hearing parents signing to hearing infants

[Catherine Viney]

Dear Thomas,

As with Tane, my response is purely personal.  I have worked in a bilingual
Auslan/ English school and mixed with the Deaf community.  I am hearing and
so is my partner but at the time of the birth of my son (whose name is
Thomas by the way) we decided that we wanted him to have access to Auslan
(Australian Sign Language) as much as he has access to spoken English.
This was for a number of reasons.  I had been working in bilingual Deaf
education for a number of years.  Many of our family friends (including
young Thomas' Godparents ) were Deaf and we wanted him to feel as natural
in talking to them as he did to us.  Our intentions were good and Thomas
produced his first 'sign' quite early  although he had been exhibiting
signing behaviour from an early age (eye gaze, attempts at hand
movementsand gesture).    My experience very much is the same as Tane's in
that Thomas signed and spoke but I have noticed in the last few months
(Thomas is now 2 and a half) that his speech has really taken off.

Thomas understands quite a bit about Deaf people and interacts with the
Deaf adults and children that he comes into contact with in an appropriate
manner.  He communicates easily in his gesture/ sign.  At this stage it
appears that Thomas speaks English better than he signs but considering
that both his parents speak English and spoken English is the dominant home
language, this is not suprising.  I think the richness of the language
environment is important in developing healthy, happy and well adjusted
children.  I would say, do what feels right.  I hope that in our case
Thomas will continue to sign enough to enjoy the beauty of another
language, sign enough to get to know those close friends who we see alot of
and perhaps (for my sanity) sign enough to stay over with his Aunts and
Uncles once in a while!

For an interesting aside, when I was teaching in a  bilingual
Auslan/English program, I did at one stage have one child who was enrolled
as a community child (the child was hearing, parents hearing, grandparents
hearing and so on).  She had attended the feeder preschool and signed quite
well as a result of the immersion program that they ran.  The child did
very well being educated in a program that used Australian Sign Language as
the language of instruction however by the end of second grade (6 years)
she was beginning to fall behind (her linguistic competency in Auslan not
keeping up with the language of the classroom).  The child transferred to
the local hearing school.  Both her parents had a commitment to teaching
her to sign and I think that the type of school, the education she received
and the value of mixing with children from another cultural background were
valuable.  From all accounts from her parents, the child is happy at the
hearing school and doing well.

Catherine Viney


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