Hesperian Health Guides
Preparing a child to use signs and to speak
HealthWiki > Helping Children Who Are Deaf > Chapter 4: Basic communication skills > Preparing a child to use signs and to speak
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Encourage your child to use hand movements
It is natural for a child to use gestures. Both deaf and hearing people already use their hands, bodies, and make expressions with their faces to communicate many things — both with words and without words. These movements are called gestures. We wave 'good-bye', shake our heads when we mean 'no', and we point.
Here are some examples of people using gestures:
 This child is telling his mother that he wants something. |
 Do you think it will rain?
This man is answering that he does not know. |
Using gestures and signs does not prevent a child from learning to talk. Gestures help prepare a child to sign and speak. By using them he learns that he can send specific messages. For example, he learns that by shaking his head, he makes it clear he does not want to do something.
When you are with your child, expect him to use gestures, signs, or sounds. Your child needs to learn that his words or signs are important and that people react to his communication.
- Use gestures often to send messages to your child.
 Sunil's aunt is using a gesture. |
 Titus' grandmother is using a gesture
and word together. No!
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- Use the hand movements your child already uses to communicate. Many children begin to make up hand movements that name objects, people, or activities. If you watch for these movements, you and your family can begin to develop 'home signs'
For example:
| Tae Woo points at a bird. | Tae Woo makes a 'flying' movement to name the bird. |
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| Woo's mother uses his movement together with words. |
 A bird!
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These signs are very useful for family members to communicate with each other but they may not be understood by other people. See more information on home signs.
- Play games that help a child learn to point.
 Where's mama? |
 Yes! Here's mama! |
- Draw pictures of different family members, and of the foods your child usually eats, the objects he likes to play with, and the clothes he wears. Encourage him to point to what he needs.
- Help your child show what he feels by using gestures. He will remember the gestures you make and he will copy them.
Communicate with home signs
When a family has a deaf child, gestures help them begin to communicate with each other. But people need more complete ways to communicate than simple gestures. It would be best if you could ask a deaf adult to help you and your family learn the local sign language. But when you cannot find a deaf adult, you can make up and use 'home signs'— hand and body movements to express yourselves and communicate with your deaf child. Here is an example:
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| Let's go (home) |
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| riding the mule |
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| please! |
A Mexican man went to a village with his 6-year-old deaf son. When the boy wanted to go home, he pulled on his father's clothes. Then he used home signs that he and his family had made up.
This helps him communicate more than he could by simply using gestures.
Making up and using home signs is natural for families with children who are deaf or cannot hear well. Other deaf and hearing people will probably not understand the signs you have made up, but you can share them with friends just as you have done with the family.
Your child and your family are probably using gestures and home signs right now. It makes sense to continue doing this. Even though home signs do not make up a complete language, they can be very helpful for expressing simple ideas and are a good start to communicating. To learn more about teaching your child the sign language that is used where you live, see Chapter 8.
Making up home signs
Making up signs can be fun. Remember, it will take time and patience. But there will be big rewards as you and your child begin to understand each other. The section below gives ideas for making up signs. You can change them to fit the gestures, customs, and language of your area. You and your family will have many ideas for creating your own home signs.
Here are some suggestions to help you get started:
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Try to make signs look like the things or actions you want to communicate.
This sign for 'baby' looks like someone holding
a baby.
baby -
Watch for signs your child makes up and use them. Many children, for example, make up signs to name people in the family.
One child made this sign for her sister, Maria, who wears glasses. Maria -
Use hand shape, position, and movement to make different signs. For example, when making the sign for drinking from a cup you could...
Shape your hand like a cup. Then move your hand as if you were drinking from the cup. Or, if you wanted to sign about drinking from your hands, you could change your hand shape like this: 
drink (from a cup) drink (from hands) -
Try to create similar signs for actions or things that go together. For example:
stand lie down jump
You can also create similar signs for opposites, like 'push' and 'pull'. - Combine signs for objects, actions, and ideas to create sentences. A child who learns to put ideas together will develop more complete communication skills.
| "Put the cup on the table." | |
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| cup | cup on table |
Examples of signs
These signs are from American Sign Language. You may find useful ideas for creating your own home signs from these signs, together with signs from your local sign language. These examples also show the many types of signs a child needs to know in order to communicate.
Signs for people
| woman | mother | sister | his, her, their, your | |
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direct sign towards person |
| man | father | brother | our | |
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Signs for things
| water | bread | money |  chicken
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sign |
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| house | village, community |
school | toilet | shoe, sandal |
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Describing signs
| happy | angry | clean, nice | dirty | thirsty |
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| hot | cold | deaf | red | blue |
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These examples also show how each sign can be changed and combined with other signs to give it new meaning.
Action signs
| about doing something | about thinking | about relating to others | |||
| start | stop | understand | forget | like | love |
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| use | walk | want |  don't want |
help | play |
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Question signs
 what |
where | why | who | no | yes |
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Signs about direction
| under | inside | outside | to | "Throw the ball to her" | ||
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Direct the sign toward the person or object. |
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| ball | throw | to her | ||||
Signs about time
| future | "It's going to rain." | past | "It rained" | ||
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| future-sign | rain | past-sign | rain | ||
| now | "It is raining" |
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day | night |
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| rain | now | ||||
Encourage your child to make sounds
Children start using hand movements and gestures at an early age, and these can become the basis for developing communication and sign language. Children also start making sounds and noises at an early age, and these too can become the basis of communication and the development of spoken language.
Your child needs to learn that a person makes sounds with the lips, the tongue, the breath, and vibrations in the throat and nose.
Teach a child how sounds feel in his body, how to control his breath, and how to shape his mouth and tongue to make different sounds.
As you do the activities below, encourage your child to imitate you. It can be difficult for a deaf child to learn to make sounds. So when he does, let him know he has done something important.
- Lay your child on your chest. At first, let him feel your chest rise and fall as you breathe normally, without talking.
Then talk or sing, letting your child feel the different ways your chest moves.
Encourage him to feel the breath coming out of your mouth, too.
- In a natural voice, speak very closely (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches) to your child's ear. Speaking this close makes sounds easier to hear. Your child will also feel your breath as you speak.
blocks?
- Make up sounds that are easy to see on your lips and repeat them often during the day.
- Try matching a sound with an object.
- Try matching the length of
a sign to a movement...
to a movement.
 Bounce... bounce... bounce... bounce. |
 Rooooll. |
Encourage your child to make sounds by praising her as soon as she makes a sound or says a word. Small praise is enough — you can use a smile as praise. Or point to your ear and say, "I heard you." Or nod or say, "Yes." Remember, it is very difficult for her to learn how to speak clearly and to communicate using spoken words.
Here are 3 ways to show your child you are paying attention to his sounds:
- You can imitate him, showing that you enjoy imitating him. For example, if your child says "ooo" then you do that too, and wait to see if he does it again.
- You can respond to his sound like it is the beginning of a conversation. Try to understand what your child is communicating and answer it.
- You can ask him questions about what he is communicating. It will encourage him to start a conversation. Besides, asking questions is a good way to encourage him to ask you questions.