hearing parents signing to hearing infants

[Mark Mandel]

This question came to me via a friend, but I am not qualified to answer it. Any
advice for this person?


-- Mark A. Mandel


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 06:42:46 -0400
From: Thomas Alexander <Thos at compuserve.com>

Dear Mr. Mandel,

My wife and I are expecting a child in early December.
     We plan to use "baby signs" with him.  (Are you familiar with
the book BABY SIGNS by L.Acredolo and S.Goodwyn?)  I'd be curious if
you have a special opinion about using gesture communication with
children too young to speak.  I also wanted to make a connection now,
in case I had a question about ASL later.
     The particular theme which interests me, and for which I haven't
found a lot of information, is how does the use of gestures with babies
in a multilingual (spoken) environment affect their learning of spoken
languages.

Thomas Alexander