hello lovely people let's talk about
sign language and babies the benefits of
sign language why you should teach your
baby sign language how to start teaching
your baby sign language and how not to
teach your baby sign language because
there is a wrong way and um you'll
notice that start because my baby's five
months old i mean
he's tiny any advice in this video is
intended for parents of hearing children
who don't themselves use sign language
as their primary means of communication
nor are necessarily fluent in sign
language but for those of you new here
hi i'm jessica this is my channel i make
content about lgbtq disability and
chronic illness topics in a fun and
uplifting way that is still educational
subscribe i am also deaf as a result of
my disability i know you're probably
wondering you don't sound deaf
still my most asked question i have a
video that explains more but i started
to lose my hearing when i was a teenager
and it was a slow process but once i
became aware of what was going on i also
became aware that my voice was changing
slightly and becoming slightly lower and
slower and more monotone because that's
how i had started to experience the
world so i spent a lot of time working
on my voice and practicing with
different sounds to make it precise so
that it could be clearly understood now
i talk in front of my mouth i don't
really remember what my voice sounded
like prior to losing my hearing but it
probably wasn't as crisp
fun fact i sound portion now i will make
a video about this probably at some
point but
my voice is a very active thing and if i
have a really bad migraine or i'm
exhausted i don't have the brain power
to remember how to make sounds and
because i can't learn feedback from my
ears i really slur and my wife claudia
is basically the only person who can
understand me uh but that's generally
only when i'm hospital bad unfortunately
i know sign language so i can still
communicate
british sign language or a form of it
called science supported english because
the british part of this accent is not
put on i don't sign in my videos anymore
though because i use british sign
language and
actually the british part of my audience
is really small and i found it was just
confusing people because
there are many sign languages across the
world i rely on sign language a lot when
i actually need to know what is going on
sure i can get the gist of things
through lip reading and hearing aids
there are enough for social situations
where it doesn't really matter if i make
you repeat the country you went to on
holiday five times and then eventually
just my wife signs it to me but for
workplace meetings in a life panel q a
if i'm going to the doctor or the bank i
want to sign language interpreter please
or at least a friend who says she
doesn't actually understand you she's
just pretending to as i not blightly
whilst accidentally signing away my life
because i just want this interaction to
be over now please
i do that we also use sign language at
home although claudia's pretty shy about
doing it on camera so when we found out
that we had successfully conceived and
our baby was on the way uh click the
card in the corner to see that journey
we started thinking about how we were
going to introduce sign language to our
baby and found very quickly that
everything on the internet seems to be
about how hearing parents can teach
hearing babies to sign certain words
that will reduce toddler tantrums and
then
i know it seems really silly to feel
that i would need some help to teach my
child a language i know
but imagine you are an adult who speaks
russian bringing your child up in
england with their other parent who
speaks english research shows that the
best way to teach children to be
bilingual is to have each parent speak
to the child in their unique language
but if the parent speaking english has a
stack of english language children's
books and the parent speaking russian
has only tolstoy then there is a bit of
a disadvantage are you getting my
example i wasn't sure whether just
signing to him would be enough i mean i
need fun baby things special signing
books and songs there's a local class
that involves signing along to songs but
because it involves music and paying
attention to audio cues in a group
environment and it's not something that
i can do
so claudia goes through and again it's
not intended for deaf parents or deaf
babies
which brings us to the sponsor of
today's show skillshare skillshare is an
online learning community for creative
and curious people with thousands of
inspiring classes you can explore new
skills develop existing interests and
get lost in creativity today we're going
to talk about the class creative writing
crafting personal essays with impact by
best-selling author roxane gay yeah no
that i'm actual best-selling author yeah
if you're also interested in writing
this class might be just the push you
need it's for everyone with a deep
desire to write whether you want to
develop your writing craft or explore
putting pen to paper for the first time
your voice matters this class is a jump
start into finding your unique written
voice how to tell your story in a
special and personal way and then how to
share it with the world it's your time
to begin if you're interested in
exploring your own creativity with the
help of skillshare then you can sign up
today by clicking the link in the top of
my description the first 1000 of my
subscribers to click the link in the
description will get a one month free
trial of skillshare so you can start
exploring your creativity today but hey
why teach your baby sign language in the
first place what does it matter right i
interact with hearing people who cannot
sign all the time why does my child need
to adapt to me shouldn't i adapt to them
firstly that was just massively ableist
to assume that i the disabled person and
the problem and is therefore on me to be
put out to make things easier for
everyone else around me even though that
can require
excruciating levels of labor and yet for
other people to do the labels to make
the world accessible for me it is a mere
trifle a mere inconvenience a small
thing that many people cannot even be
asked to do my children can learn to
sign i cannot learn to hear and i have
no intention of wearing my hearing aids
in the evening in my own home no thank
you that's like wearing a suit and tie
to land around in bed yes looks great in
a magazine not exactly relaxing but hey
sign language doesn't just benefit me
though research shows that hearing
children who have learned sign language
have improved memory and focus are more
confident and expressive find learning
other languages easier have linguistic
skills beyond their age group are better
able to express how they feel and what
they need have reduced levels of
frustration due to being able to ask for
help and very importantly can talk to
people who use sign language as their
only language and make deaf friends
however there's always a forever you you
may have heard of something called baby
sign
it isn't actually sign language it's a
form of cultural appropriation that
became a bit of a craze in the 2000s
it's taught by hearing people for
hearing parents to use hearing babies
and is generally dropped as soon as the
child starts speaking because why would
you need sign language when you can just
speak right why deaf people exist it
uses signed words without mouth
morphemes which is like so puffed cheeks
for a lot or tight lips for sorry
or facial expressions that are really
important parts of actual signed
languages the signs that are used in
baby science are also sometimes even
unrelated to the actual signs you would
use in sign language so your child isn't
even learning a transviable skill that
they can build on as they grow which is
a real shame and it makes a lot of money
on the back of the deaf community but
without including deaf people sorry to
say the best way to learn sign language
is always from a deaf signer and more
importantly way more importantly the
world tends to view hearing children
signing as amazing geniuses
but when deaf children do it it's sad
and when those hearing aids get turned
on
oh
miracle
hearing their mother's voice for the
first time what a beautiful thing now
they don't need to sign anymore people's
reactions to me signing to my baby vary
wildly based on whether they assume one
of us is deaf or not they think it's
cute if i use my voice boy do they stare
weirdly if i'm being silent you know
seventy percent of parents with deaf
children choose not to learn sign
language instead their children were
given devices like hearing aids
and the onus for communication is always
on them
but what if
all children just knew a bit of sign and
could communicate on the playground any
proper sign language can be taught for
all children claudia and i have spoken
in the past about how if it's all
possible fingers crossed who knows what
the future holds we would love to adopt
particularly a child who has some level
of deafness as it can be harder for
children with hearing loss to be placed
and to be able to offer a family that
they could communicate with and has a
house that's already set up with
accommodations like flashing fire alarms
is pretty rare so by teaching rupert's
sign language now we're teaching him to
communicate with deaf parent but also
his potential future deaf sibling also
hell who knows what the world may bring
i mean
maybe he'll have ideas next sibling will
be also deaf as a reminder 90 of deaf
children are born to hearing parents who
have little or no background in deafness
so learning sign language now might help
your child communicate with their
younger sibling or cousin or family
friend or bff at school that they might
otherwise have had no way to talk to so
what did we do oh my god took this long
what did we do took this long to get to
this point of the video
still though right i was feeling a bit
lost on how to help rip it at the start
uh the online advice is all either learn
british sign language for adults or baby
sign which we just discussed isn't
exactly right
and also i don't understand it we
decided that i would sign to rupert all
of the time but in breaking with the one
parent one language tradition there
would be certain words that claudia
would also always sign those were mummy
mama
milk
bottle
hungry
pick up
nappy
change
bath good
morning
night play
finish
park
car
please
thank you
we poo
our dogs
tilly
and walter
and
i love you we use those words a lot we
sign things specifically standing in
front of him even if it makes no sense
for us to do so just for his benefit
like saying good night mummy i love you
good night mama
i love you when we've just said good
night to him and we're about to leave
the room together um we also introduce
ourselves like hello rupert
it's mama
when i enter a room he's in intending on
cutting back on that once he has a firm
grasp of signs for our names though as
it is pretty difficult to remember to
always introduce yourself
i read books to rupert twice a day when
we first wake up and as part of his
nighttime routine um i put my legs up
and then just pop him on them so he can
see me and then sign everything that i
say out loud that's really a good way to
introduce words that might not come up
in casual conversation we also sit him
at the table with us whilst we're eating
so you can see us signing and having
conversations part of our meal we are
stupidly polite to each other there's a
lot of please can you take my drink
just like
because we're sleep-deprived and
teaching our five-month-old but manners
are important i use my voice around
claudia because she does but if roof and
narrow learn then i don't use my voice i
follow this really great deaf dad on
instagram whose handle is what dad did
go check him out he was supposed to
story but in one of his posts he
mentioned that he doesn't use his voice
to say his daughter's name because he
doesn't want her to think that she
should use her voice to say dad because
she won't get a response and it was this
light bulb moment for me i wouldn't want
my son to think that i'm ignoring him or
if there was an emergency i wouldn't
want his first reaction to be to use
something loud to get my attention and
thus pass over the option to make a
vibration or to flash a light and
therefore be in more danger definitely
if there isn't a person in your family
who already knows sign language and the
best thing to do is to learn from the
deaf community and potentially employ a
deaf tutor if that's an option that's
available to you the result um rupert is
now only just five months old he was 22
weeks whilst friday he first mimicked a
sign back at 15 weeks because yes the
same way you can make a noise and a baby
can make the same noise back to you they
can do that in sign too if they know how
to make that noise or sign and it was
the sign change he's been babbling with
his hands quite noticeably probably for
the last four weeks and because he
really watches my hands very intently to
see what i'm saying he now
watches other people's hands which is
very cute he started signing change and
nappy pretty interchangeably when he
needed a nappy change about three weeks
ago occasionally not every time he needs
the change don't worry it's far
easier to read the sign
nappy then
change
he rings his hands a lot and
sort of sucks them and also his version
of mama which took me
a while
to work this out he does this
for mama
rather than
this makes it difficult um you have to
do the sign you think it might be
back to him
and then he just gives you this massive
grin it's really important to reinforce
the sign or even the effort so as soon
as they as i get what he's trying to say
at home i understand i find it easier to
understand him the claude does because i
know sign language better so i kind of
filter through the options in my head
faster he's a baby he's not doing
perfect science so she came to me three
weeks ago saying jesse jesse rubert's
doing this weird thing is he signing
he's just staring at me very intensely
and doing this with his fist over and
over again
i was like
well he's probably he's probably trying
to say mummy but he can't
separate
out his fingers and three days later he
moved from doing the full-fisted mummy
which honestly did look like he was
bashing himself in the head to the oh
hand shape which isn't all right but
he's getting there
so for me the first oh my god he's
actually getting this moment was when
claudia showed me a video she'd film to
send one of her relatives of him lying
on his mat staring up at her and he was
playing but when she started to talk he
dropped his toy and he very obviously
put his hand into an o shape
and
started putting it to his forehead over
and over
and
the mummy is with an m but
pretty pretty darn close so signing
someone's name when you see them is
pretty good but the really useful thing
is that we're in 2k max two days ago yes
i've been into the grand total of five
shops now um i am working on that
pandemic induced agoraphobia
thanks and whilst considering whether or
not i should purchase uh yet more
vintage looking glass baubles the answer
is always yes rupert stared me dead in
the eyes and did
this the sign for milk
no no fussing so i signed
this back
like
milk
he smiled said i understood but we have
to wait we'll get to the car in a minute
side note there is nowhere to breastfeed
anywhere in that shopping area which is
weird because it's made for families not
the point of the story he got his milk
he was a very happy bunny and since then
he has been signing milk more and
signing nappy yes but that is apparently
just the way simon goes with babies they
will use a sign and then you will not
see it for a while because they're
working on it their little brains and
then it will come out again at a later
date what if he's just practicing a sign
and doesn't actually want milk well all
you've done is reinforce that this sign
and this thing are connected which is
great keep doing it over and over and
over again because like everything with
a baby repetition is important his signs
are not perfect just like his words are
not perfect because he is five months
old but my god it makes my heart so glad
to see him when we're pushing him around
the park in the morning and he's falling
asleep and he's
like just babbling
inside with his little hands
as he's falling asleep
and it just makes me so happy because i
get it
i can connect to him i understand him
really special
there is some info about sign language
and how we're using it with our baby
please don't take anything i've said as
negative if you're trying to teach your
baby sign language and it isn't clicking
for them it's important to remember that
all graves are different and obviously
we all move at our own pace babies know
different so
no baby comparisons parenting is not a
competition the key things to note are
to make sure that the sign language of
teaching your baby comes from the deaf
community and that you're using it with
follow through not with the intention
that it's something to stop toddler
transference and then be dropped the
second they start talking because
they're still going to ask you for
unreasonable things in sign language and
you're still going to have to say no in
sign language and that's you're going to
have temp tantrum in sign language so
that's it for now let me know uh kind of
what stage you'd like to see an update
video about rupert's sign language
learning um it's very hard to film him
signing while still remaining respectful
not showing his face on camera so i
might have to do photos instead because
those are much easier to crop i tried to
film his hand for this but he always
wriggles his face into shot with this
like cheeky grin and i'm filming his
hands um nose and trying not to
film his face
doing it for your own good rupert and
thank you to school chef for sponsoring
today's video remember the first 1 000
of you to click the link in that
description down below we'll get a free
trial of skillshare thank you for
watching and i will see you in my next
video
[Music]
you