL as our way of communicating with my daughter who has a brain disorder that has left her with very little speech. We use the DVD series called Signing Time! to learn ASL. It is fun and engaging, you should check it out at www.signingtime.com It is for children of all abilities and ages. How terrific you are getting sign from your son. Happy signing! :)

Troop 220 said...

I think it is great you are looking into different communication modes. Isn't that what it is about, communicating and finding the way that is best for your child? In our house we decided on ASL as our way of communicating with my daughter who has a brain disorder that has left her with very little speech. We use the DVD series called Signing Time! to learn ASL. It is fun and engaging, you should check it out at www.signingtime.com It is for children of all abilities and ages. How terrific you are getting sign from your son. Happy signing! :)

leah said...

Tammy, feel free to add a link. I'll add yours- I love seeing what other families are doing and stealing ideas, lol!

Off ot update the baby book!

Loudest Mom said...

What a great day!!! Always so exciting to get new speech sounds :)

Anonymous said...

He's so darling in that video signing more! Oh, it's bringing back memories of our guy signing milk at 10 months. Pretty cute!

I'm so happy for you to have such a qualified SLP to work with, what a world of difference that will make for Nolan! You're a tremendous advocate for him!

We were pretty laid back about the signing and just took it a few signs at a time like you are doing. The signing times videos are what really made the difference for Ethan. We're obviously not as cool as Alex and Leah....