Chatterbox classes

[santapaws]

My DS has a sppech delay and we went to our first chatterbox class yesterday, where i imagined they would engage them in play etc but concentrate on speaking, showing them pictures - ball, car, teddy etc, but instead they were trying to get him to sign things.

My first reaction was "wtf? I dont want him learning sign" but is that normal to teach them sign instead of sounds?

Im not in any way disputing that signing works for some people but i guess im just desperate to hear some words and it kind of felt like a step back.

What do you think?

Thanks

they should be being taught sign along with the words - having the extra visual cue of the sign is helpful for kids to learn new words. So the sign is to support verbal language, not instead of. Also if children have physical problems making speech then the hand movements will be easier for them than the mouth iyswim.

a lot of the stuff they do at these classes will be to support the general basics of communication - turning taking, sitting down at the right time etc - so it may feel a bit pointless as it's not learning words - but there are good reasons behind it. I completely understand why you feel that anything other than words is a step back - but visual methods along with speech can be very helpful (not for absolutely every child I must admit, each child is different)

post on Special Needs board if you want to chat to more parents of kids with speech/language delay, a fair few of us hang out on there.

Thanks TC, yeah they did keep saying about getting the kids to make decisions and sticking with them and turn-taking etc, but he goes to preschool 2 mornings a week and he has to do that there, so it just feels as though we're stood still.

Its really frustrating

x

Signing supports speech- lots of research to show it increases speech production.