Wondering about ASL to help with language

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Hi,

I know that kids are kids and they learn at their own rate, but I know my daughter has frustration when she doesn't understand or doesn't know how to verbalize what she wants to say. Her vocabulary is large, but her ability to use it, is still limited and I also understand that in some people on the spectrum, repetition isn't always the method that works for them (it can merely get frustrating).

So, I was wondering if we (the parents) of our daughter should be looking at learning sign to teach her and assist with expressive and receptive language. Have any parents gone this route? If so, was learning sign language beneficial to the child, or not?

I tried, briefly, at a very young age, and we had a harder time with that than speech, because in our son's case he also has non-verbal communication issues that are far worse. Gestures were always harder going for us, so it really wasn't a surprise to me that it did not work. We tried anyway, because even though we had no diagnosis at that point, like you, we could see the frustration our son had at failing to communicate.

So my answer is that it could not hurt to try, but to be aware that depending on your child's particular deal, it may not bear fruit (which I am sure you already know.) I think for some kids it is much easier than verbal language.

If your child is more pictorially inclined, you could try a generic version of PECS, and have you and your child use clip-art pictures to communicate. (This also was not great for us, as my child has a disability in parsing these as well---so we ended up combining pictures with words--because our son is hyperlexic.)

There is no solution that works for all kids, no matter what anyone may tell you; so you just have to use trial and error, unfortunately, to see what is most helpful.

I suggest that you teach your daughter to say short phrases when she needs to instead of all her thoughts, I find that short phrases are most useful for communication, and many people who struggle with speaking like non-native speakers use short phrases to communicate effectively, usually the native speaker can fill in blanks and make enough inferences to understand what the other person is saying.

I would avoid sign language, it's just another complex system of language to learn, and if someone struggles with one language, they may struggle as much or more with another, and it is not understood by enough people to make communication easier.

My daughter used some basic signs before she was verbal. She ended up having significant speech impairment when she first started to talk, so she continued to use some signs. It did seem to reduce her frustration. The main problem was that she didn't really sign correctly, meaning people outside of the family may not have known what she meant. I knew, though. She never signed entire phrases or sentences. Just single words like "drink," "eat," "more," etc.

It really depends on how old your child is and where she is on the language learning continuum. If she already has a large verbal vocabulary, it wouldn't be something I would focus on (I'm an SLP) -- I would look at ways to expand her current form of communication instead of introducing a new language. I have seen children who learn to sign first, but the ultimate goal would be verbal communication. Does she see an SLP? A good SLP can develop a relationship with your child, set specific communication goals and guide you with specific tasks to do at home.

Signs can be helpful, especially if your daughter spontaneously uses gestures to communicate when words fail her. However, in my experience, many ASD kids have communication issues that affect ASL as much as speech, so picture or text-based communication systems often work better.

We used a lot of sign before my daughter started speaking. I don't think it affected her frustration levels, but she got a lot of joy out of expressing herself through sign. She just took to it easily, though mimicking hands, noticing precise posture/positions, and using her tiny dexterous hands is her forte. Using those skills for interacting through sign rather than solitary bottle piecing together we great. We now forget to sign most of the time. We (her parents) forget the signs we once knew. But she uses them when frustrated that we don't understand her speech, when she wants to say something in a "secret" way, or just when she doesn't want to talk. It was our SLP who encouraged it as a way of making language in general blossom, and it certainly worked for us. We don't and didn't use ASL as a language though, we simply put a couple of signs together to form rudimentary sentences. Even that helped her open up to early intervention teachers. Her speech was delayed, but I believe it was speeded along with our use of sign.