The silent talk: Sign language and Down Syndrome

The Silent Talk: Sign Language and Down Syndrome

The idea of teaching children, any children, sign language has been around for as long as I have been having children. Frankly, I never gave it much thought before I had my Cedar because my children have always progressed in this area quite well. However, I began trying to teach Cedar some signs from a very early age because I knew that there was a possibility that he would have a much more difficult time learning to speak. I like to call it the silent talk: Sign Language and Down Syndrome. Unfortunately, Cedar didn’t seem interested at all in learning signs.

I was prepared, I had Baby Signing Times on Youtube afterall…but Cedar just didn’t seem to be able to pick up signs. I was a little frustrated but then I was encouraged when he said “mama” for the first time followed by “dada” He has a few other words but as we are now approaching 2 years old this Christmas time I thought we would revist the sign language that may allow him to tell us what he needed and why we were already starting to see some temper flares (quite typical behavior of this age so I was kinda happy)

From having other children I know that as a child ages and is unable to clearly communicate his or her needs, the temper tantrums have a tendency to increase. I mean, think about it, if you were never able to tell anyone what you wanted you too might have a total meltdown. But he still wasn’t interested in signs…in fact when I signed “more” or “Eat” to him he looked at me like I had two heads. Yes, it was just like that.

It wasn’t until we went out for ice cream and gave him his first lick. I learned something valuable that day, it is all about the motivation, and who is most stubborn (the jury is still out on that one). I was enjoying my cone and sharing it with Cedar when he kept throwing fits, he would hit his chubby little hands on the table and yell out in frustration. My husband and I decided we were going to pick this battle (pick wisely parents) and so my husband would put his hands over Cedar’s and help him sign “more”

Photo courtesy of tinysigns

We did this before EVERY lick of the ice cream and then after about 10 rounds my husband quit. There was ice cream left and Cedar REALLY wanted more. So I said more? and waited. and waited. and waited. It took about 2 minutes and he brought those little hands together. It wasn’t perfect, it was sloppy, almost more of a clap but we counted it, we cheered like he just won the superbowl, and he loved the attention. That was Cedar’s first sign.

This has actually been a huge help because there are so many times our kids want “more” of something but can’t tell us. Since learning this sign we have used it in other scenarios like when he is swinging, (more swing?) when we are singing to him (more songs?) and when we are reading to him (more books?) See what I mean?

The next sign Cedar readily learned was “eat” and he has always hit his chest for his own version of “me”

The culmination I want to share though is when the lights went on and he figured out that he could actually put all 3 signs together well. Here is a very grainy clip (like 24 seconds long) of his first signing sentence. Me-more-eat. Why yes sweetie, we will feed you more.

It’s really the small victories, right?

Want to learn more about signing with your little one? Here are some great tips by another mama with a little who has Down Syndrome, her daughter signs so well…#momgoals