Singing Signs In Bahrain

I finished my singing signs class with Umar, and Mariam in tow, which will help me to communicate with him better as time goes on. Children with Down Syndrome have speech delays as well as speech problems which make it difficult to communicate with others. The use of sign language with children who have special needs is common among many parents. For it isn't that these children can't communicate, as in with severe mental retardation, but are simply unable to communicate their needs, wants or feelings properly.

For Children with Down Syndrome there are several issues that are the cause of their speech problems. Their palate is formed differently than regular children, their tongue tends to be larger in comparison to their mouth, their vocal chords are different and low muscle tone in their mouth are some of the physical issues which cause speech problems. Often times their speech is unrecognizable to those whom they are trying to communicate because of the articulation issues. Speech therapy is a most for all children with Down syndrome and very early on in life. Umar will be seeing his speech therapist when he is 15 months, however many children with DS see a speech therapist earlier on, especially those with feeding problems.

I don't plan on, nor does anyone recommend, that sign language become the language for Umar. Rather it is a tool that I will use to help him communicate what he wants, needs, or feels as he grows. This, I am hoping, will relieve the stress for all involved that is common when children are unable to communicate with others but want to. Leyna, now 8, had a severe speech delay and didn't really start speaking until she was 3 1/2. Not being able to tell me and others what she wanted was a stressful event for everyone and generally left Leyna screaming at the top of her lungs. There is no way I want to go through that again and I was so happy that a class existed in Bahrain for us to learn some basic signs.

At this point I'm left just trying to find the time to practice and learn what I was given at the class. I received a DVD which will help me at home learn some of the songs and signs. At this point I know Old McDonald and Teddy Bear as well as a few other signs and the BSL alphabet. This course is based on the British sign language which I'm told is much different than the American. The two hands for the alphabet for the BSL is much easier than the one handed ASL as you can clearly see.

The BSL alphabet is really simple, I have no real coordination to get the ASL one down as of yet. But then I think, well with five kids I don't have that many hands to spare, so perhaps learning the ASL might be better. Also add in the fact I am American so as time goes on perhaps ASL might have more resources for me. But your talking about a gal that can't even remember all of her children's names half the time so I would prefer the easier route. Shelly, the singing signs teacher, said to pick one and stick with it, so I'll have to make up my mind eventually.

One DVD program that many of the DS lists of parents seem to talk about is Signing Time. She has several videos you can preview on You Tube which even kept some of my kids interested, which is part of the point. I found some of the DVDs from this series on sale at Best Buy and there are quite a few on Ebay so I just might head in that direction. I also noticed some books from the Baby Signing Series that Shelly had out during the classes. They are quite easy to get some often used signs for and I'll probably be buying some of those as well.

There are quite a lot of resources out there for baby signing on the Internet from both the American and British sign languages. Baby signing seems to be quite popular among mothers of children who don't have special needs. I do hope that this will aid Umar in communicating and we don't have to endure the frustration that we did with Leyna. I wouldn't wish that on any parent let alone a parent with a child who has special needs for there is enough to deal with than to add the inability to communicate on top of it.

I think I should stress signing isn't going to replace speech for Umar, rather it only just aid us in communicating. Shelly stressed numerous times in class that spoken words are to be used with the sign. So I wouldn't agree with those who say that signing with children causes a delay in their speech. For signing in this way isn't about total communication in sign language, rather it is about using some signs to help children express themselves before they are able to fully communicate verbally.