Advice Please....

[Toothfairy]

I have a mindee who is 16months. She has hardly any speach except Ta, Gone & More. She used to say Mumma and Dadda but over the last couple of months this has tailed off.
When we read stories or sing rhymes I use the Makaton signs for the animals etc and Mindee has picked some of them up well, fish, pig etc.

Mum said to me on Friday that she is going to start to use Makaton at home as well but for general conversation.

My concern is that the signing may hinder Mindees speach as she may use signing istead of speaking.

I personaly would like to consentrate on increasing Mindees vocab first.

What do you think ?

[huggableshelly]

mindee will be due a health check soon which will have a hearing test too but I would personallyencourage the signing as a child will always remember what they have learnt whilst little and it is such a wonderful skill to have.

maybe encourage her to say the word at the same time as signing it but for now just add it in your diary as own obs to what you have noticed as we dont add negative stuff in LJ's and I presume you have discussed the conrcerns with parents too.

[Bernie]

I would carry on using Makaton also. Remember with Makaton, you should always say what you are signing, unlike BSL where you don't always speak. The Makaton.org website says that signing often encourages speach.

Hope this helps and good luck.

x

[Toothfairy]

Thanks for your advice.
I do use the words as well as the sign and also the sound if it is an animal.

The rest of the time mindee just grunts and points.

I have not spoken to mum yet as this all came about at a very quick handover friday night but I have been thinking about it over the weekend.
Mum is one of my best friends, so I know I can talk to her about it.
I just wanted to get other people views as to how they would handle things.

Thanks :thumbsup:

[Twinklestars]

My 5 year old was like that, he was an early walker though (walked at 7 months) so he used to just get whatever he wanted instead of asking, he started speech therapy just before 3 , they said Thomas was early going and they said they don't really do anything until 3 when their understanding of their questions is better, when he got to 3 they said they'd wait until he went to school and they now see him once every half term at school and they give them exercises etc to do with him. There has been a massive improvement in his speech since starting school. Never tried makaton with him but can't see that it would do any harm as long as you're saying the words too.

[mama2three]

Makaton will not delay speech at all. it helps a prelingual child to develop communication skills which will benefit them as their speech develops alongside. It will allow the child to be understood , less frustrated and so speech can emerge without stress iyswim. Remember to always use speech at the same time as the sign though.

[teacake2]

I have a 20 month old like that at the moment, up until a couple of weeks ago he wouldn't try and copy sounds just grunted for everything, I wasn't too worried as his elder brother was just the same and he doesn't ever stop talking now. The little one I have now has just started to try and copy words and sounds, and is rapidly progressing, if they can hear and can understand what you are asking them, then I think it is just usually a matter of time, but of course monitor your obs on him and see if there are other things that you are uncertain about and have a word with mum to see if he is the same at home.
Teacake2

[Toothfairy]

Thanks everyone :thumbsup: