Proof

A New Adventure

I took a baby sign language class with Moe when he was a baby. He kind of got "more" but it never really clicked with him and I didn't keep it up. Now I understand that he wasn't really understanding language in general. But with such a strong focus in our house on language, and developing communicative intent, I wanted to start signing again with both kids. I had heard great things about Signing Time, which was formerly on PBS, so I started by getting a Baby Signing Time video. I couldn't believe it when Jelly Belly, all on her own, signed "milk." Now I sign with her all of the time and she has three signs: more, milk, and all done. I think she may also understand dog, mommy and daddy.

We sign a lot with Moe as well, and he will very rarely use signs. When he does he generally will also say the word while he signs. He loves the ST videos and he cries when the ending credits come on. We watch them a lot.

So the timing couldn't have been better when I saw an announcement in the Signing Time newsletter. I've been looking for something to do: some kind of job or hobby to keep my mind working and sanity intact while at home. Blogging has been a great outlet, but it isn't always enough. Immediately, something clicked. Now this was something I could really do!

I researched the requirements for becoming an instructor: one or two American Sign Language (ASL) classes depending on the level of certification you are going for. I decided to take a class online; if I liked it, I could move forward. If not, I would move on. I loved it and took a second class. I'm considering taking a third. But I still couldn't decide if I wanted to actually teach a class. I would be an Independent Contractor authorized to teach the ST material. It would mean starting a (very) small business, including finding locations to teach, charging tuition, and competing with other local baby signing classes.

Finally, this weekend, I took the plunge. I filled out my application, sent in my resume and a lovely letter of recommendation written by my BFF. I decided to go for the first level of certification, which will let me teach to kids three and under with their parents, as well as do parent workshops. In the future, I can upgrade to be an Advanced Instructor, allowing me to teach older kids, as well as professionals, like doctors or teachers who may want to use ASL in their practices. I have a phone interview today and my training materials and curriculum are on the way.

It will still be a little while before I will actually start teaching classes. After I get certified, I'll need to wait until Moe starts school and I know his schedule. I'll have to find childcare for Jelly Belly while I teach. And then I'll have to set up the classes. But a new adventure has begun!

If you aren't familiar with Signing Time, you should definitely check them out, especially if you have young kids under three, and even more especially if you have young kids who aren't yet talking. In future posts, I'll talk more about what ST is all about. I'll also talk about the benefits of signing with kids and how using sign language affects development of speech in hearing babies.

Monthly highlights

Once a month, we have a clinic with Moe's team. His entire team of therapists come over and we talk about what progress we've made this month and what new programs we're going to implement next month. A program is simply a new type activity or skill that we want to track. We remove ones Moe has "mastered" and add in the next set of things we want to focus on.

We start every clinic with our favorite stories or highlights from the month. I felt like we didn't make quite as much progress this month as in previous months. This month had two holiday weeks, so we didn't have nearly as much therapy time as usual. And, as I've written about before, the lack of structure during the holidays seemed to through Moe off a bit. But clinic is a good time to remind ourselves the progress we have made and regroup for the upcoming month.

Some of the highlights from this month included:

• Moe has really taken an interest in art projects. He loves to color at his easel, but also at the new table in his room. He played with finger paints for the first time (something he refused to do before), as well as stamps.
• After reading a book to Moe during speech therapy, he took the book and read it back, repeating some of the things we talked about in the book: "Bear is skating," "Bear painting," "Snowbear," etc.
• Moe has been taking a greater interest in Jelly Belly, imitating some of her sounds and actions, like blowing raspberries during the "Mouth Song."
• We've been working on word endings, and he's been getting much better at pronunciation. He'll often be "lazy" about how he says a word, but if we say it back, he'll imitate it. Jeff and I have heard him practicing his words on his own as well, like "horse," "fish," and "goat" with a real emphasis on the word endings.
• I've also been working more on signing with Moe. Because he seems to be picking up speech, we haven't been focusing on signing too much. But since I've been signing with Jelly Belly and we've been watching Baby Signing Time videos, Moe seems to be picking up some. The other day, I gave Moe some scrambled eggs to eat and told him they might be hot. He tried one, and then signed "hot." Our SLP loved this because it showed great receptive language.
• Moe is imitating a lot more speech, and not just single words. He says a lot of phrases as well.

Progress has been good. But we still have a long way to go. Things we're going to focus on this month are:

• Receptive language: making sure language has a communicative function and that he is processing and understanding the language that he is hearing
• Parallel play and "play with me" activities
• "Show me" tasks, to teach joint interest
• Responding to his name

This week we also had our first transition meeting with the school district. When Moe turns 3, his services will be provided by the school district rather than through Early Start. We now have a timeline for his next set of assessments and a date for Moe's first IEP meeting. Although we won't know until then what specific services they school district will provide, we do know what school he'll be attending and we have a general sense of the types of programs available. More on this to come.