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Elizabeth
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Posted: Jan 29 2005 at 4:58am | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth


Lissa,
My Signing Time DVDs are on their way! Nicholas is so interested in signing. We have a wooden ASL alphabet puzzle that he drags around (no small feat). The sign is on the knobbed puzzle piece and the letter is underneath. He's really teaching himself to sign the alphabet. I'm so looking forward to these DVDs. thanks for the recommendation.

HOw is the sign language study going in your house?

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Posted: Jan 29 2005 at 5:37am | IP Logged Quote Lissa

elizfoss wrote:
My Signing Times DVDs are
on their way! (snip)

HOw is the sign language study going in your
house?


We are eating it up! The girls are getting really good.
And I'm taking a course online and am pretty excited
about my progress.

Early Intervention sends an infant speech/hearing
specialist, Carol, to our house every other week. She
spends an hour working with me & Stevie on
listening exercizes and then another hour on ASL
with the whole family. She has been wonderful with
the girls--she thinks it's great that they want to be
involved w/ Stevie's therapy and just seems to GET
exactly what I'm doing here with the "let's all dive in
together" approach to education. RIght now she has
a grad student from Gallaudet doing an internship
with her, and since Karen (who is hearing) is fluent
in ASL, Carol has arranged for her to do an extra
weekly session with us for the next 4 wks to teach us
more sign. They were here on Thursday and Kate
met Karen at the door with a list of signs she wanted
explanations for--"WHY is this gesture the sign for
such-and-such?" LOL.

Erin in particular is in love with the language. She
likes being able to sign to me in public situations
instead of talking. Hee. And it's been great for her
writing, too--I was on the phone with ALice the other
day (surprise surprise) and Erin was busily writing
something or other & kept running back and forth to
my room asking me how to spell things. She'd sign
the word, and I'd fingerspell it for her, a letter at a
time. Each time, she signed the letter and then ran
back down the hall to her paper, carefully holding the
sign frozen on her fingers.   I guess that was more
fun than just bringing the paper to where I was.

You are going to LOVE the Signing Time videos,
Elizabeth--I can't wait!! The alphabet one is my
favorite. The songs (on all of them) are terrific--we
even like listening to the CD in the car. Nicholas is
going to be transfixed, I warn you. Even Stevie, who
has no interest in television otherwise, is riveted to
ST. He pays no attention to Blue's Clues or Dora, so
I don't think it's the animation part or the real kids--I
think he really sees them signing. When we sign, he
watches our hands like a hawk. And oh! The most
adorable thing I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot,
LOL)--he "sign babbles"! He'll sit there waggling his
fingers around, watching his hand intently--it's the
funniest thing--he's talking to himself.

We had a really exciting Signing Time moment this
week, a HUGE Stevie breakthrough--I started singing
the theme song (for no particular reason) and he
whipped his head around to the television, obviously
expecting to see Alex and Leah. MAJOR step. He
*heard* me sing and *recognized the song* and
*remembered* where it came from. This is exactly
the goal of all our "listening therapy"--teaching him to
differentiate between sounds. I cannot convey the
enormity of his having made this connection after
only two months in hearing aids--you have to adjust
his "hearing age" just as you adjust a preemie's
age--he is almost 14 months old, but only 10 weeks
old as a listener. (Isn't expected to do vocal babbling,
for example, until his "hearing age" is 6 or 7 months
old.) So he's a virtual hearing newborn--hence our
excitement over his recognizing a particular song!

One more Signing Time plug--I think it's helping
Eileen learn to read, too. I cannot say enough good
things about Rachel Coleman & her work. (By the
way, numbers 4-6 are even better than the first
three.More music and you can tell that Rachel really
grew into her role.)

Lissa, enthusiastic endorser

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Posted: Feb 03 2005 at 8:30am | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

They came two days ago and already we've added about twenty or so signs to ur repertoire. Megan's boys were here yesterday and I think Robbie went home with a few signs of his own. My kids are SOOOO into this. They were signing first thing this morning and trying to "one up" each other (everything is a competition around here At first, we watched them out of order, but now, I think we'll go back and do it in order because it is slightly sequential. I think we're going to really love this. So, that is MUS and Signing Times--I owe you for two of our biggest successes this year   

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Posted: Feb 03 2005 at 3:53pm | IP Logged Quote Lissa

Yay! I knew you-plural would love them. Aren't they
great? We're trying to learn all the signs in the songs
now (not just the ones Rachel teaches).

On Rachel's email list she mentioned that they're
scripting numbers 7-9 now and they'll be doing
some of the filming for those in Northern Virginia at
some point. They'll put out a call for families to join
them at a park somewhere, when the time comes.
My girls are already planning the road trip...

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Posted: Feb 03 2005 at 4:47pm | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Lissa wrote:
Yay! I knew you-plural would love them. Aren't they
great? We're trying to learn all the signs in the songs
now (not just the ones Rachel teaches).

On Rachel's email list she mentioned that they're
scripting numbers 7-9 now and they'll be doing
some of the filming for those in Northern Virginia at
some point. They'll put out a call for families to join
them at a park somewhere, when the time comes.
My girls are already planning the road trip...


Oh my goodness I cannot wait! What a great time that would be!!

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Posted: Feb 08 2005 at 6:56pm | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Here's an interesting little tidbit: Christian has refused to watch the videos and rolled his eyes at the CDs in the car. He's too cool to be captivated by the "little kids songs" (which I think are just delightful, BTW). Anyway, we set a family goal (without his agreement) to have all the signs from the first two videos by the time Mike returns today. So, last night, I told Christian I would quiz him on the signs. He went downstairs, watched the sign review segment once for each DVD and returned to me. He missed two of the 48 signs.    This is my slow-to-speak child, my-slow-to read child, my slow-to-be-born child! He knew them WELL! I'm still amazed and he was pretty darn proud, despite himself. Can I clap some more now?

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Posted: Feb 19 2005 at 1:15pm | IP Logged Quote KathleenL

I can't tell you what a blessing it was to read your post today! Our family learned last week that our 14 month old daughter, Mary Margaret, lost her hearing due to a bout with meningitis when she was less than a month old. We are scheduled to see the audiologist this Monday; but have been busily learning as much sign language as possible.

Since you mentioned hearing aids, I was wondering if your son received a cochlear implant. We are trying to focus on signing right now and not get bogged down in the medical stuff until we speak to the audiologist, but it's difficult not to wander mentally into those areas. You also mentioned an early intervention person coming to your home. I'm not sure if our state has such a thing. Did you learn of that service through your pediatrician or some other way?

Thank you for sharing.
In Christ,
Kathleen
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Posted: Feb 19 2005 at 1:29pm | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Dear Kathleen,
Lissa is the expert here (hear? ) and I'll let her answer but I wanted to tell you about a recent discussion of cochlear implants on the Signing Time yahoo list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alexandleah/ The conversation is very recent, so if you join, just reading the last week's messages would give you the gist of it. I know Lissa's son is not eligible for CI because his loss is not severe enough. But you will find other parents on the alexandleah group who have experience with the CI debate. And, of course, Lissa has lots of experience with infant hearing loss and with signed speech.

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Posted: Feb 21 2005 at 12:28pm | IP Logged Quote Lissa

KathleenL wrote:
I can't tell you what a blessing it
was to read your post today! Our family learned last
week that our 14 month old daughter, Mary Margaret,
lost her hearing due to a bout with meningitis when
she was less than a month old.


Wow, Kathleen, what a road you are walking. Did the
hearing loss diagnosis come as a complete shock,
or had you been suspecting it for a while?

As Elizabeth said, my Stevie isn't a candidate for CI;
his hearing loss is moderate. Unaided, he can hear
loud sounds like the piano and laughter, but not
most speech sounds. With hearing aids, he tested
last week at almost normal levels, which was very
exciting to see. For him, sign language will be a
bridge to verbal speech, as well as an important
backup for situations when he isn't wearing the
hearing aids.

There's a great discussion group/website called
Listen Up for
parents of deaf & HOH children. Much helpful info
there, and they don't allow bickering over the
hot-button issues like cochlear implants.
*Discussion* of these issues is encouraged, just
not the angry judgments you encounter in other
places--so it's a great place to get information. Also,
the recent conversation on the Signing Time yahoo
list that Elizabeth mentioned
(a
lexandleah
) (which did get a little
heated), there's a wonderfully informative post near
the end of the thread that I think you'd be interested
in: enter message #6390 to see that particular post.

Please let us know how things go for you as you
ponder the decision--I'm so interested to know more!
We recently met a 7-yr-old boy who got a CI last year,
and he is doing very well with it, developing lots of
verbal speech though sign is still his primary
language.

Quote:
You also mentioned an early intervention
person coming to your home. I'm not sure if our
state has such a thing. Did you learn of that service
through your pediatrician or some other
way?


When Stevie was 3 months old, a geneticist
commented on his high muscle tone (hypertonia)
and suggested we look into Early Intervention. I
asked the pediatrician, and she said it was a little
early but couldn't hurt to get into the system, get the
paperwork going...I am SO thankful we did. EI sent a
team to our home evaluate his gross motor, fine
motor, cognitive, and social development. I was a
little leery of letting so many specialists overtake our
space, if you know what I mean, but I really believe
Stevie has benefitted by their help. Based on that
eval he began receiving weekly physical therapy in
our home, which is still continuing. (He has gross &
fine motor delay due to neurological
abnormality--they keep considering a cerebral palsy
diagnosis but he doesn't quite fit the picture--very
long story.) He is about to begin occupational
therapy through EI as well.

When the hearing loss was diagnosed in October, EI
immediately connected us with Virginia's infant
hearing loss outreach program (another EI program
except it's one office for the state instead of many
regional offices, like the rest of EI). This is the
program through which a speech/hearing specialist
comes to our home to teach us sign language and
work with Steven on developing listening & verbal
skills. Her time with our family is worth gold! (But it's
a state-funded program, so these services are free.)

What state are you in? I bet there are links at
Listen-Up that can direct you toward info about your
local services...

Please keep us posted and know that your Mary
Margaret will be in our prayers!



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Posted: Feb 21 2005 at 12:39pm | IP Logged Quote Lissa

elizfoss wrote:
Dear Kathleen,
Lissa is the expert here (hear? ) .


Hardly an expert! But I'm learning fast. What did
we do without the internet??

Actually, I know the answer to that...when Kate's
cancer was diagnosed in '97, I was only beginning
to learn my way around the internet, and there was
no Google. No internet access at the hospital, either.
A few friends poked around online at my request,
looking for good info to print out for me, but they
didn't find much. No support groups, no websites
specifically devoted to ALL. Nowadays it's so
different...not all the info at our fingertips is reliable,
but certainly we can find out a great deal--enough to
help us ask the right questions of the real-life
professionals, for one thing.

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Posted: Feb 21 2005 at 12:46pm | IP Logged Quote KathleenL

Thank you for your reply, Lissa.

It might sound crazy, but we had no clue about her hearing loss until about two weeks ago. She goes to the audiologists for testing in about an hour, so we should know more then. My big question is, "Did she lose her hearing last year with the illness or did it slowly diminish over the year?"

I need to run; but I really appreciate the information on the Listen Up link and regarding Early Intervention (I'd like to talk more about that).

In Christ,
Kathleen
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Posted: Feb 23 2005 at 5:56pm | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Here's a reprint of a CCM post on why Signing Time really works in a homschooling family:

This year, we've all decided to learn to sign. Since we use a unit study, throw-ourselves-into-everything-with-enthusiasm model for our education, my children are learning to sign at a very quick pace.

Despite the fact that I was born without an ear and am a bit hard of hearing, I was never taught sign language. Learning to sign is a joy for me.

My eldest child is hoping that ASL will be a fourth language behind English, Spanish, and Latin. After he has all the ST signs, we'll enroll together in an online course. Even Dad is showing an interest in this.

My second son, who is 12, has developmental delays and has found reading and, particularly, writing, very difficult. This is the perfect second language for him and he's shown a real propensity for it. His success with it is a confidence builder and we need all of those that we can get!

My middle two, 10 and 8, are our resident "experts." They've learned almost all the signs on the videos in the past two weeks and are doing pretty well with online fingerspelling quizzes. They are naturally trying to string entire sentences together, using the signs that they've learned on the ST videos and fingerspelling for the rest. I know that this isn't going to work over the long haul because the grammar is incorrect. I'm sort of afraid to see what is ahead in other video series, despite the fact that they are ready for more--from what I understand, nothing out there compares to ST in production quality. My husband produces live television sports--my kids are production snobs. These are great videos! And the songs are charming. Even if they weren't associated with the signs, they'd be fun, happy, wholesome songs to sing.

My next two are learning to read English at the same time that they are learning to sign. This is a HUGE benefit. I was a reading teacher before having children and I'm fascinated by this connection. Start with a spoken word, give it a tactile symbol (the sign) and then give it a more abstract symbol (the word). Works with letters too. I'm already planning this year's talk--no doubt about it: sign language and Signing Time in particular are a huge benefit to families of children even beyond the baby and toddler stage. Signed words are a great bridge to sight words and fingerspelling will do amazing things for emergent spellers and readers.

Finally, there is the two-year-old. For the first time, she feels like she's truly a part of our unit study, learning "real" school along with her siblings. She speaks very well already--as fluently as the average kindergartner--so the signs aren't really bridging communication gaps, but I see them laying the foundation for reading and writing already. ST has really been a blessing for all of us.


for some insight into how this remarkable program was developed, go to
Signing Timeand click on "Against the Odds."

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Posted: Feb 23 2005 at 6:06pm | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

And one more thing (I tend to get like this when I'm really excited about a rabbit trail): did you know that American Sign Language is the third most common language used in the United States

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Posted: Feb 23 2005 at 7:55pm | IP Logged Quote KathleenL

Well, the hearing tests only confirmed for the doctors what my husband and I already knew-Mary Margaret can't hear. They've now scheduled a CT and ABR to give them a more complete picture. It is difficult to 'put things on hold' until then. Of course, we're proceeding with ASL but it seems that the doctors are really looking at the Cochlear Implant as the 1st choice and just humoring me on going forward with ASL.

In Christ,
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Posted: Feb 23 2005 at 9:53pm | IP Logged Quote Lissa

Kathleen, even if you go for the CI, ASL is probably going to be an important second language for Mary Margaret. Some of the doctors may see it as an either/or situation, but what I've learned from other parents is that a deaf child with a cochlear implant is still going to have times when she cannot hear. There are certain situations when you can't wear the outer part of the CI equipment--bathtub, swimming, etc. You'll want a way to communicate *all* the time!

Also (and I gather there are different viewpoints on this--bear in mind I'm just learning too), ASL can go a long way toward helping Mary Margaret learn to speak English even *with* a CI. Sign language serves as a bridge to spoken language (in addition to being a complete language in its own right, of course).

We're seeing this right now with Stevie. He connects to signs first, and through repetition, we're teaching him that each sign goes with a spoken word. Now he signs "more" and says "more" too. The sign came first. ASL is helping him connect the sound to the action or object. It's really been amazing to watch!

This approach, the ASL/verbal combination, is called "Total Communication." There are other approaches, from ASL-only at one end to "Audio-Verbal Therapy" (AVT) at the other--a method in which you *don't* sign at all and even cover your mouth when you speak so the child won't lipread. You'll doubtless hear & read more about all the various approaches as you get further into this. Total Communication is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. You might decide AVT (or even sign-only) is better for Mary Margaret--and I know there's lots of support out there for each different methodology.

We sort of stumbled into Total Communication before I knew there were options, and once I'd educated myself a bit, I was so glad that's what we wound up with (instead of AVT, which doesn't appeal to me at all).

Don't let any docs deter you from diving into ASL now, if that's your inclination.

But gosh, I know your mind must be whirling right now! {{{{{Kathleen}}}}} The hard-of-hearing diagnosis was difficult enough for us to comprehend; I can only imagine how much harder it is to get your mind around a dx of severe or profound loss. Did they tell you what degree of loss they think she has? If they're already discussing CI, I assume it's profound?

Please let me know if I can help in any way.

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Posted: Feb 24 2005 at 7:33am | IP Logged Quote Elizabeth

Dear Kathleen,
I'm so sorry to hear of the challenges you have ahead. Know that you and Mary Margaret are in our prayers.From the perspecitve of someone with moderate hearing loss, who was never taught to sign, I can't agree with Lissa more. The more complete the "communication package," the better she will communicate, CI or not. And I encourage you to go to the ST site and poke around a bit. There, in the press releases, and at the alexandleah yahoo group, is much information on communication especially helpful for just beginning the journey.

I can't imagine how challenging it must be to continue to care for and educate your other chidren while you process and research this news. Lissa has been an enormous inspiration in this regard. She truly embraced all of Stevie's challenges and incorporated his therapy and, particularly, his comunication into the family educational plan. All of her children are benefitting from ASL and when Lissa speaks about Stevie, it is clear that everyone has been blessed by his challenges. I will be praying particularly that God's great goodness will shine on the high hill you have to climb. And I look forward to hearing how He choses to shower blessings upon your family travelers.

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Posted: Feb 24 2005 at 7:44am | IP Logged Quote KathleenL

None of the doctors have said "profound" or even "deafness". I'd done a few home experiements before her hearing test day, however. I stood over her crib at the end of naptime (but before she was awake) and called to her in increasing volume and clapped my hands really loudly. She didn't even flinch. Perhaps the doctors don't feel comfortable using those words until all of the tests are complete and they can also provide some care advice. They just said that the results "were not what they hoped to see." I guess if I hadn't done the home experiments and accepted the situation before arriving in the office, it might have been more traumatic to hear them use those words. I'm sure they meant well.
Tuesday is the CT and ABR. We'll be praying that all goes well.

In Christ,
Kathleen
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Posted: Feb 24 2005 at 9:24am | IP Logged Quote Lissa

I'll be praying too! I always think the waiting is the hardest part. Once I know a diagnosis, I can busy myself with learning about it and *doing something.* But the passivity of the wait-and-wonder stage drives me crazy. I hope your weekend passes quickly. {{{Kathleen}}}

What kind of testing did they do the other day? Did they put her in a sound booth? I found the whole thing pretty confusing until I got a good look at an audiogram with the "speech banana," and after that I understood the various levels of hearing loss much more clearly.

If there's any way I can help, please let me know...I don't want to bombard you with unwelcome info! I'm the type who prefers to go into dr appts armed with as much background knowledge as possible, but I know I can definitely get carried away. (When my oldest child was hospitalized for a long time, the hospital social worker assigned to our family told me there are two types of parents--"monitors" and "blockers." Monitors like to know every tiny little detail about a medical issue & its treatment. Blockers--the name really isn't accurate--prefer to get the big picture, and let the drs worry about the details. I'm a classic monitor and my husband is a blocker. The drs used to groan when they saw me whip out my notebook because they knew they were in for a grilling!)

Anyway--if you're a monitor too and want someone to bounce info off, please don't hesitate to holler.

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Posted: Feb 24 2005 at 9:38am | IP Logged Quote Lissa

Elizabeth wrote:
Here's a reprint of a CCM post on why Signing Time really works in a homschooling family:

This year, we've all decided to learn to sign. Since we use a unit study, throw-ourselves-into-everything-with-enthusiasm model for our education, my children are learning to sign at a very quick pace.


Elizabeth, I'm so glad you posted that here--it's one for the archives for sure! ASL has truly transformed our family--my shy 6yo comes out of her shell when she signs, and the 9yo is fascinated by the technology of audiology. They all beg to go along on Stevie's trips to the School for the Deaf (where the infant hearing loss specialist's offices are) and to the audiology appointments.

We're going to start an ASL club in our neighborhood. Kate is extremely excited about this little brainstorm. One of our sign books has lots of suggestions for ASL games, so we're thinking we'll start the club meetings with an episode of Signing Time and then we'll play sign games and have refreshments. I recently learned that the mother of a little girl my kids sometimes play with is herself hard-of-hearing. She wore aids as a child, but no longer uses them. She studied at Gallaudet and has taught her 3 girls a fair amount of ASL. I'm thrilled to have her input on the club!

There is also a monthly "signing supper" at a pizza place in Charlottesville--we're looking forward to attending one of those.



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KathleenL
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Posted: March 01 2005 at 11:04am | IP Logged Quote KathleenL

What a roller coaster! Mary Margaret was supposed to have a CT and ABR today, but she presented with a fever this morning and they couldn't sedate her. Now we're facing another week and half before the tests and three weeks before seeing the doctors for the follow-up (they have a vacation scheduled in between). Lent is something isn't it?!

I am very interested in following your ASL club as it develops. I am fortunate to be in a Homeschool support group with parents who are eager to learn and teach. I see an easy use of ST because of the great quality, but I don't know anything about any games since we're so new to this.

In Christ,
Kathleen
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