Teaching sign language and reading

[StormySar]

Thank you all for your help with my 3 year olds "issues" with #3 and LMNOP :-)

At what age are kids more receptive to learning how to read? How do you begin? I see a lot about "sight words" and have downloaded lists of them - are these helpful in flashcard or storybook fashion? My daughter likes to try and "read" her stories to me, but she jus tmakes things up :-)

I'd also love to start teaching her sign language. I really like the idea about doing sign language alphabet as another poster in my previous thread had mentioned...

How do I begin teaching a 3 year old sign language? Just start with the alphabet? Is there a resource online showing the signs? I used to know it, but it's been years since I've done it. I know there is a great book out there for signing, but what about stuff online?

I'm interested in teaching my son sign language too - he's 17 months. Is that possible to get him to learn some signs? Where can I go online to learn more? What would be the best route for his age to start teaching?

[Mizelenius]

For sign language, if you are not anti-TV, I LOVE www.signingtime.com DVDs. I have learned more from them than I have from the books and computer program we have. My DDs have learned a lot from them, too.

As for reading, I am personally not in favor of any set method to explicitly teach reading. Children are so different in terms of their strengths and motivation. Instead of focusing on teaching reading, I think it's best to inspire a love of reading.

I think it's best to read, read, and read . . .QUALITY books (vs. books that are easy readers simply because they are easy). I would make reading and writing (writing is often overlooked) an integral part of daily life. Making lists of what you need at the store together, taking dictation (if she wants to) about anything (you can use pictures she draws as a starting point), etc. When you do focus on the text, stay away from using letter names and stick to sounds. Don't worry about spelling or other conventions. Get your DD to believe she is reading even if it is memorization or getting her information from pictures. (I get books with ONLY pictures to prove this point to my children.)

Singing, talking, poems, riddles . . .anything regarding language (to help with memorization, patterns, rhyme, vocabularly) are all great, too.

My DD just turned 5 and is reading just about everything that she has the vocabularly for fluently now. I know other children learn even earlier, some much later . . .it just depends on the child. However, if you set the stage for the interest and hopefully love, then you've done your job!

[MtnCanary]

For signing, I wouldn't recommend starting with the alphabet. That's really abstract for a 3 year old, and pretty useless unless she knows how to spell. Most things are not fingerspelled anyways. Start with common vocabulary - milk, hungry, thirsty, want, more, car, love, please, thank you, etc. Colors are good for learning letters - a lot of them are the initial letter waggled. Like you waggle "b" for blue, "p" for purple, "g" for green. And just start using them when you talk.

Some people say to introduce one sign at a time. I used an immersion method - I figured if they can pick up spoken language that way, they can pick up sign that way. It worked for us. We used ASL with ds for a year or so, starting when he was 20 months old, and my dd picked up most of it pretty quickly. We made it up to 150 signs or so before ds starting talking. Even now dd will sign to me. Hmm, it occurs to me we should stay in practice since we'll probably use it with baby3 also.

On reading, I think it varies per child. The "norm" is from ages 3 to 8. So I wouldn't start worrying or pushing it yet. I think it is a natural first step for kids to paraphrase the stories they are "reading" to you. My dd did that for a long time. In fact, just the other day she drew a series of pictures and told her story to me several times. She commented that the neat thing about books without words is that the story can be different every time. Very creative! Why should stories be static and unchanging? They sure weren't when the oral tradition of storytelling was more common. In fact, as well as reading from books, make your own stories to tell. One thing we do, to, is as we're reading, change something (i.e., "he rode the brown horse" to "he jumped on the green elephant"). DD loves to correct us.

DD is just now starting to sound out words and write them down, and is starting to read some words. We've never done reading flashcards or drilled on sight words. If she can't read when she's 8, maybe I'll consider that <g>.

Kristin
mom to dd (5 1/2), ds (2 1/2), and #3 due in June

[StormySar]

My husband has decided he wants to learn sign language as well, he is an EMT and firefighter and has been wanting to learn it for sooo long now... So as a family, we are going to teach ourselves signlanguage - even attempting to learn how sentances are put together with ASL so we can truley communicate with others who cannot hear. My children, once of age, will be doing community service around our location as a part of homeschooling and that might include delivering meals to shut ins, visiting nursing homes, helping at shelters or any number of things... I figure in all circumstances they may very well run into people who can't hear, so learning ASL would be a good thing to know (and an added benefit of homeschooling... I don't know any schools who include ASL as a part of their curriculum!)

Anyway, I visited a website, I THINK it was www.lifespeak.com they have a free curriculum, an online dictionary, free lessons and free workbooks, so I am going to look more around their site. I'll visit the library for some ASL books this coming week.

If we are going to be learning as a whole family unit, what might you suggest as a good way? My husband will want to be learning more than one sign per day, so maybe my husband and I can learn a couple signs per day and learn the language and how it is "spoken", and continue to introdude one new sign per day with the kids.

How did you find it helpful to actually START signing with your kids? I tried to introduce "mother" and "father" last night to my daughter who is 3 (just to show her), but she seemed very embarrassed to do it. I explained it's a new thing and it may feel silly, but it's called sign language and it will make her be able to talk to people who can't hear through their ears, and tried to make it no big deal. I'm SURE it'll take some getting used to for her, so I will take my time.

How would I do it with my son? He's 17 months and not yet talking - what are the best words to start out with for someone of his age? Do you actually take his hands and show him the sign, then use the sign a bunch of times that day while saying the word, I don't really know how to get a youngster to start signing.

Web resources, anyone? Good books i can find at the library? Anyone selling used books on ASL/baby signing you want to PM me about?

[StormySar]

Tha link, if anyone wants to see it, is actually www.lifeprint.com not lifespeak.com :-)

[yitlan]

For sign language, see if you can find a Sign2Me class near you. Here's a list of MI presenters:
http://www.sign2me.com/region.php?region=us&locus=MI

While not necessary, it'll be very helpful to have such a resource, esp. for your toddler. If not a class, try to find other signers. That's the best way to learn.

The best way for them to learn is to surround them with signs. They will NOT be overwhelmed. Just start putting signs with everyday tasks and objects. Don't exclude the alphabet. LEarning the manual alphabet will boost their literacy and things are fingerspelled ALL the time in ASL.

To enforce what you teach him, I also like Signing Time and songs from Pick Me Up, Sign2Me's music program. These are used with consistent signing to reinforce the signs. They are definitely not a stand-alone way to teach and learn signs, though. Good luck!

[Rikki Gard]

I have taken a class with my son (6 months at the time) which I enjoyed, and I love Pick Me Up and the Signing Time DVDs. I think it is easiest to start and remember to do when you are reading books and singing songs. There are some songs I can';t sing without the signs now

[Just Me]

baby sign DVDS are great, and signing at them for the simple things..milk...eat, etc are great ways to start.

Sight words..I would start off with basics frst. We love Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons.

[Ruthla]

Originally Posted by StormySar

At what age are kids more receptive to learning how to read? How do you begin? I see a lot about "sight words" and have downloaded lists of them - are these helpful in flashcard or storybook fashion? My daughter likes to try and "read" her stories to me, but she jus tmakes things up :-)

What your DD is doing is called "pre reading." She's learned that stories come from books, books are fun, and that she has the power to open up a book and tell a story that comes out of it. So what if she's repeating a memorized story, figuring it out from the pictures, or simply using her imagination when she "reads" to you? Each of those things is an important reading and/or writing skill in its own right.

Memorization is a step towards reading- if she's memorized a book or two, it's a step towards memorizing words, which eventually leads to 'real" reading.

If she's figuring out the story from the pictures, she's learning to look at clues within the book, printed on the paper, to figure out the story, even if it's something she hasn't seen before.

Making up stories is creative writing-well, minus the writing part at this stage. It's still something to encourage, and, as I stated above, it gets her excited about books and stories.

So, I'd say that right now she IS receptive to learning how to read, and she IS learning how to read. This process might take a few years though, before it resembles "real reading" as you think of it. Oh, and she's not "trying to read her books to you", she IS reading her books to you!

Don't worry about the downloaded lists of sight words- just keep reading to her and encouraging her to read (at her level) to you.