My child has communication difficulties. How can I teach him sign language?

dolyp

Hi, my child has no diagnosis but communication difficulties and I want him to communicate . How can I teach him sign language please?

Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community @dolyp This is the post I made for you- I hope you manage to find it!

Is your child receiving any support from a medical team at the moment? They may be able to advise you on how best to approach this. 

Do you mind me asking roughly how old your child is? This may help other members who've been in a similar situation to offer you some advice and support tailored to your situation.

I had a quick look online, and it looks as though there are quite a few videos and books on teaching your child to sign. Have you tried Googling this to see if any of them might work for you and your child? 

KITTYCAT88

You can go on line and look up base words like bathroom,eat and thing like that. I can't talk till I was 5years old and I did my own signs. The kids in my kindergarten class told the teacher what I was talking about. Do he have his own signs?
 I took American sign language in high school. I also took collage courses. Maybe their a collage around you the give out class. All you need is two classes and you can have conversations with someone that can't speak. It teach you how to read lips .

Alex_Alumni

Thanks for sharing @Johnmduk1 these are great poems

forgoodnesssake

Hi, if you have not already done so you should ask your child's paediatrician, or health visitor or GP for an urgent referral to a Speech and language therapist.  They should then be able to help you and your child find the most suitable method for communication, and/or with speech development.  You have not said whether your child has any other impairment or delay and so depending on other factors their communication issues could have many causes and sign language may not be the most beneficial option, especially if they have issues with language comprehension and more generalised communication.  Also if they are unable to communicate or comprehend well, it will have real implications for education and so you could also ask the school (if they are at school) to help get the child the support and therapeutic input they need.  Best wishes Jenny, mother of 24 year old with CP who has never had any speech so uses a range of AAC methods (alternative and augmentative communication)