i don't understand why people would find deaf babies/children signing sad??? let me tell you when i found out deaf babies babble in sign language it was the cutest thing ever. i cry just thinking about it tbh.
I feel like it comes down to a lack of education about Deaf Culture and how different people who are Deaf/deaf it. People don't understand, and I (as a hearing person) have had to learn that (as part of learning ASL)
People who are able bodied and don't have any real contact with disabled people often develop a form of misguided and misplaced empathy and sympathy and so they think it's sad that a child can't hear just like they think a child who can't walk is a sad situation. "Having to be disabled", in this mindset, is something to be pitied.
IIRC, is one of the 'early bits' of supporting evidence that the brain completely accepts sign languages as a full on valid language. Audio/verbal not necessary. I'd love to share one of my favorite examples of baby sign language babbling: in American Sign Language, the sign for ducks is using the index and middle fingers together with the thumb on one hand to make the 'quacking' motion by the cheek close to mouth. This toddler was familiar with this sign via books etc. Always used one hand. Visiting a pond with many ducks, he was in awe.. then looking over the masses of ducks, he started using the sign for duck with both hands(one hand on each cheek).. that was his babbling way of using ducks in the plural. It was the cutest thing ever!
It amazes me that there would ever be a need to justify teaching your kid your own language. Not only is it useful/necessary for communicating in your own home, it’s also just a great skill to pass on! Who doesn’t want to know more languages and communicate with more people?? I’m very happy for you that it seems to be going well. And I’m happy for your baby that he’ll know such a beautiful language.
While both me and my wife are fluent in English and we live in Scotland now we will definitely teach our bairn Dutch so she can more easily communicate with her grandparents. Plus indeed learning extra languages has a LOT of cognitive and developmental advantages. Unfortunately I don't learn new things that easily any more due to my own impairments but already being able to speak multiple languages makes it easier for me to pick up new ones as well. I hope to add sign language to my repertoire to be more inclusive. And after Dutch sign language will definitely be the third language we teach our bairn, before any of the other ones we already know. ps. I'm hoping to add my view here from an perspective of being inclusive. As I'm not D/deaf myself my voice isn't the one that deserves to be amplified though. Feel free to ignore this comment.
I live in a city with a lot of people from all over the world. Some of the kids that live in extended family groups grow up with English and also their grandparents' home language so by the time they get to infant school they are already bilingual. It seems to put them ahead in terms of learning more new languages on top, as well as other skills. Plus, my kids used to come home with some songs and games in other languages (and swear words!) So more power to your elbow!
That is often Said by people who never Had to learn another language. I live in scotland and would definetely teach my children German because its frigging useful. But a Lot of people dont want immigrants to do that and instead "learn proper english". Those people then try to say that If you learn two languages, you will fail at both, which is such Bs. My charitable Interpretation is that people who never honestly had to be bilingual cannot Imagine actually succeeding in language learning. It's funny because it Just Shows that they never bothered learning a language properly, despite french and German being taught frequently
@@annabeinglazy5580 Yeah anyone who says if you try to learn two languages at once you'll fail at both probably isn't bilingual. As someone who grew up in a bilingual household, it's very much possible and I'm forever grateful to both be able to communicate with my extended family and carry on such an important part of my culture.
Rupert babbling to himself in sign is such a cute image Also why wouldn't a Deaf/deaf parent teach their child sign? It's like asking a parent why they want to be able to communicate with their child.
I think that part was hearing parents of deaf children. Instead of learning sign and teaching it to their child, they force the kid to learn to lip-read. Which is hard enough if you already know the language, but makes learning a language very hard because you only have mouth shapes to go on, and a lot of sounds make the same shape.
Scientists have found that hearing babies of deaf parents ( the study was about *exclusively* deaf parents, though) "babble" with their hands - their hand movements were very distinct from those of hearing babies with one or both hearing parent(s).
I have friends that are CODA (children of deaf adults) Both parents were born deaf, and have all full hearing children. It’s amazing to see how much learning sign language first has moved them to the front! They have signed for the police department, legal proceedings, they have taught at Gaudette University, and now are advocates for standard criteria for public signers. They have always urged myself and other hearing friends to learn for inclusivity. I think you’re absolutely right that hearing people should learn sign. The joy on the patrons faces when I was a server, and positively tripped through my rudimentary sign language was definitely enough to keep me going.
I started learning a few basic signs to communicate in extremely loud environments without having to yell into people's ears, but was really surprised how intuitive it was compared to learning a spoken language, which I am terrible at. Definitely can't hold a conversation in sign, but I retain the information so much easier than trying to learn Spanish. Had a deaf customer years ago at my sandwich job and he was stoked I could at least make an attempt
Look up 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' by Ed Sheeran. The main focus of the video is an actor by the name of Matthew Jacobs Morgan - his parents are both deaf and he is hearing, but he signs the entire song and does an AMAZING job. He is also fluent in French and German. Start them young in multiple languages, and I do consider signing whole other language. It'll be nothing but helpful in school.
My mom is hoh and I had to call so many places growing up because phones really weren't accessible back in the day and my mom doesn't use or know sign language because she really doesn't quite need it with how much hearing she still has in every day life. I had to learn how to sound professional and relay information at a very young age and honestly that was a good thing because I later never struggled to do that kind of stuff for myself. Some people were and still are weird about my mom's disability though and that also made me quickly sus out people and learn who I want around me and who isn't good to have as friends.
I honestly don't understand why it's not a subject in primary school at this point. Deaf children shouldnhave the same access to other citizen. Teaching kids sign laguages would work into that (as well as being super useful in situation when yelling from one side of the room to the other isn't possible)
Oh my god ... him signing Mama and Mommy to you and Claudia respectively is just the cutest thing ever!! And I agree that teaching your child sign language wether its a deaf or hearing baby is only benificial. Cant find a single downside to having this as a base skillset from esely childhood on.
I taught my son sign language because he was under the spectrum and did not speak at all by age 3. He only repeated one word over and over (echolalia). He eventually dropped the signs and spoke, but our intention was never to have him not have tantrums, but rather to communicate with him. I owe the deaf community the ability to communicate with my son. The greatest gift I could have ever been given. He's now 19 years old and about to graduate high school and go to college.
That's so lovely to read! I have a similar story with my now 9yo kid, sign was such a game changer for the communication to exist at all ♡ makes me happy to hear your son is doing well growing up!
Autism? It’s interesting how autism can affect everyone differently. I have autism and I started speaking at a regular age and learnt how to read earlier than other kids.
@@rachelcookie321 i was the same way, in fact i think i potentially started speaking, reading and writing earlier than a lot of kids too. however once i hit 14yrs old most of my traits showed up a lot more often and more debilitating, like my sensory issues. by the age of 16 i was having nonverbal shutdowns and couldnt communicate at all, not even through texting or writing. i personally wish i could sign to help with that but due to my other disabilities (chronic pain in my wrists) it is not really possible to make most of the movements for auslan
@@kaelin8775 yea, for me I started showing symptoms of autism when I started puberty at age 10. It went down hill real fast. When I’m upset I can’t communicate at all, I don’t know how show what I feel. My mum got me these cards that say different things that you can show when you’re upset but that just made me angry because it’s not just that I struggle to say what I want, I can’t communicate it in any way. Then I got angry and I couldn’t say why I didn’t like them so I just squealed and threw them where I will never see them.
Yes! My babysitter’s daughter was losing her hearing and my sitter taught us kids the alphabet and a few basic signs just in case. I was under 10 at the time and now at 31 I still remember almost all of it! Vs the four years of Spanish I took in high school that I only recall bits and pieces of 😅 I wish they offered languages for school children!
@@peterfireflylund yes learning a language is hard but from my experience of working in schools for 20+ years, if you are enthusiastic and make it interesting they want to learn more, teaching yr 10/11 some sign has been fun and them stopping me in the corridor to sign something they learnt in their lesson makes my heart sing. Also some students who struggle with the curriculum could find this a better way and style of learning. I personally think there is a place for any language, sign, French Spanish Mandarin ect and I think it shows respect for a person/ culture if you try to communicate in their native tongue, I know when I go to a different country I try to say some basics in the language of the country- not always successfully!
I taught my now 4 year old basic Auslan signs when she was a baby as a way to help her communicate her needs, and yes it did reduce her frustration when she was "pre-verbal." We continue using sign language with her and she is also learning it at preschool. Everyone in my family are hearing, but having a family member who worked in the disability sector meant we always had a basic level of sign of sign language in the household (such as please/thank you), but we had more comprehension to understand if someone was signing to us. I decided to learn more Auslan as I was a tour guide at Parliament House in Australia and would often interact with people needing directions around the building, again generally answers to a small range of questions such as where is the toilet/cafe/security desk. The look of relief when someone would come in and start writing a question on their phone and I would answer them in Auslan (even if my grammar was sometimes terrible) was heart warming (and at the same time depressing that my small efforts to communicate was such a rarity) and I would have people who visited regularly only want to deal with me as they didn't have to change their behaviour to be understood. And everyone was more than happy to help me to improve my signing to make it less formal and more conversational. Where I work now I have a profoundly deaf colleague and everyone in the section (about 50 people) all have a basic level of sign language (basic signs and finger spelling) because we have an incredibly inclusive work culture and don't exclude anyone and we all have a healthy knowledge of sign swear words 😀 I am now teaching my 6 week old son sign as well and I've noticed his big sister signing to him as well. Yes he can't sign yet, but I've noticed he will move his arms up out of the way when I sign that I am going to pick him up. And one of the biggest advantage to teaching your children sign language (apart from all the benefits of learning another language as a child and being able to communicate with the deaf community and other groups who use sign as their only method of communication) is you can tell them, in no uncertain terms, to stop what they are doing, put something down and get back to you across a noisy crowded children's play area much to the awe and amazement of other parents who are yelling themselves hoarse trying to control their "little darlings."
I think it’s good that Rupert is a CODA. Not only is he able to speak another language, but he can connect with Jessica. A child deserves to be able to connect and relate to his mother.
I recently had major surgery and was on a ventilator and very heavily medicated...BUT I kept talking in basic letter sign because, even though I was out of it, I was able to tap into the basic ABC's. Unfortunately no one could understand, thankfully a student nurse came in and told them I was saying DAVID (my husband) over and over. I think all hospitals should have at least one sign proficient person, because non-hearing/unable to vocalize people need to be understood too. I may be hearing and understand minimal sign language, but I have never been more glad that I learned the basics or wished I'd been taught/learned more. I'm so glad you are teaching Rupert regular signs, it will serve him well as he grows.
Bless you! That must have been distressing :( Someone should have offered you a letter board at least. Good on the student nurse, what a perfect timing for her to be there on that placement. I imagine others in hospital would have also been able to help esp with simple finger spell - but again someone needs to think to go find out who or have a list. I'm a doctor can sign BSL & use w Deaf patients. Although trying to get back to better fluency & learn more med words too. In mean time obvs still want them to have proper comm vis interpretor.
In the US at least, every hospital that gets federal funding must have access to and offer interpreters for languages common in that community, as well as ASL. Larger hospitals or medical groups have more languages, especially in areas with a lot of immigrants because it can be hard to define what languages are "common" if they're always fluctuating. For patients who speak languages outside of what that hospital has, they have to get an interpreter on the phone. Tons of places have rolling monitors that can use to video chat an interpreter now! The interpreter should be trained as a MEDICAL interpreter, not just someone who can translate the language. They're specially trained to communicate all of the complicated medical jargon properly between languages. That's part of why they have to offer an interpreter even if a patient comes in with a family member who can translate.
I do that when I dissociate and/or meltdown (PTDS, CPTSD, DID, which aren't helped by autism) and can't talk in any spoken language I know anymore For some reason, I can almost always still communicate in sign language even though mine is a bit rusty now (removing the rust by teaching my partner useful signs, like medicine, pain, nightmare, water, etc.) and it actually helps me to come back myself faster too, as I feel it overrides the flashes/emotions
I was born deaf (too much fluid in my ears) and my family learned basic real ASL (Open, more, done, etc)...until the surgeries to drain them worked, and it all switched to verbal communication when I was around 2. I didn't even know this until I was a decade into my life! I grieve that sometimes but have taught myself some of it again. Your signing with Rupert means so much, thank you. And especially encouraging others to pick it up, even if it's not "necessary."
At a school I taught at 2 years ago there were a few deaf students. The whole school learnt some basic signs like hello, thank you etc but the best part was that the class that these kids were in became trilingual! English, Māori and NZSL. The class had times when they only spoke in sign but most of the time they used NZSL and either spoken language together. These kids were about 7
Wow that's so so awesome to hear! I'm in nz too, and I love hearing about that natural flow between the languages and it sounds like the kids got really into it? They are great like that supporting each other when a class builds momentum
okay maybe a weird question but... how do you monitor cheating when you know that a lot/all students of a class can speak (?) /sign sign language ? :D I was just wondering. I mean of course a lot of movement would also make sound but when one student asks a question and the teacher goes there to help, couldn't others behind them sign answers to each other. (not saying that I judge them for that, just wondering if this is something you then need to think about :D)
@@Renesmechen they’re 7. I don’t know how it works in other countries but in NZ at that age there isn’t much large scale testing. It’s mostly done on a person to person basis
@@Renesmechen so I also follow the DOTS project which provides braille dice for blind/visually impaired tabletop-game players. they also had to deal with some bad-faith criticism along the lines of "What if the player cheats with the braille dice?", because hearing children who don't know sign language never cheat on tests and seeing players never cheat at games.
@@scarylion1roar I don't mind if people cheat on exams 'cause I honestly don't think they are the best way to test people about knowledge. I myself cheated a lot. I was just wondering if there are extra measurements teachers would think of. Teachers at my school tried different ways to stop us from cheating but they only made us more creative. Honestly it was just a new challenge. So I just wonder if the kids in those classes could use their knowledge and if the teachers tried to do something about it. However if they were around the age of 7 I doubt they would do that. I just hope you don't think I wanted to say that I think they are more likely to cheat cause of something. It's just something I would totally use for myself, that's why my mind went there.
"But mama, the people must know how adorable I am!!" One day when you're old enough you can amaze everyone with your cheeky grins and adorable sign, Rupert! But the world is way big and scary for that right now.
Finger spelling at a minimum is a very important skill to have. My dad was in the hospital after a heart attack and had intubation preventing him from speaking. Writing out words or typing them was physically taxing on him but finger spelling was a way to spell out what he wanted to say.
When I was a kid I learned about ASL and finger spelling and while I did learn some signs that stick with me today, the thing I made myself learn was to finger spell because absolute worst case, if I needed to communicate with someone we'd have that. It's slow and you're relying on spelling skills but at the same time it is better than nothing and you'd be shocked how many times I have actually used it in my life to communicate to others.
Sign language is so useful even for hearing babies and parents! Babies are able to sign before they're able to verbally communicate their needs, and it speeds up understanding and helps to keep the little guys from getting frustrated when they can't tell you what's up. It's also much easier to sign when you're crying and upset because your emotions are bigger than you are, which is huge for toddlers.
A baby signing what they need is really convenient , most parents don't recognize what each cry means. What is really sad is that the default reaction to everything that relates to a disability is something negative.
I was taught Baby Sign when I was, well, a baby! Both my parents and I are hearing, which I should note. From what my parents have told me, it helped a LOT with communication since I didn't start verbally communicating for longer than most children, and I got far less upset than if I couldn't communicate my needs and wants to them. I still use sign (at least the very basic things in ASL - as I'm from Canada - which I still know) in my everyday life, though it unfortunately isn't enough of a vocabulary to have even a basic conversation. I should also note that I tend to have issues with auditory processing, but not with visual/sign processing, so the few signs I know are much easier to understand than spoken words a lot of the time!
My sister also learned baby sign because she had a hard time learning to speak. As she got older, she could speak and wanted to, but she had trouble getting the words out and would stutter. Baby sign (while obviously not a real sign language) helped her a lot as a small baby. She would get really frustrated and cry when she couldn’t get the words out, so it helped a lot. Eventually she went to a speech therapist in school who helped her learn how to essentially get the words out and she didn’t need baby sign anymore. While I understand that it can be disrespectful to deaf people to use a “fake” form of sign language, it really does help some people who are hearing but need a little assistance early on
My niece and nephews were taught basic signs, and I can confirm that it helps significantly! Even just being able to communicate "I'm done" alone, has a huge impact on meltdowns. Almost like kids benifit from being understood, just like adults do, lol
@@jadziajan My daughter's speech therapist explained that the modified signs (or just plain made up ones) for baby sign language are for resolving issues like Jessica described with Rupert and signing "mama." There are some signs that are more difficult for babies/ toddlers to do, and so they've modified them for ease of learning. However, they aren't very beneficial for kids if the only people who understand them are the baby and the caregiver, so in speech therapy settings, the signs taught are predominantly ASL The majority of signs my daughter knows (more, milk, sleep, thank you, all done, help, so on and so forth) are ASL signs. She has modified signs for a few words (like using one hand to sign for jacket instead of two) but predominantly she is using and learning ASL.
I have autism (and audio processing disorder) and I have a few friends who go non verbal at least some of the time. They use sign and I don't know any, but now I'm thinking it would be a good idea to. Reading sign means I wouldn't necessarily have to mask as much which is always a plus.
I think sign language should be taught in schools as well as other languages because it would really help everyone understand each other better. While i worked in retail i often had deaf customers and i felt awful not being able to communicate with them like i could anyone else, all i knew was thankyou which isnt really enough to help
Agreed! I had a deaf mother and child come in and I couldn't communicate and I felt awful. As well as families who spoke other languages I didn't know.
@@danone2414 I live in the Netherlands in a province called Friesland. Friesland has its own language separate from the language used in the rest of the country. We were taught Frisian in school but not dutch sign language. And I can tell you that there are more deaf people in my country than Frisians. (400.000 people speaking Frisian while there are 1.5 million hard hearing to deaf people.) We are sadly not taught sign language in school and can actually only officially learn it from universities or expensive courses. Also even though sign language differs per country, there are a lot of contextual clues and similarities. You can get by in another country, more than any spoken language. I don't know if you intended to agree or disagree with the main comment and I apologize if it sounds a bit on the mean side. It is mainly frustration that I would have loved to learn sign language instead of Frisian.
My oldest is 13 now and because I knew ASL before I had kids are used the signs for the things that she would want on a daily basis like milk more please etc. At 13 she still use the signs to ask me for cheese when she doesn’t want to interrupt some thing like when she’s with a friend. Signing for babies is awesome
Seeing how happy Jessica was that she could understand Rupert was a joy. It’s not 100% the same but I am always very sad when I think I can’t communicate with parts of my family bc they only speak Spanish and I only speak English.
8:28 when I was a little kid, my best friend was deaf (he had a hearing aid and i didn't even realize he was deaf until i was way older lmao, i wasn't a very smart child) and his parents didn't know sign language and they didn't bother teaching him :c i didn't think about it at the time but now it makes me sad to think they could've made his life a lot easier and chose not to
This. There are deaf and HOH individuals on TikTok who are children of hearing parents, and literally no one in the household does sign language with them. I think it's because at one point, it was thought to be "harmful" to not force a deaf/hard of hearing kid into pretending like they can hear. Such utter bullshit, no difference than forcing left-handed individuals to write with their right hands (as if that fucking matters).
My mother attempted to teach me sign when I was little , but it turns out I'm on the autism spectrum and have ADHD , which when didn't learn untill i was nearly in middle school, so unfortunately she never made much progress. I find your channel very uplifting. I have a now 13 month old daughter , and sometimes I find myself really scared and stressed over being a parent with disability. Worrying that my issues could negatively impact my child. Your vidios about Rupert and your journey help me to feel less isolated and more confident in my ability to be a mom.
I wonder if trying out sign language with your daughter could help, because you would be using facial expressions & eye contact? Also, though, I wouldn’t worry. Your daughter is going to have a whole world of people to connect with. The idea that your neurodivergence could “mess her up” somehow seems very unlikely to me. In the beginning kids tend to mimic their parents, but they grow out of that pretty quickly. You probably know plenty of people who are very, very different from their parents. Sometimes deliberately so. (Ie: my mom used to always be late so I get to places ahead of time so I’m never late) That’s not to suggest your daughter is going to look down on you or anything. I’m just saying that kids don’t just learn how to behave from one person. They take everything into account and figure out what works best for them and their personality. I have ADHD too, by the way! Someone suggested I might be on the spectrum, but I doubt that’s the case. Even so, I get along really well with people who are. Thanks for sharing your feelings with us!
@@AK-jt7kh thank you for the encouragement. It's not been easy at times ( money issues on top of everything). I just found out I'm pregnant again so you've definitely made my day.
i’m on the spectrum too (not diagnosed until adolescence!) and i was good at learning signs and really gravitated towards communicating with it when i was a baby/toddler. didn’t know it was the ‘tism back then but probably really helped my parents with communication even though i was never quite nonverbal. really cool to see how diverse the spectrum is!
Oddly enough watching this video it hit me why I was never successful at learning sign language. I have aphantasia so when someone signs to me I only see the sign in that instance and then it’s gone. On the other hand, honestly if I had a child who was deaf I would make sure they learned sign. Unfortunately we’d have to figure out a way to communicate as trying to remember signs actually gives me a headache like everything else I try to picture, but enabling a child to communicate is the most important.
@@elizaRose8900 No biggie - you’ve got this! I know you’ll find a way. It’s rough….but you don’t need a ton of money to raise happy kids. Some of the happiest kids I’ve ever met came from families that had financial stress. I do feel for you - that’s rough. But at the same time, probably keep your mind on the bigger picture. Some financial struggles now don’t define the future. One day, your kids will be grown up and successful, and helping you out, and I bet they’ll respect their mom for the trials she had to go through to be the person she was for her family. For the record…my mom was really “unconventional”. I don’t think shes on the spectrum but I would not be surprised at all if people thought she was. Not only was she not very emotionally forthcoming, but she butted heads with a lot of her peers. She also didn’t keep a neat household - the place was trashed when I was growing up! Lol! But you know…none of that registers in my kid brain as “wrong” or “abnormal” because I didn’t know what was typical. She was just mom and I adored her. She used to wrap me up in a towel after a bath and sing out of tune songs to me. She was never a great mom in the “conventional” sense, but she’s been the greatest mom ever for me. She went to bat for me repeatedly when the teachers were picking on me in gradeschool. She always understood how it felt to be different and alienated. She gave me hope, confidence, and challenged my mind. Without her I definitely wouldn’t be all that I am today, and in the “typical”’ sense, she would have been considered a “terrible mom” - because she didn’t force me to do a bunch of homework, didn’t keep a routine, didn’t have a tidy house, and so on and so forth… But the skills she had were the ones I really needed. She loved me, spent time with me, paid attention to me, and gave me wise advice and life lessons. She used to drive me to school in the morning (which no other moms did so the other kids were kind of jealous about it), and we used to play games like “the price of ducks” where she would give me simple word problems with farmers and ducks and ask me to figure out how much the feed costs and stuff. She had her own unique style of parenting and it was her uniqueness that made me grow into a unique person - which made me uniquely valuable to other people later in life, because I had a way of thinking and solving problems that most people didn’t have. Motherhood is so complex, I think. You cannot predict how your children will turn out. I think the most important thing is simply that you love them genuinely in your own way, and you figure out ways to enjoy their company so you can spend time with them in a way that makes you both happy. My mom never pandered to me. We did the things she liked to do, pretty much, but seeing her happy made me happy. I can’t remember ever seriously having an issue with how frugal my parents were. Weirdly, it turned out that we had a pretty well off family - but they were very tight with cash and were careful not to spoil us or ever show us how much we actually had. In fact, my dad routinely threatened to cancel our cable or turn down our heat in the winter because finances were tight 😂 But honestly - that didn’t make me think less of them. I didn’t have much to compare it to. That was just my definition of life. Then later on, I ended up respecting them for it. I’m so glad they didn’t raise me to be pampered and spoiled. The best thing I got from them was their time. That was worth far more to me as a kid than their money. I know I’m rambling, but I did it in the hopes that you won’t worry so much about your finances. You seem resourceful - I think you’ll make due, and I absolutely believe that your kids will notice or care. Not having money doesn’t make you any less awesome as a mom. Having neurodivergence just makes you unique and cool. If you’re worried about what your kids will think of you for the things you think are issues…maybe dial back on that a bit, as kids simply don’t view the world through the comparative judgement of an adult. I think what kids notice most is the amount, and quality, of the personal time you give them. Even if you’re not a very emotional person. (My mom definitely isn’t. Lol) Funny side note on that. I just had to wake her up at nearly 12am to ask where dad was bc he’s been missing all night, and she said he was in the hospital and went back to bed. Not once did it occur to her that I might like to know that information 😂…and she was so casual about it, it made me think…and I going to one day be like “hey, mom, dads been missing, any idea where he’s at?” And she’ll be like “Oh, your dads dead! Here, have a pork chop. They’re still hot.” That’s just mom for you! My cousin and I laugh sometimes at how emotionally detached she can be! It’s just cute and funny. Just my mom being her unique mom self! I love it! You seem so cool - I think your kids will love you the way I love my mom. Just try to take care of yourself and manage the stress however you can. And when you get bogged down with the things that are depressing you…it might help you to try to look at the bigger picture and imagine your life (and kids) 5 or 10 years from now. That always helps me! Having ADHD is a hardship I can relate to…but don’t worry. I think you’ll do just fine! 💕
Hello lovely lady! I am four years out of cancer treatment, my husband and I are finally able to start getting ready for our first baby! I often get out of breath or cannot speak loudly, and my husband has early hearing loss from ten years of very loud working environs, so we are wanting to learn signs to communicate with each other easier for us both. I am so happy for this video and for being part of your audience. I think I speak for most of us when I say that we love a Roo update whenever you want to give us one! You have taught me so much about an array of subjects, and I find that I am relating better to both animals and humans through gentle and respectful needs assessment in real time. You have my everlasting gratitude!
I used to work at a place that did baby sign classes. There was an attempt to be genuine, but I'd also get a lot of side eye from parents every time I'd sign while talking to their kids outside class or try and tell stories about my experiences interacting with deaf culture. As a note, I am hearing but go to a college with a large deaf population, so I picked up the language to better interact with friends, roommates, and co-workers.
This video brought me a great deal of happiness. Just seeing the joy on Jessica's face as she talked about Rupert and about his progress in learning sign language was wonderful. Thank you Jessica for sharing this with us.
Jessica, this was a fascinating video. The story about Rupert trying to sign "Mummy", and progressing from the closed fist to the O-Shape with his hand was so heart warming, also hilarious. Thank you for sharing about how Claudia and You are teaching him and the way his little brain is getting it!
I've wanted to learn sign language for years, but there has never been a direct need for it (i.e. nobody I know speaks sign language). But I've seen some people use baby sign, and thought that was really cool, so I had this plan to do that with my future children. Thank you for explaining this clearly. I am now fully committed to learning actual sign language and using the correct signs with future babies 👶 (and continue as they grow up)
The only direct need I have for learning sign language is that I occasionally become non-speaking, and unfortunately it wouldn’t be much help unless at least some of those closest to me were to learn sign language as well. If only I could sign rather than having to type on my phone.
@@ragnkja That would be really useful indeed. I've been thinking about just having a few signs that I can easily teach people close to me. I'm not non-verbal, but I do get overwhelmed easily (autistic), so sometimes I want to be able to respond to easy questions with signs instead of words. Just being able to sign "I'm fine, just need to sit for a bit" would already make a difference. Maybe something like that is possible? Where the people close to you know some basics?
I wish I knew asl fully because a kid my hearing would get really bad for some unknown reason. I ended up learning some like yes, no, hello, and the alphabet, but I pretty much taught myself from looking it up online. And I just learned that my grandma speaks asl almost fluently because she was a special ed teacher. I am currently learning more, but I wish someone taught me when I was little. (Something cool is that some signs are second nature to me, so when I speak I'll sign certain words and not realize :))
As a former special education teacher the most tragic thing I’ve ever seen was teaching a sixth grade class of students with disabilities. One boy in the class was profoundly deaf and had no sign language skills and was basically without language as he was not given speech classes or intensive reading classes. He was a complete sweetheart but had absolutely no idea what was going on and even his one on one aideWould just sort of point to the paper where he was supposed to be working. I couldn’t even use my sign language to teach him because he was a boy without language. In adjust world he would’ve been removed from his neglectful parents and placed with people who gave a damn
Removing children from their parents is rarely the best idea. Possibly that family needed education and support to understand how important sign language is and then to learn it, or even some other kind of support if they didn't have the time or capacity to care for their child properly.
That is so horrific to hear! I've worked with kids as a relief teacher and been asked to document disfunctional behaviours stemming from neglect to create a file to report parents.. Could you still contact someone official now and get a social worker to the kids family? No child deserves to be uncared for.
I started to tear up when you talked about how ableist it is to expect the disabled person to adapt for the abled people - even though either they can't or it is very hard and exhausting for them to do. I am autistic (undiagnosed because I don't think an official diagnosis will be any kind of advantage for me, but my friends all know that I am autistic) and I have HMS (Hypermobility Syndrome) and a cartilage tear in my right hip which causes me chronic pain in my hip, back and hands and chronic fatigue. Despite all of this, everyone always expects me to adapt to them, socially and physically. And I do my best but it is so hard and exhausting and, to be honest, I get fed up with how they won't just accept me as I am. Why do I have to change? Why can't they just give me some leeway? A little bit of acceptance and kindness goes a long way.
I’m also autistic. Very recently diagnosed but it took a long time. It’s exhausting I understand you and days are filled with trying to get by, overcome, adapt rather than live or enjoy.. you know? I try to believe it will get better over the years as understanding becomes better. But also I wish people made that effort themselves sometimes to understand.. I’m being unclear. I found my friends accept me the most, people who are younger. ♥️ You’re doing the best you can and you deserve to be considered more by those around you (although annoying, people just do not realise what they’re expecting of you is so emotionally and physically taxing. Although that is just reason for them to listen ... hmm). I wish you the best.
Due to Jessica's videos, I started asking my friend about her job interpreting for school children and I ended up signing onto Skillshare to learn sign and the history. I never understood why it wasn't an option to learn as a kid but I feel like knowing even a little can help people feel less ostracized in new environments if more people could communicate with each other.
Rupert trying his best to make signs for Mamma and Mummy made me laugh! He's trying his best, his little baby fingers just aren't quite there yet! I love it
I got so emotional with this video, I finally subscribed! (my first, you're welcome)... babbling with his tiny pudgy hands!!!! omg, I didn't even CONSIDER that as a thing, I just started crying!! I am learning BSL level 2 at the moment (no specific reason, just always interested, and I think its an easy thing for hearing people to learn that can change the world for deaf people). I'm trying to increase my exposure to the deaf community. I don't have kids (and won't be having any), but I have a niece and she was taught a little baby sign (I tried to get them to do better, I'm sorry!)... she still signed 'sorry' more than she said it even when she learned to talk. But, whenever I go visit, I always try to sign some basic words when I have her to myself... hahahahaaaaaa
my mother started teaching me sign language when i was about 2 and started talking. it was a way for me to communicate in places like libraries or churches since i hadn’t quite figured out volume modulation. as i’ve gotten older i’ve started losing hearing in one of my ears and it’s been incredibly beneficial to me now
The way he doesn't sign "Mummy" or "Mama" quite right sounds a lot like when I was a baby and I would call my mom "Mondy" instead of "Mommy" (until I heard my cousin say "Mommy" correctly). So cute!
Such an awesome vid! When our son was an infant, he experienced an encephalopathy which caused him to be mute. We did not expect he would ever speak. So, at 12 months of age, we taught our hearing child ASL to give him a voice. Our church had a sign language interpreter during service. I sat in front of her to learn to sign. She taught me his first words (Momma, Daddy, milk, more, my, eat, change, play, please, thank you, no, yes) He really took to signing. His kindergarten teacher said, "site words are really hard for the kids. I've always wished I had a picture for them." I said, teach them the sign for each word! The sign is the picture. The school allowed me to come to class several times a week to teach the kids the signs for their site words. He is 20 and still signs. He speaks quite well know. As a parent, I loved prompting my children in sign. Or speak to them across the room. Or chastise them in public without embarrassing them. My older son and husband all got into the program. Speech is such a complex motor function. Teaching any child sign gives them a voice way before they can functionally speak with their mouths. Sony benefits! I had my laptop on the counter to look up words I didn't know. He would ask how to sign a word. He finger spelled words he wanted to know. It was really exciting to have conversations with my then mute son. Thank you for all you do!
Your anecdotes about Rupert are causing a cuteness overload in my brain (and judging by the other comments I'm just one of many). Can't wait to find out what his first clearly signed word will be (because I'm guessing that these approximations don't really count, but it's just an assumption).
my sister counts her eldest daughter's first word as "shoes" because it was the first thing she verbalized that was understood and wasn't just a name - mama, dada, baba (for brother). but the thing is, i've seen the video - she was young enough that it came out like "sooz", not "shoes". it still very much counts as her first word though because, despite the _technical_ error, it was still understood and did approximate the proper word. (almost) no kid's first word is perfectly pronounced, but if it's close enough to be understood 🤷🏻 why not? tl;dr they could almost definitely found some of his signs as "first words" already. they might not choose to until he's cot the hand shapes down a bit more, but that's up to them. this is much the same as determining any kid's "first" spoken word
ASL is offered as a language credit at many high schools and is a great option for kids who struggle in English class or just can't grasp another language like Spanish or French. Be aware that it's normally taught by a hearing person so make sure to take into account where they learned and where the materials are from, especially since different regions have accents just like in the speaking population. The more local the source the better when it comes to communication with people in the community and the potential for work as an interpreter. Sometimes the signs are so different it's as confusing as using BSL in the US. Hard of hearing myself and struggling with my son learning at school as even the letters differ from what I learned as a student assistant in a Montessori preschool.
I learnt so much in this video! I have mental health stuff that sometimes makes communicating verbally difficult, so my partner and I are planning to learn some sign to like, give us an alternative form of communication. I will make sure we learn from a deaf teacher, and I'm excited to do research into the community as well ☺️
I love this soooo much!!!! Side note story: my favourite sign language moment was seeing a dude driving his car, turning the corner and chatting in sign at the same time... the SKILL
Did anyone else note the elation and utter relief Jessica feels and expresses at being able to *connect* with her baby and how - especially as a parent - that is one of the biggest concerns you have? Or more importantly, that she still gets to experience the cute babbling stage of language as it develops and, by extension, gets to fully experience all those nuances of parenting as a disabled parent?! 😍😍😍 How awesome and wonderful ❤️❤️❤️
It's so lovely that you'd like to adopt a HoH/deaf child. They are, just like you said, often not as lucky as hearing children in being placed, and they surely require the same love.
It never stops being a relief that Jessica and Claudia consistently respect the privacy of their child. I enjoy the videos more, knowing the baby isn't being used as clickbait.
It's so cool to me that the "only parents understand their children's made up words"-phenomenon applies to sign language as well. The moment where they suddenly use the word right will probably also come sooner than later and be a bit bittersweet.
In the 5th or 6th grade our Catholic school in Hawaii taught us to sign in popular prayers and songs. We learned rather quickly bc it was the rare thing that we students loved learning. We all thought it was pretty cool. I don't remember anything else taught to us that the entire class enjoyed and was happy to learn.
Hi Jessica, what a lovely and very interesting video! I was absolutely shocked to learn that 70% of hearing parents with deaf childs don't want to learn sign language. But I realised that I also have a deaf friend who has very little conncection to the deaf community (as far as I know) and the video made me think about how I personally (as an able-bodied person) can be more accomodating towards her. All the best to you and your family!
Babies are amazingly smart, much smarter than we have ever known before. Their communication skills are extraordinary, as they will try anything to communicate with you. More moms and dads should get to know this, it would help a lot with the frustration many parents feel with their very small children and not understanding what they need.
i love the fact that smiling is such a universal language!! that he smiles back at you when you show you understand him? my heart! i've only ever seen babies smile at people in response to another smile or in greeting!
Signing whilst reading at storytime every night is such a great way to teach the language. I remember when learning English as a child reading to each other and taking turns reading helping each other to learn was such a great bonding, memorable and important moment in my development.
Im trying to learn sign language since im autistic and i get non verbal and when an interpreteer friend taught me a few words (like scared) i could still use them whilst non-verbal. When in the future i get a kid I want to pass this knowledge on since it is so amazing and the chances of them also being autistic is very big. I owe a big one to the deaf community
It makes me quite sad that I knew so much ASL as a child. I went to school in St. Augustine, FL where the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is. I had a friend that went there half a day and our school the other half a day. She taught me so much but I moved and we lost touch and I didn't keep up with it. I still remember some and what I did remember helped me with my son with autism who was speach delayed. I'm glad you are doing this with Rupert.
As an autistic adult (who dearly wishes that she and those closest to her knew Norwegian Sign Language) I hope you’re continuing to use sign language so that if/when he’s temporarily non-speaking he still has a way to communicate without having to resort to writing. It’s frustrating when my voice isn’t cooperating and I can’t get anything nuanced across unless I take the time to write it on my phone.
As a child I had verbal dyspraxia (I couldn't speak until I was 3). At 18 months my parents learned signing exact english (a version of sign language in the US) and taught me, and when I did start speaking I was speaking in full sentences. It was definently a life changing experience and I'm so thankful to have had access to sign when I needed it. Teaching babies/children to sign is so important, thank-you so much for this video!
I love that you are purposefully very polite in front of your little one. I did the same with my son; he’s been saying please, thank you and sorry without any prompting since he was 18 months. It was one of my proudest mummy moments the first time he said “thank you” (or “ank ew” 😁) to a waiter who brought him a sandwich when he was just 18 months old.
I love that you are making certain your child shares your language. Too often I see children lose communication with their elders because their parents chose one language over the other. Kudos.
I found this video both really heartwarming and really useful. I am deaf in my right ear and am fluent in Auslan and a teacher of the Deaf. I'm planning to raise my future children bilingually with both Auslan and English. I like how you mentioned that you need to make it clear to Rupert that you can't hear him if her calls for help. It made me realise that I will need to teach my future partner and children to not call for me from another room without saying their location as I can't localise sound, it has only taken my family 20 years to get it so I will need to get a head start on my children :P
When I was in Montessori school there was a girl with learning disabilities in my class and we were all taught how to communicate with her in sign language. I still remember how to sing happy birthday in sign 😄
I LOVE that...."My children can learn to sign...I CANT learn to hear". Thats is gold! One of my BFF's has just completed for VERY rigorous course in her full certifications of being an Auslan interpreter. She has an honors degree in Neuroscience, but after several years of working in that field, she felt she wasnt helping ppl enough. I already knew since childhood a small range of signs, as I had childhood friends from the special school at my primary school with autism and other disabilities who were non verbal. So when I had a son with autism I had no issues with it at all... he used com cards with a little folder at first (from age 2) but he eventually leanred to speak. I even used com cards to put on the fridge to show what was for dinner that night, so his levek of predicatbility about the day reduced his anxiety and refusal to eat what he was given. However Im so proud of my friend, she provides her services for free for various organisations, and is only paid for diff kids of social support work!
To this day, I find one of the cutest and most interesting things I learned about linguistics, that children acquire sign language the exact same way as they acquire spoken language, i.e. the babbling, they go through the same stages of development and vocabulary and articulation, ...
"I have no intention of wearing my hearing aids in the evening in my own home, it's like wearing a suit and tie to lounge around in bed." This is a very big mood and one I relate to a lot, as another deaf person. My girlfriend needs to get right up to my head to tell me she loves me and good night.
I would recommend filming him with his smiles, so you have those precious moments for later, but blurring or obscuring his face for us strangers in editing. Mama and Mummy know best of course.
I'm so relieved, my level of sign is pretty pitiful but I've been teaching what I know to my 2 yo from day 1 and adding new words to my vocabulary as needed. I started with ASL, saw baby sign language and went: "nah". But I do add in LSF vocabulary because we're an anglo-French family 🤯 at this age she uses the 3 languages interchangeably. For hearing parents, it's great to be able to communicate discreetly, across distances and in noisy situations!
It would be really amazing to see sign language be included as a forced curriculum during early schooling and staying throughout until high school. A mass amount of people learning sign would be really great.
I think its great to teach babies as much as possible, and there is no con to learning sign language to me anyway. Im really astonished how much a 5 month old is able to process. Good luck to you all :D
rupert's reactions and his own signing are so damn adorable?? ugh i love babies and their smart brains also, i almost cried when you talked about being able to connect with him, because we truly do not think about the importance of this when we take a child being able to hear or see as a given
I Learned sign language very young because my mother had to learn some to work with hearing impaired and deaf children. Later I worked for over a year w the same kind of children and my skills improved drastically. So much so that, while directing the church choir I used sign to communicate with them. It work ed out well
My mom taught me basic sign language as a kid (mainly the ABC's, yes/no), but I still remember occasions when it became useful like I could answer questions if I was coughing or otherwise couldn't speak loudly (like if I was sick), and could also ask my mom for stuff without my little brother knowing ;) I still remember most of the ABC's and still have to teach friends what I'm doing when I sign 'no' if I'm yawning or something, cause it's just instinctual for me.
The intentionality with which you and Claudia parent is so beautiful 💖 I teared up at this video. Thank you for sharing so much of your gorgeous family with us. X
My SIL's mom is deaf and we have been teaching my granddaughter ASL sign since she could focus her eyes! She has had to have palette surgery at 3, this last year, because she could not make her vocal sounds to speak. I am so happy we had a good means of communication during that time and we are continuing to add to her vocabulary as her hearing and speaking vocabulary increase. She can talk with all of her grandmoms as well as the deaf girl in her play group. As soon as the other girl's mom saw my granddaughter sign to her daughter and include her in playing, the mom had tears and it was a wonderful thing for the other kids to see and experience. We are all happy that Livy can talk to other kids and adults alike, using words in both.💚
I am volunteering as a Baby Sign instructor for toddlers, both hearing and otherwise, for my Duke of Edinburgh Award and already know some BSL and Mackaton so I am really looking forward to learning. This video was also very informative and enjoyable - thank you. ❤️
@@grayonthewater I think the point was that it was stopped after the child (mainly hearing) learnt to talk, because it was normally used to prevent toddler tantrums. The Community Interest Company I am volunteering for is to support special needs children and their families, so the point is to teach them a life skill. And, if I'm completely honest, the group I am doing I think it is more Mackaton than baby sign, but I get where she is coming from.
@@liriodendronlasianthus Thank you, like I say, it is probably more Mackaton based than baby sign, but it is with a CIC for children with additional needs, so, as I said, it isnt just to avoid toddler tantrums
Well, learning about baby sign was depressing. That whole section definitely deserved the black and white translation. Thank you for making a video thats so lovely and well done and something that is good for sharing with those who maybe wouldn't be the most open to such ideas. ♥️
как трогательно, что Руперт уже использует некоторые знаки! У вас такая чудесная семья, надеюсь, всё будет хорошо, несмотря на хроническую усталость и заболевания Джессики. Ваша история очень вдохновляет, у нас в России такой, к сожалению, невозможно.
I actually have a friend who used sign language to teach his nephew how to let him know hungry, diaper, yes, and no in ASL. My friend is just ecstatic and has wondered if hearing people can hear him making sounds when he signs, he's so happy he has someone who can sign with him, it's just adorable and marvelous! I would love to hear more updates as you go along, and also agree on keeping his photos off the internet until he can at least give knowledgeable consent that he knows what's going on? Thank you so much for sharing and I got that mushy love feeling deep in my heart while watching this video 💗🥰😊 Thank you for brightening my day!
As a early childhood teacher that is learning sign language on my free time, this makes me very happy to hear about his learning and language development. You do all the right things I learned about language development in university. For me it is quite obvious teoretically that sign language development should be very similar to spoken language development, but it was very interesting to confirm that for me.
Rupert is so lucky to have you two as mums, like in general but specifically i had to work so hard to be bilingual and i can't say i'm not a little jealous to see him just be handed bilingualism from birth, really great to see you making such an effort to give him such an amazing skill
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm studying special needs education with a focus on sign language (in Germany). It's a very small major with sadly very little research done but I find it really fascinating to hear your stories about Rupert. Especially as I have recently been writing a paper about manual babbling in babies. Would love to hear more about this topic and your observations in the future!
i am a hearing person. my parents are hearing. i learned to sign as a baby, i actually signed before i spoke. unfortunately i stopped learning it when i got older. i still remember animal names and things but i am picking it up again and i can even hold a conversation now! it's such an important skill and i find it interesting and fun to learn. i encourage evry single hearing perosn to do this!
It would be so cool to see Rupert sign! If you're willing to do so and then maybe blur our his face if it pops into shot it would be so cool to see his lil hands doing their thang!
I think this is a great idea and I really don’t understand how people find deaf babies or children signing is sad. This is a very interesting video and you gave great information to us and I learnt a lot as always thank you so much for making a great video
My parents dont speak sign language but they did teach me a couple of very basic signs, apparently I used to sign 'more milk' constantly round the shops 😂
I apparently knew baby signs when I was very young, and it's wild to me that now I know *so few* signs, because my mother is an ASL interpreter and I went to many events where I was surrounded by deaf people and other interpreters while growing up
I took a few years of ASL in high school and wanted to continue but my university didn't offer it as a class (I could have continued learning on my own but I lacked the consistency). I want to start learning again. I hope to teach ASL to me future kids so I appreciate this video and I loved hearing about the examples of your son
my mum signed up for a sign language class when I was a kid because she had a new co-worker who was deaf and my sister and i wanted to learn a bit because to us it felt like the coolest thing to be able to communicate without words. Made us feel like super spies or something, so we learned it a bit, and it's such a valuable skill even tho I totally fell off the bandwagon of keeping it up. Also, why is it even a question that it's an amazing opportunity for a young child to learn both parents languages that they are fluid in? like?? We know that about bilingual kids who don't learn sign language, but somehow people don't think the same about sign language? That's wild to me. I think it's so cool that he has this opportunity that other children don't have, and I honestly appreciate you telling us the process of teaching him. Baby babble is the cutest thing in the world, and sign baby babble is soooo cute. I can't even. Wishing you all the best xx
My husband and I plan to teach our children to sign language 🤟🏻 because being bilingual as a human is fabulous. And it’s good for development of communication skills and being inclusive with friends. I learned ASL in primary school in a club. I have attempted to keep up with it and used it in my life when talking to deaf customers, I worked in retail prior to my disability increasing. So yeah he’s going to learn sign also. Because more people knowing how to sign is excellent.
I had my first lot of hearing aids at 3.. I cried…😅 my parents are both hearing so it was focused on me being able to hear, it’s better than it was but my hearing will always go up and down🙃🙃 it’s amazing that he can pick up signs already😍😍
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i don't understand why people would find deaf babies/children signing sad??? let me tell you when i found out deaf babies babble in sign language it was the cutest thing ever. i cry just thinking about it tbh.
OMG, I just pictured that and it made me smile. Thanks!
I feel like it comes down to a lack of education about Deaf Culture and how different people who are Deaf/deaf it. People don't understand, and I (as a hearing person) have had to learn that (as part of learning ASL)
People who are able bodied and don't have any real contact with disabled people often develop a form of misguided and misplaced empathy and sympathy and so they think it's sad that a child can't hear just like they think a child who can't walk is a sad situation. "Having to be disabled", in this mindset, is something to be pitied.
I mean it's not only adorable but it will definitely come in handy as they grow older!
IIRC, is one of the 'early bits' of supporting evidence that the brain completely accepts sign languages as a full on valid language. Audio/verbal not necessary.
I'd love to share one of my favorite examples of baby sign language babbling: in American Sign Language, the sign for ducks is using the index and middle fingers together with the thumb on one hand to make the 'quacking' motion by the cheek close to mouth. This toddler was familiar with this sign via books etc. Always used one hand. Visiting a pond with many ducks, he was in awe.. then looking over the masses of ducks, he started using the sign for duck with both hands(one hand on each cheek).. that was his babbling way of using ducks in the plural. It was the cutest thing ever!
It amazes me that there would ever be a need to justify teaching your kid your own language. Not only is it useful/necessary for communicating in your own home, it’s also just a great skill to pass on! Who doesn’t want to know more languages and communicate with more people?? I’m very happy for you that it seems to be going well. And I’m happy for your baby that he’ll know such a beautiful language.
While both me and my wife are fluent in English and we live in Scotland now we will definitely teach our bairn Dutch so she can more easily communicate with her grandparents. Plus indeed learning extra languages has a LOT of cognitive and developmental advantages.
Unfortunately I don't learn new things that easily any more due to my own impairments but already being able to speak multiple languages makes it easier for me to pick up new ones as well. I hope to add sign language to my repertoire to be more inclusive. And after Dutch sign language will definitely be the third language we teach our bairn, before any of the other ones we already know.
ps. I'm hoping to add my view here from an perspective of being inclusive. As I'm not D/deaf myself my voice isn't the one that deserves to be amplified though. Feel free to ignore this comment.
I live in a city with a lot of people from all over the world. Some of the kids that live in extended family groups grow up with English and also their grandparents' home language so by the time they get to infant school they are already bilingual. It seems to put them ahead in terms of learning more new languages on top, as well as other skills. Plus, my kids used to come home with some songs and games in other languages (and swear words!) So more power to your elbow!
That is often Said by people who never Had to learn another language. I live in scotland and would definetely teach my children German because its frigging useful. But a Lot of people dont want immigrants to do that and instead "learn proper english". Those people then try to say that If you learn two languages, you will fail at both, which is such Bs. My charitable Interpretation is that people who never honestly had to be bilingual cannot Imagine actually succeeding in language learning. It's funny because it Just Shows that they never bothered learning a language properly, despite french and German being taught frequently
@@annabeinglazy5580 Yeah anyone who says if you try to learn two languages at once you'll fail at both probably isn't bilingual. As someone who grew up in a bilingual household, it's very much possible and I'm forever grateful to both be able to communicate with my extended family and carry on such an important part of my culture.
Rupert babbling to himself in sign is such a cute image
Also why wouldn't a Deaf/deaf parent teach their child sign? It's like asking a parent why they want to be able to communicate with their child.
I think that part was hearing parents of deaf children. Instead of learning sign and teaching it to their child, they force the kid to learn to lip-read. Which is hard enough if you already know the language, but makes learning a language very hard because you only have mouth shapes to go on, and a lot of sounds make the same shape.
Scientists have found that hearing babies of deaf parents ( the study was about *exclusively* deaf parents, though) "babble" with their hands - their hand movements were very distinct from those of hearing babies with one or both hearing parent(s).
THATS ADORABLE
Omg so cute!!!
I have friends that are CODA (children of deaf adults) Both parents were born deaf, and have all full hearing children. It’s amazing to see how much learning sign language first has moved them to the front! They have signed for the police department, legal proceedings, they have taught at Gaudette University, and now are advocates for standard criteria for public signers. They have always urged myself and other hearing friends to learn for inclusivity. I think you’re absolutely right that hearing people should learn sign. The joy on the patrons faces when I was a server, and positively tripped through my rudimentary sign language was definitely enough to keep me going.
I started learning a few basic signs to communicate in extremely loud environments without having to yell into people's ears, but was really surprised how intuitive it was compared to learning a spoken language, which I am terrible at. Definitely can't hold a conversation in sign, but I retain the information so much easier than trying to learn Spanish. Had a deaf customer years ago at my sandwich job and he was stoked I could at least make an attempt
Look up 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' by Ed Sheeran. The main focus of the video is an actor by the name of Matthew Jacobs Morgan - his parents are both deaf and he is hearing, but he signs the entire song and does an AMAZING job. He is also fluent in French and German. Start them young in multiple languages, and I do consider signing whole other language. It'll be nothing but helpful in school.
My mom is hoh and I had to call so many places growing up because phones really weren't accessible back in the day and my mom doesn't use or know sign language because she really doesn't quite need it with how much hearing she still has in every day life.
I had to learn how to sound professional and relay information at a very young age and honestly that was a good thing because I later never struggled to do that kind of stuff for myself.
Some people were and still are weird about my mom's disability though and that also made me quickly sus out people and learn who I want around me and who isn't good to have as friends.
Gallaudet*
I honestly don't understand why it's not a subject in primary school at this point. Deaf children shouldnhave the same access to other citizen. Teaching kids sign laguages would work into that (as well as being super useful in situation when yelling from one side of the room to the other isn't possible)
So is he effectively calling Claudia "Ommy"? That's super cute! 🥰👶
to someone who doesn't know shit about sign language read this comment with the translation makes my heart warm... how cute it is pls I cannot
Oh my god ... him signing Mama and Mommy to you and Claudia respectively is just the cutest thing ever!! And I agree that teaching your child sign language wether its a deaf or hearing baby is only benificial. Cant find a single downside to having this as a base skillset from esely childhood on.
I taught my son sign language because he was under the spectrum and did not speak at all by age 3. He only repeated one word over and over (echolalia).
He eventually dropped the signs and spoke, but our intention was never to have him not have tantrums, but rather to communicate with him. I owe the deaf community the ability to communicate with my son. The greatest gift I could have ever been given. He's now 19 years old and about to graduate high school and go to college.
That's so lovely to read! I have a similar story with my now 9yo kid, sign was such a game changer for the communication to exist at all ♡ makes me happy to hear your son is doing well growing up!
I know what echolalia is but I still thought you were saying that that was the word he’d repeat over and over lol
Autism? It’s interesting how autism can affect everyone differently. I have autism and I started speaking at a regular age and learnt how to read earlier than other kids.
@@rachelcookie321 i was the same way, in fact i think i potentially started speaking, reading and writing earlier than a lot of kids too. however once i hit 14yrs old most of my traits showed up a lot more often and more debilitating, like my sensory issues.
by the age of 16 i was having nonverbal shutdowns and couldnt communicate at all, not even through texting or writing.
i personally wish i could sign to help with that but due to my other disabilities (chronic pain in my wrists) it is not really possible to make most of the movements for auslan
@@kaelin8775 yea, for me I started showing symptoms of autism when I started puberty at age 10. It went down hill real fast. When I’m upset I can’t communicate at all, I don’t know how show what I feel. My mum got me these cards that say different things that you can show when you’re upset but that just made me angry because it’s not just that I struggle to say what I want, I can’t communicate it in any way. Then I got angry and I couldn’t say why I didn’t like them so I just squealed and threw them where I will never see them.
The stories of Rupert doing his best with his coordination in progress baby hands are ADORABLE.
This is so informative, sign language should be on the school curriculum, young children soak up new skills so easily and its a skill for life.
Agree with you. 🙂
Yes! My babysitter’s daughter was losing her hearing and my sitter taught us kids the alphabet and a few basic signs just in case. I was under 10 at the time and now at 31 I still remember almost all of it! Vs the four years of Spanish I took in high school that I only recall bits and pieces of 😅 I wish they offered languages for school children!
@@peterfireflylund yes learning a language is hard but from my experience of working in schools for 20+ years, if you are enthusiastic and make it interesting they want to learn more, teaching yr 10/11 some sign has been fun and them stopping me in the corridor to sign something they learnt in their lesson makes my heart sing. Also some students who struggle with the curriculum could find this a better way and style of learning.
I personally think there is a place for any language, sign, French Spanish Mandarin ect and I think it shows respect for a person/ culture if you try to communicate in their native tongue, I know when I go to a different country I try to say some basics in the language of the country- not always successfully!
@@peterfireflylund kids often learn new languages a lot faster than adults and there’s no harm in knowing two languages or more.
@@peterfireflylund fully learning a language is a lot of work, but learning at least basic vocabulary can be helpful.
You describing Rupert signing Mummy when he heard Claudia's voice made me tear up with happiness!
I taught my now 4 year old basic Auslan signs when she was a baby as a way to help her communicate her needs, and yes it did reduce her frustration when she was "pre-verbal." We continue using sign language with her and she is also learning it at preschool.
Everyone in my family are hearing, but having a family member who worked in the disability sector meant we always had a basic level of sign of sign language in the household (such as please/thank you), but we had more comprehension to understand if someone was signing to us.
I decided to learn more Auslan as I was a tour guide at Parliament House in Australia and would often interact with people needing directions around the building, again generally answers to a small range of questions such as where is the toilet/cafe/security desk. The look of relief when someone would come in and start writing a question on their phone and I would answer them in Auslan (even if my grammar was sometimes terrible) was heart warming (and at the same time depressing that my small efforts to communicate was such a rarity) and I would have people who visited regularly only want to deal with me as they didn't have to change their behaviour to be understood. And everyone was more than happy to help me to improve my signing to make it less formal and more conversational. Where I work now I have a profoundly deaf colleague and everyone in the section (about 50 people) all have a basic level of sign language (basic signs and finger spelling) because we have an incredibly inclusive work culture and don't exclude anyone and we all have a healthy knowledge of sign swear words 😀
I am now teaching my 6 week old son sign as well and I've noticed his big sister signing to him as well. Yes he can't sign yet, but I've noticed he will move his arms up out of the way when I sign that I am going to pick him up.
And one of the biggest advantage to teaching your children sign language (apart from all the benefits of learning another language as a child and being able to communicate with the deaf community and other groups who use sign as their only method of communication) is you can tell them, in no uncertain terms, to stop what they are doing, put something down and get back to you across a noisy crowded children's play area much to the awe and amazement of other parents who are yelling themselves hoarse trying to control their "little darlings."
I want to individually 👍 every single point that you made!
agree with the above comment! all of this is lovely
I think it’s good that Rupert is a CODA. Not only is he able to speak another language, but he can connect with Jessica. A child deserves to be able to connect and relate to his mother.
I recently had major surgery and was on a ventilator and very heavily medicated...BUT I kept talking in basic letter sign because, even though I was out of it, I was able to tap into the basic ABC's. Unfortunately no one could understand, thankfully a student nurse came in and told them I was saying DAVID (my husband) over and over. I think all hospitals should have at least one sign proficient person, because non-hearing/unable to vocalize people need to be understood too. I may be hearing and understand minimal sign language, but I have never been more glad that I learned the basics or wished I'd been taught/learned more. I'm so glad you are teaching Rupert regular signs, it will serve him well as he grows.
Bless you! That must have been distressing :( Someone should have offered you a letter board at least. Good on the student nurse, what a perfect timing for her to be there on that placement. I imagine others in hospital would have also been able to help esp with simple finger spell - but again someone needs to think to go find out who or have a list. I'm a doctor can sign BSL & use w Deaf patients. Although trying to get back to better fluency & learn more med words too. In mean time obvs still want them to have proper comm vis interpretor.
In the US at least, every hospital that gets federal funding must have access to and offer interpreters for languages common in that community, as well as ASL. Larger hospitals or medical groups have more languages, especially in areas with a lot of immigrants because it can be hard to define what languages are "common" if they're always fluctuating. For patients who speak languages outside of what that hospital has, they have to get an interpreter on the phone. Tons of places have rolling monitors that can use to video chat an interpreter now!
The interpreter should be trained as a MEDICAL interpreter, not just someone who can translate the language. They're specially trained to communicate all of the complicated medical jargon properly between languages. That's part of why they have to offer an interpreter even if a patient comes in with a family member who can translate.
I do that when I dissociate and/or meltdown (PTDS, CPTSD, DID, which aren't helped by autism) and can't talk in any spoken language I know anymore
For some reason, I can almost always still communicate in sign language even though mine is a bit rusty now (removing the rust by teaching my partner useful signs, like medicine, pain, nightmare, water, etc.) and it actually helps me to come back myself faster too, as I feel it overrides the flashes/emotions
I was born deaf (too much fluid in my ears) and my family learned basic real ASL (Open, more, done, etc)...until the surgeries to drain them worked, and it all switched to verbal communication when I was around 2. I didn't even know this until I was a decade into my life! I grieve that sometimes but have taught myself some of it again. Your signing with Rupert means so much, thank you. And especially encouraging others to pick it up, even if it's not "necessary."
At a school I taught at 2 years ago there were a few deaf students. The whole school learnt some basic signs like hello, thank you etc but the best part was that the class that these kids were in became trilingual! English, Māori and NZSL. The class had times when they only spoke in sign but most of the time they used NZSL and either spoken language together. These kids were about 7
Wow that's so so awesome to hear! I'm in nz too, and I love hearing about that natural flow between the languages and it sounds like the kids got really into it? They are great like that supporting each other when a class builds momentum
okay maybe a weird question but... how do you monitor cheating when you know that a lot/all students of a class can speak (?) /sign sign language ? :D I was just wondering. I mean of course a lot of movement would also make sound but when one student asks a question and the teacher goes there to help, couldn't others behind them sign answers to each other. (not saying that I judge them for that, just wondering if this is something you then need to think about :D)
@@Renesmechen they’re 7. I don’t know how it works in other countries but in NZ at that age there isn’t much large scale testing. It’s mostly done on a person to person basis
@@Renesmechen so I also follow the DOTS project which provides braille dice for blind/visually impaired tabletop-game players. they also had to deal with some bad-faith criticism along the lines of "What if the player cheats with the braille dice?", because hearing children who don't know sign language never cheat on tests and seeing players never cheat at games.
@@scarylion1roar I don't mind if people cheat on exams 'cause I honestly don't think they are the best way to test people about knowledge. I myself cheated a lot. I was just wondering if there are extra measurements teachers would think of. Teachers at my school tried different ways to stop us from cheating but they only made us more creative. Honestly it was just a new challenge. So I just wonder if the kids in those classes could use their knowledge and if the teachers tried to do something about it.
However if they were around the age of 7 I doubt they would do that.
I just hope you don't think I wanted to say that I think they are more likely to cheat cause of something. It's just something I would totally use for myself, that's why my mind went there.
"But mama, the people must know how adorable I am!!" One day when you're old enough you can amaze everyone with your cheeky grins and adorable sign, Rupert! But the world is way big and scary for that right now.
Finger spelling at a minimum is a very important skill to have. My dad was in the hospital after a heart attack and had intubation preventing him from speaking. Writing out words or typing them was physically taxing on him but finger spelling was a way to spell out what he wanted to say.
When I was a kid I learned about ASL and finger spelling and while I did learn some signs that stick with me today, the thing I made myself learn was to finger spell because absolute worst case, if I needed to communicate with someone we'd have that. It's slow and you're relying on spelling skills but at the same time it is better than nothing and you'd be shocked how many times I have actually used it in my life to communicate to others.
Sign language is so useful even for hearing babies and parents! Babies are able to sign before they're able to verbally communicate their needs, and it speeds up understanding and helps to keep the little guys from getting frustrated when they can't tell you what's up. It's also much easier to sign when you're crying and upset because your emotions are bigger than you are, which is huge for toddlers.
I love the phrasing “when your emotions are bigger than you are”, because that’s happened to me quite a lot as a petite autistic woman with ADHD.
A baby signing what they need is really convenient , most parents don't recognize what each cry means.
What is really sad is that the default reaction to everything that relates to a disability is something negative.
I was taught Baby Sign when I was, well, a baby! Both my parents and I are hearing, which I should note. From what my parents have told me, it helped a LOT with communication since I didn't start verbally communicating for longer than most children, and I got far less upset than if I couldn't communicate my needs and wants to them. I still use sign (at least the very basic things in ASL - as I'm from Canada - which I still know) in my everyday life, though it unfortunately isn't enough of a vocabulary to have even a basic conversation. I should also note that I tend to have issues with auditory processing, but not with visual/sign processing, so the few signs I know are much easier to understand than spoken words a lot of the time!
My sister also learned baby sign because she had a hard time learning to speak. As she got older, she could speak and wanted to, but she had trouble getting the words out and would stutter. Baby sign (while obviously not a real sign language) helped her a lot as a small baby. She would get really frustrated and cry when she couldn’t get the words out, so it helped a lot. Eventually she went to a speech therapist in school who helped her learn how to essentially get the words out and she didn’t need baby sign anymore. While I understand that it can be disrespectful to deaf people to use a “fake” form of sign language, it really does help some people who are hearing but need a little assistance early on
My niece and nephews were taught basic signs, and I can confirm that it helps significantly! Even just being able to communicate "I'm done" alone, has a huge impact on meltdowns.
Almost like kids benifit from being understood, just like adults do, lol
@@battyboo3732 Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't teaching them sign language directly work just as well for the same purposes? /gen
@@jadziajan My daughter's speech therapist explained that the modified signs (or just plain made up ones) for baby sign language are for resolving issues like Jessica described with Rupert and signing "mama." There are some signs that are more difficult for babies/ toddlers to do, and so they've modified them for ease of learning. However, they aren't very beneficial for kids if the only people who understand them are the baby and the caregiver, so in speech therapy settings, the signs taught are predominantly ASL
The majority of signs my daughter knows (more, milk, sleep, thank you, all done, help, so on and so forth) are ASL signs. She has modified signs for a few words (like using one hand to sign for jacket instead of two) but predominantly she is using and learning ASL.
I have autism (and audio processing disorder) and I have a few friends who go non verbal at least some of the time.
They use sign and I don't know any, but now I'm thinking it would be a good idea to. Reading sign means I wouldn't necessarily have to mask as much which is always a plus.
Just the picture in my mind of Jessica tying to film Rupert’s babbling only to be interrupted by him grinning at the camera is so adorable
I think sign language should be taught in schools as well as other languages because it would really help everyone understand each other better. While i worked in retail i often had deaf customers and i felt awful not being able to communicate with them like i could anyone else, all i knew was thankyou which isnt really enough to help
Agreed! I had a deaf mother and child come in and I couldn't communicate and I felt awful. As well as families who spoke other languages I didn't know.
Even if you’d learned sign language, though, you’d have only learned one particular sort of sign language and there are dozens if not hundreds.
@@SamyTheBookWorm
Then learn the one that’s most prevalent where you live.
there are several sign languages by countries just like speaking languages.... therefore it's not universal either.
@@danone2414 I live in the Netherlands in a province called Friesland. Friesland has its own language separate from the language used in the rest of the country. We were taught Frisian in school but not dutch sign language. And I can tell you that there are more deaf people in my country than Frisians. (400.000 people speaking Frisian while there are 1.5 million hard hearing to deaf people.) We are sadly not taught sign language in school and can actually only officially learn it from universities or expensive courses. Also even though sign language differs per country, there are a lot of contextual clues and similarities. You can get by in another country, more than any spoken language. I don't know if you intended to agree or disagree with the main comment and I apologize if it sounds a bit on the mean side. It is mainly frustration that I would have loved to learn sign language instead of Frisian.
My oldest is 13 now and because I knew ASL before I had kids are used the signs for the things that she would want on a daily basis like milk more please etc. At 13 she still use the signs to ask me for cheese when she doesn’t want to interrupt some thing like when she’s with a friend. Signing for babies is awesome
Seeing how happy Jessica was that she could understand Rupert was a joy. It’s not 100% the same but I am always very sad when I think I can’t communicate with parts of my family bc they only speak Spanish and I only speak English.
8:28 when I was a little kid, my best friend was deaf (he had a hearing aid and i didn't even realize he was deaf until i was way older lmao, i wasn't a very smart child) and his parents didn't know sign language and they didn't bother teaching him :c i didn't think about it at the time but now it makes me sad to think they could've made his life a lot easier and chose not to
Yes it happens so much. Abelism is so interwoven in our society we do not realise until it is pointed out to us.
This. There are deaf and HOH individuals on TikTok who are children of hearing parents, and literally no one in the household does sign language with them. I think it's because at one point, it was thought to be "harmful" to not force a deaf/hard of hearing kid into pretending like they can hear. Such utter bullshit, no difference than forcing left-handed individuals to write with their right hands (as if that fucking matters).
My mother attempted to teach me sign when I was little , but it turns out I'm on the autism spectrum and have ADHD , which when didn't learn untill i was nearly in middle school, so unfortunately she never made much progress.
I find your channel very uplifting. I have a now 13 month old daughter , and sometimes I find myself really scared and stressed over being a parent with disability. Worrying that my issues could negatively impact my child. Your vidios about Rupert and your journey help me to feel less isolated and more confident in my ability to be a mom.
I wonder if trying out sign language with your daughter could help, because you would be using facial expressions & eye contact?
Also, though, I wouldn’t worry. Your daughter is going to have a whole world of people to connect with. The idea that your neurodivergence could “mess her up” somehow seems very unlikely to me.
In the beginning kids tend to mimic their parents, but they grow out of that pretty quickly.
You probably know plenty of people who are very, very different from their parents. Sometimes deliberately so. (Ie: my mom used to always be late so I get to places ahead of time so I’m never late)
That’s not to suggest your daughter is going to look down on you or anything. I’m just saying that kids don’t just learn how to behave from one person. They take everything into account and figure out what works best for them and their personality.
I have ADHD too, by the way! Someone suggested I might be on the spectrum, but I doubt that’s the case. Even so, I get along really well with people who are.
Thanks for sharing your feelings with us!
@@AK-jt7kh thank you for the encouragement. It's not been easy at times ( money issues on top of everything). I just found out I'm pregnant again so you've definitely made my day.
i’m on the spectrum too (not diagnosed until adolescence!) and i was good at learning signs and really gravitated towards communicating with it when i was a baby/toddler. didn’t know it was the ‘tism back then but probably really helped my parents with communication even though i was never quite nonverbal. really cool to see how diverse the spectrum is!
Oddly enough watching this video it hit me why I was never successful at learning sign language. I have aphantasia so when someone signs to me I only see the sign in that instance and then it’s gone. On the other hand, honestly if I had a child who was deaf I would make sure they learned sign. Unfortunately we’d have to figure out a way to communicate as trying to remember signs actually gives me a headache like everything else I try to picture, but enabling a child to communicate is the most important.
@@elizaRose8900 No biggie - you’ve got this! I know you’ll find a way. It’s rough….but you don’t need a ton of money to raise happy kids. Some of the happiest kids I’ve ever met came from families that had financial stress.
I do feel for you - that’s rough. But at the same time, probably keep your mind on the bigger picture. Some financial struggles now don’t define the future. One day, your kids will be grown up and successful, and helping you out, and I bet they’ll respect their mom for the trials she had to go through to be the person she was for her family.
For the record…my mom was really “unconventional”. I don’t think shes on the spectrum but I would not be surprised at all if people thought she was. Not only was she not very emotionally forthcoming, but she butted heads with a lot of her peers. She also didn’t keep a neat household - the place was trashed when I was growing up! Lol!
But you know…none of that registers in my kid brain as “wrong” or “abnormal” because I didn’t know what was typical. She was just mom and I adored her. She used to wrap me up in a towel after a bath and sing out of tune songs to me. She was never a great mom in the “conventional” sense, but she’s been the greatest mom ever for me.
She went to bat for me repeatedly when the teachers were picking on me in gradeschool. She always understood how it felt to be different and alienated. She gave me hope, confidence, and challenged my mind.
Without her I definitely wouldn’t be all that I am today, and in the “typical”’ sense, she would have been considered a “terrible mom” - because she didn’t force me to do a bunch of homework, didn’t keep a routine, didn’t have a tidy house, and so on and so forth…
But the skills she had were the ones I really needed. She loved me, spent time with me, paid attention to me, and gave me wise advice and life lessons. She used to drive me to school in the morning (which no other moms did so the other kids were kind of jealous about it), and we used to play games like “the price of ducks” where she would give me simple word problems with farmers and ducks and ask me to figure out how much the feed costs and stuff.
She had her own unique style of parenting and it was her uniqueness that made me grow into a unique person - which made me uniquely valuable to other people later in life, because I had a way of thinking and solving problems that most people didn’t have.
Motherhood is so complex, I think. You cannot predict how your children will turn out. I think the most important thing is simply that you love them genuinely in your own way, and you figure out ways to enjoy their company so you can spend time with them in a way that makes you both happy.
My mom never pandered to me. We did the things she liked to do, pretty much, but seeing her happy made me happy.
I can’t remember ever seriously having an issue with how frugal my parents were. Weirdly, it turned out that we had a pretty well off family - but they were very tight with cash and were careful not to spoil us or ever show us how much we actually had. In fact, my dad routinely threatened to cancel our cable or turn down our heat in the winter because finances were tight 😂
But honestly - that didn’t make me think less of them. I didn’t have much to compare it to. That was just my definition of life. Then later on, I ended up respecting them for it. I’m so glad they didn’t raise me to be pampered and spoiled.
The best thing I got from them was their time. That was worth far more to me as a kid than their money.
I know I’m rambling, but I did it in the hopes that you won’t worry so much about your finances. You seem resourceful - I think you’ll make due, and I absolutely believe that your kids will notice or care.
Not having money doesn’t make you any less awesome as a mom. Having neurodivergence just makes you unique and cool.
If you’re worried about what your kids will think of you for the things you think are issues…maybe dial back on that a bit, as kids simply don’t view the world through the comparative judgement of an adult.
I think what kids notice most is the amount, and quality, of the personal time you give them. Even if you’re not a very emotional person. (My mom definitely isn’t. Lol)
Funny side note on that. I just had to wake her up at nearly 12am to ask where dad was bc he’s been missing all night, and she said he was in the hospital and went back to bed. Not once did it occur to her that I might like to know that information 😂…and she was so casual about it, it made me think…and I going to one day be like “hey, mom, dads been missing, any idea where he’s at?” And she’ll be like “Oh, your dads dead! Here, have a pork chop. They’re still hot.”
That’s just mom for you! My cousin and I laugh sometimes at how emotionally detached she can be! It’s just cute and funny. Just my mom being her unique mom self! I love it!
You seem so cool - I think your kids will love you the way I love my mom.
Just try to take care of yourself and manage the stress however you can. And when you get bogged down with the things that are depressing you…it might help you to try to look at the bigger picture and imagine your life (and kids) 5 or 10 years from now. That always helps me!
Having ADHD is a hardship I can relate to…but don’t worry. I think you’ll do just fine! 💕
Hearing about Rupert’s sign babbling and learning was so adorable!!!
Hello lovely lady! I am four years out of cancer treatment, my husband and I are finally able to start getting ready for our first baby! I often get out of breath or cannot speak loudly, and my husband has early hearing loss from ten years of very loud working environs, so we are wanting to learn signs to communicate with each other easier for us both. I am so happy for this video and for being part of your audience. I think I speak for most of us when I say that we love a Roo update whenever you want to give us one! You have taught me so much about an array of subjects, and I find that I am relating better to both animals and humans through gentle and respectful needs assessment in real time. You have my everlasting gratitude!
I used to work at a place that did baby sign classes. There was an attempt to be genuine, but I'd also get a lot of side eye from parents every time I'd sign while talking to their kids outside class or try and tell stories about my experiences interacting with deaf culture.
As a note, I am hearing but go to a college with a large deaf population, so I picked up the language to better interact with friends, roommates, and co-workers.
This video brought me a great deal of happiness. Just seeing the joy on Jessica's face as she talked about Rupert and about his progress in learning sign language was wonderful. Thank you Jessica for sharing this with us.
Jessica, this was a fascinating video. The story about Rupert trying to sign "Mummy", and progressing from the closed fist to the O-Shape with his hand was so heart warming, also hilarious. Thank you for sharing about how Claudia and You are teaching him and the way his little brain is getting it!
I've wanted to learn sign language for years, but there has never been a direct need for it (i.e. nobody I know speaks sign language). But I've seen some people use baby sign, and thought that was really cool, so I had this plan to do that with my future children. Thank you for explaining this clearly. I am now fully committed to learning actual sign language and using the correct signs with future babies 👶 (and continue as they grow up)
The only direct need I have for learning sign language is that I occasionally become non-speaking, and unfortunately it wouldn’t be much help unless at least some of those closest to me were to learn sign language as well. If only I could sign rather than having to type on my phone.
@@ragnkja That would be really useful indeed. I've been thinking about just having a few signs that I can easily teach people close to me. I'm not non-verbal, but I do get overwhelmed easily (autistic), so sometimes I want to be able to respond to easy questions with signs instead of words. Just being able to sign "I'm fine, just need to sit for a bit" would already make a difference.
Maybe something like that is possible? Where the people close to you know some basics?
@@AnanasAbanaan
We can at least try and see how it goes, right? :)
I wish I knew asl fully because a kid my hearing would get really bad for some unknown reason. I ended up learning some like yes, no, hello, and the alphabet, but I pretty much taught myself from looking it up online. And I just learned that my grandma speaks asl almost fluently because she was a special ed teacher. I am currently learning more, but I wish someone taught me when I was little. (Something cool is that some signs are second nature to me, so when I speak I'll sign certain words and not realize :))
@@connorfrost
Since languages are best learnt by using them, maybe you could try video chatting with your grandmother using ASL?
As a former special education teacher the most tragic thing I’ve ever seen was teaching a sixth grade class of students with disabilities. One boy in the class was profoundly deaf and had no sign language skills and was basically without language as he was not given speech classes or intensive reading classes. He was a complete sweetheart but had absolutely no idea what was going on and even his one on one aideWould just sort of point to the paper where he was supposed to be working. I couldn’t even use my sign language to teach him because he was a boy without language. In adjust world he would’ve been removed from his neglectful parents and placed with people who gave a damn
Removing children from their parents is rarely the best idea. Possibly that family needed education and support to understand how important sign language is and then to learn it, or even some other kind of support if they didn't have the time or capacity to care for their child properly.
That is so horrific to hear! I've worked with kids as a relief teacher and been asked to document disfunctional behaviours stemming from neglect to create a file to report parents.. Could you still contact someone official now and get a social worker to the kids family? No child deserves to be uncared for.
That is so sad but so much more common than people realise
I started to tear up when you talked about how ableist it is to expect the disabled person to adapt for the abled people - even though either they can't or it is very hard and exhausting for them to do. I am autistic (undiagnosed because I don't think an official diagnosis will be any kind of advantage for me, but my friends all know that I am autistic) and I have HMS (Hypermobility Syndrome) and a cartilage tear in my right hip which causes me chronic pain in my hip, back and hands and chronic fatigue. Despite all of this, everyone always expects me to adapt to them, socially and physically. And I do my best but it is so hard and exhausting and, to be honest, I get fed up with how they won't just accept me as I am. Why do I have to change? Why can't they just give me some leeway? A little bit of acceptance and kindness goes a long way.
I’m also autistic. Very recently diagnosed but it took a long time. It’s exhausting I understand you and days are filled with trying to get by, overcome, adapt rather than live or enjoy.. you know? I try to believe it will get better over the years as understanding becomes better. But also I wish people made that effort themselves sometimes to understand.. I’m being unclear. I found my friends accept me the most, people who are younger. ♥️ You’re doing the best you can and you deserve to be considered more by those around you (although annoying, people just do not realise what they’re expecting of you is so emotionally and physically taxing. Although that is just reason for them to listen ... hmm). I wish you the best.
Due to Jessica's videos, I started asking my friend about her job interpreting for school children and I ended up signing onto Skillshare to learn sign and the history. I never understood why it wasn't an option to learn as a kid but I feel like knowing even a little can help people feel less ostracized in new environments if more people could communicate with each other.
Rupert trying his best to make signs for Mamma and Mummy made me laugh! He's trying his best, his little baby fingers just aren't quite there yet! I love it
I got so emotional with this video, I finally subscribed! (my first, you're welcome)... babbling with his tiny pudgy hands!!!! omg, I didn't even CONSIDER that as a thing, I just started crying!! I am learning BSL level 2 at the moment (no specific reason, just always interested, and I think its an easy thing for hearing people to learn that can change the world for deaf people). I'm trying to increase my exposure to the deaf community. I don't have kids (and won't be having any), but I have a niece and she was taught a little baby sign (I tried to get them to do better, I'm sorry!)... she still signed 'sorry' more than she said it even when she learned to talk. But, whenever I go visit, I always try to sign some basic words when I have her to myself... hahahahaaaaaa
Thank you for mentioning the "pandemic agoraphobia". It really helps me knowing that I am not the only one struggling with this.
my mother started teaching me sign language when i was about 2 and started talking. it was a way for me to communicate in places like libraries or churches since i hadn’t quite figured out volume modulation. as i’ve gotten older i’ve started losing hearing in one of my ears and it’s been incredibly beneficial to me now
That’s exactly what you do with verbal language as well!! You are both doing amazing!!! What a smart baby!!
Yay sign language for babies = accessible communication always 💜
The way he doesn't sign "Mummy" or "Mama" quite right sounds a lot like when I was a baby and I would call my mom "Mondy" instead of "Mommy" (until I heard my cousin say "Mommy" correctly). So cute!
Such an awesome vid!
When our son was an infant, he experienced an encephalopathy which caused him to be mute.
We did not expect he would ever speak. So, at 12 months of age, we taught our hearing child ASL to give him a voice.
Our church had a sign language interpreter during service. I sat in front of her to learn to sign. She taught me his first words (Momma, Daddy, milk, more, my, eat, change, play, please, thank you, no, yes)
He really took to signing.
His kindergarten teacher said, "site words are really hard for the kids. I've always wished I had a picture for them." I said, teach them the sign for each word! The sign is the picture. The school allowed me to come to class several times a week to teach the kids the signs for their site words.
He is 20 and still signs. He speaks quite well know. As a parent, I loved prompting my children in sign. Or speak to them across the room. Or chastise them in public without embarrassing them.
My older son and husband all got into the program.
Speech is such a complex motor function. Teaching any child sign gives them a voice way before they can functionally speak with their mouths. Sony benefits!
I had my laptop on the counter to look up words I didn't know. He would ask how to sign a word. He finger spelled words he wanted to know. It was really exciting to have conversations with my then mute son.
Thank you for all you do!
Your anecdotes about Rupert are causing a cuteness overload in my brain (and judging by the other comments I'm just one of many). Can't wait to find out what his first clearly signed word will be (because I'm guessing that these approximations don't really count, but it's just an assumption).
I think what he's doing counts bc his mothers can understand him... Just like a speaking baby's first word can be mispronounced
my sister counts her eldest daughter's first word as "shoes" because it was the first thing she verbalized that was understood and wasn't just a name - mama, dada, baba (for brother). but the thing is, i've seen the video - she was young enough that it came out like "sooz", not "shoes". it still very much counts as her first word though because, despite the _technical_ error, it was still understood and did approximate the proper word. (almost) no kid's first word is perfectly pronounced, but if it's close enough to be understood 🤷🏻 why not?
tl;dr they could almost definitely found some of his signs as "first words" already. they might not choose to until he's cot the hand shapes down a bit more, but that's up to them. this is much the same as determining any kid's "first" spoken word
ASL is offered as a language credit at many high schools and is a great option for kids who struggle in English class or just can't grasp another language like Spanish or French. Be aware that it's normally taught by a hearing person so make sure to take into account where they learned and where the materials are from, especially since different regions have accents just like in the speaking population. The more local the source the better when it comes to communication with people in the community and the potential for work as an interpreter. Sometimes the signs are so different it's as confusing as using BSL in the US. Hard of hearing myself and struggling with my son learning at school as even the letters differ from what I learned as a student assistant in a Montessori preschool.
I learnt so much in this video! I have mental health stuff that sometimes makes communicating verbally difficult, so my partner and I are planning to learn some sign to like, give us an alternative form of communication. I will make sure we learn from a deaf teacher, and I'm excited to do research into the community as well ☺️
I do too sometimes and it helps a ton, I highly recommend it!
Also, it is a beautiful language and I feel like everybody would profit learning it.
I also have this problem. You're making me want to try learning sign language.
I love this soooo much!!!! Side note story: my favourite sign language moment was seeing a dude driving his car, turning the corner and chatting in sign at the same time... the SKILL
Did anyone else note the elation and utter relief Jessica feels and expresses at being able to *connect* with her baby and how - especially as a parent - that is one of the biggest concerns you have? Or more importantly, that she still gets to experience the cute babbling stage of language as it develops and, by extension, gets to fully experience all those nuances of parenting as a disabled parent?! 😍😍😍 How awesome and wonderful ❤️❤️❤️
It's so lovely that you'd like to adopt a HoH/deaf child. They are, just like you said, often not as lucky as hearing children in being placed, and they surely require the same love.
I honestly teared up at 17:30 because I can see such genuine happiness in your face. That's so incredibly sweet and I'm so happy for you.
It never stops being a relief that Jessica and Claudia consistently respect the privacy of their child. I enjoy the videos more, knowing the baby isn't being used as clickbait.
It's so cool to me that the "only parents understand their children's made up words"-phenomenon applies to sign language as well. The moment where they suddenly use the word right will probably also come sooner than later and be a bit bittersweet.
In the 5th or 6th grade our Catholic school in Hawaii taught us to sign in popular prayers and songs. We learned rather quickly bc it was the rare thing that we students loved learning. We all thought it was pretty cool. I don't remember anything else taught to us that the entire class enjoyed and was happy to learn.
Hi Jessica,
what a lovely and very interesting video! I was absolutely shocked to learn that 70% of hearing parents with deaf childs don't want to learn sign language. But I realised that I also have a deaf friend who has very little conncection to the deaf community (as far as I know) and the video made me think about how I personally (as an able-bodied person) can be more accomodating towards her.
All the best to you and your family!
Babies are amazingly smart, much smarter than we have ever known before. Their communication skills are extraordinary, as they will try anything to communicate with you. More moms and dads should get to know this, it would help a lot with the frustration many parents feel with their very small children and not understanding what they need.
i love the fact that smiling is such a universal language!! that he smiles back at you when you show you understand him? my heart! i've only ever seen babies smile at people in response to another smile or in greeting!
You are teaching your son, your language. That is good parenting. 👍
Signing whilst reading at storytime every night is such a great way to teach the language.
I remember when learning English as a child reading to each other and taking turns reading helping each other to learn was such a great bonding, memorable and important moment in my development.
Im trying to learn sign language since im autistic and i get non verbal and when an interpreteer friend taught me a few words (like scared) i could still use them whilst non-verbal. When in the future i get a kid I want to pass this knowledge on since it is so amazing and the chances of them also being autistic is very big. I owe a big one to the deaf community
It makes me quite sad that I knew so much ASL as a child. I went to school in St. Augustine, FL where the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is. I had a friend that went there half a day and our school the other half a day. She taught me so much but I moved and we lost touch and I didn't keep up with it. I still remember some and what I did remember helped me with my son with autism who was speach delayed. I'm glad you are doing this with Rupert.
As an autistic adult (who dearly wishes that she and those closest to her knew Norwegian Sign Language) I hope you’re continuing to use sign language so that if/when he’s temporarily non-speaking he still has a way to communicate without having to resort to writing. It’s frustrating when my voice isn’t cooperating and I can’t get anything nuanced across unless I take the time to write it on my phone.
As a child I had verbal dyspraxia (I couldn't speak until I was 3). At 18 months my parents learned signing exact english (a version of sign language in the US) and taught me, and when I did start speaking I was speaking in full sentences. It was definently a life changing experience and I'm so thankful to have had access to sign when I needed it. Teaching babies/children to sign is so important, thank-you so much for this video!
I love that you are purposefully very polite in front of your little one. I did the same with my son; he’s been saying please, thank you and sorry without any prompting since he was 18 months. It was one of my proudest mummy moments the first time he said “thank you” (or “ank ew” 😁) to a waiter who brought him a sandwich when he was just 18 months old.
I love that you are making certain your child shares your language. Too often I see children lose communication with their elders because their parents chose one language over the other. Kudos.
I found this video both really heartwarming and really useful. I am deaf in my right ear and am fluent in Auslan and a teacher of the Deaf. I'm planning to raise my future children bilingually with both Auslan and English. I like how you mentioned that you need to make it clear to Rupert that you can't hear him if her calls for help. It made me realise that I will need to teach my future partner and children to not call for me from another room without saying their location as I can't localise sound, it has only taken my family 20 years to get it so I will need to get a head start on my children :P
When I was in Montessori school there was a girl with learning disabilities in my class and we were all taught how to communicate with her in sign language. I still remember how to sing happy birthday in sign 😄
This video made me smile!!! It is so cute that Rupert is babbling in sign language!!
I LOVE that...."My children can learn to sign...I CANT learn to hear". Thats is gold! One of my BFF's has just completed for VERY rigorous course in her full certifications of being an Auslan interpreter. She has an honors degree in Neuroscience, but after several years of working in that field, she felt she wasnt helping ppl enough. I already knew since childhood a small range of signs, as I had childhood friends from the special school at my primary school with autism and other disabilities who were non verbal. So when I had a son with autism I had no issues with it at all... he used com cards with a little folder at first (from age 2) but he eventually leanred to speak. I even used com cards to put on the fridge to show what was for dinner that night, so his levek of predicatbility about the day reduced his anxiety and refusal to eat what he was given. However Im so proud of my friend, she provides her services for free for various organisations, and is only paid for diff kids of social support work!
To this day, I find one of the cutest and most interesting things I learned about linguistics, that children acquire sign language the exact same way as they acquire spoken language, i.e. the babbling, they go through the same stages of development and vocabulary and articulation, ...
"I have no intention of wearing my hearing aids in the evening in my own home, it's like wearing a suit and tie to lounge around in bed." This is a very big mood and one I relate to a lot, as another deaf person. My girlfriend needs to get right up to my head to tell me she loves me and good night.
I would recommend filming him with his smiles, so you have those precious moments for later, but blurring or obscuring his face for us strangers in editing. Mama and Mummy know best of course.
I can imagine in a world that you have to work hard to undrstand, it is very special that your baby is easy to understand
Got really teary eyed at finding out robert babble signs when he's sleepy, and how much it means to you. Also, nick naming him Roo!! Is so cute!!
I'm so relieved, my level of sign is pretty pitiful but I've been teaching what I know to my 2 yo from day 1 and adding new words to my vocabulary as needed. I started with ASL, saw baby sign language and went: "nah". But I do add in LSF vocabulary because we're an anglo-French family 🤯 at this age she uses the 3 languages interchangeably.
For hearing parents, it's great to be able to communicate discreetly, across distances and in noisy situations!
It would be really amazing to see sign language be included as a forced curriculum during early schooling and staying throughout until high school. A mass amount of people learning sign would be really great.
I think its great to teach babies as much as possible, and there is no con to learning sign language to me anyway.
Im really astonished how much a 5 month old is able to process. Good luck to you all :D
rupert's reactions and his own signing are so damn adorable?? ugh i love babies and their smart brains
also, i almost cried when you talked about being able to connect with him, because we truly do not think about the importance of this when we take a child being able to hear or see as a given
Babies signing in sign language are the best
I Learned sign language very young because my mother had to learn some to work with hearing impaired and deaf children. Later I worked for over a year w the same kind of children and my skills improved drastically. So much so that, while directing the church choir
I used sign to communicate with them. It work ed out well
My mom taught me basic sign language as a kid (mainly the ABC's, yes/no), but I still remember occasions when it became useful like I could answer questions if I was coughing or otherwise couldn't speak loudly (like if I was sick), and could also ask my mom for stuff without my little brother knowing ;) I still remember most of the ABC's and still have to teach friends what I'm doing when I sign 'no' if I'm yawning or something, cause it's just instinctual for me.
The intentionality with which you and Claudia parent is so beautiful 💖 I teared up at this video. Thank you for sharing so much of your gorgeous family with us. X
My SIL's mom is deaf and we have been teaching my granddaughter ASL sign since she could focus her eyes! She has had to have palette surgery at 3, this last year, because she could not make her vocal sounds to speak. I am so happy we had a good means of communication during that time and we are continuing to add to her vocabulary as her hearing and speaking vocabulary increase. She can talk with all of her grandmoms as well as the deaf girl in her play group. As soon as the other girl's mom saw my granddaughter sign to her daughter and include her in playing, the mom had tears and it was a wonderful thing for the other kids to see and experience. We are all happy that Livy can talk to other kids and adults alike, using words in both.💚
I am volunteering as a Baby Sign instructor for toddlers, both hearing and otherwise, for my Duke of Edinburgh Award and already know some BSL and Mackaton so I am really looking forward to learning. This video was also very informative and enjoyable - thank you. ❤️
Welp she just said she sort of hates baby sign 🤷🏽♀️
@@grayonthewater I think the point was that it was stopped after the child (mainly hearing) learnt to talk, because it was normally used to prevent toddler tantrums. The Community Interest Company I am volunteering for is to support special needs children and their families, so the point is to teach them a life skill. And, if I'm completely honest, the group I am doing I think it is more Mackaton than baby sign, but I get where she is coming from.
@@grayonthewater did you want someone to just cancel volunteering instead? Jessica says that there's no point in knocking down people who are trying.
@@liriodendronlasianthus Thank you, like I say, it is probably more Mackaton based than baby sign, but it is with a CIC for children with additional needs, so, as I said, it isnt just to avoid toddler tantrums
Well, learning about baby sign was depressing. That whole section definitely deserved the black and white translation.
Thank you for making a video thats so lovely and well done and something that is good for sharing with those who maybe wouldn't be the most open to such ideas. ♥️
как трогательно, что Руперт уже использует некоторые знаки! У вас такая чудесная семья, надеюсь, всё будет хорошо, несмотря на хроническую усталость и заболевания Джессики. Ваша история очень вдохновляет, у нас в России такой, к сожалению, невозможно.
I actually have a friend who used sign language to teach his nephew how to let him know hungry, diaper, yes, and no in ASL. My friend is just ecstatic and has wondered if hearing people can hear him making sounds when he signs, he's so happy he has someone who can sign with him, it's just adorable and marvelous!
I would love to hear more updates as you go along, and also agree on keeping his photos off the internet until he can at least give knowledgeable consent that he knows what's going on?
Thank you so much for sharing and I got that mushy love feeling deep in my heart while watching this video 💗🥰😊 Thank you for brightening my day!
As a early childhood teacher that is learning sign language on my free time, this makes me very happy to hear about his learning and language development. You do all the right things I learned about language development in university. For me it is quite obvious teoretically that sign language development should be very similar to spoken language development, but it was very interesting to confirm that for me.
Rupert is so lucky to have you two as mums, like in general but specifically i had to work so hard to be bilingual and i can't say i'm not a little jealous to see him just be handed bilingualism from birth, really great to see you making such an effort to give him such an amazing skill
Thank you so much for sharing! I'm studying special needs education with a focus on sign language (in Germany). It's a very small major with sadly very little research done but I find it really fascinating to hear your stories about Rupert. Especially as I have recently been writing a paper about manual babbling in babies. Would love to hear more about this topic and your observations in the future!
i am a hearing person. my parents are hearing. i learned to sign as a baby, i actually signed before i spoke. unfortunately i stopped learning it when i got older. i still remember animal names and things but i am picking it up again and i can even hold a conversation now! it's such an important skill and i find it interesting and fun to learn. i encourage evry single hearing perosn to do this!
It would be so cool to see Rupert sign! If you're willing to do so and then maybe blur our his face if it pops into shot it would be so cool to see his lil hands doing their thang!
I think this is a great idea and I really don’t understand how people find deaf babies or children signing is sad. This is a very interesting video and you gave great information to us and I learnt a lot as always thank you so much for making a great video
My parents dont speak sign language but they did teach me a couple of very basic signs, apparently I used to sign 'more milk' constantly round the shops 😂
I apparently knew baby signs when I was very young, and it's wild to me that now I know *so few* signs, because my mother is an ASL interpreter and I went to many events where I was surrounded by deaf people and other interpreters while growing up
I took a few years of ASL in high school and wanted to continue but my university didn't offer it as a class (I could have continued learning on my own but I lacked the consistency). I want to start learning again. I hope to teach ASL to me future kids so I appreciate this video and I loved hearing about the examples of your son
my mum signed up for a sign language class when I was a kid because she had a new co-worker who was deaf and my sister and i wanted to learn a bit because to us it felt like the coolest thing to be able to communicate without words. Made us feel like super spies or something, so we learned it a bit, and it's such a valuable skill even tho I totally fell off the bandwagon of keeping it up.
Also, why is it even a question that it's an amazing opportunity for a young child to learn both parents languages that they are fluid in? like?? We know that about bilingual kids who don't learn sign language, but somehow people don't think the same about sign language? That's wild to me.
I think it's so cool that he has this opportunity that other children don't have, and I honestly appreciate you telling us the process of teaching him.
Baby babble is the cutest thing in the world, and sign baby babble is soooo cute. I can't even.
Wishing you all the best xx
My husband and I plan to teach our children to sign language 🤟🏻 because being bilingual as a human is fabulous. And it’s good for development of communication skills and being inclusive with friends. I learned ASL in primary school in a club. I have attempted to keep up with it and used it in my life when talking to deaf customers, I worked in retail prior to my disability increasing. So yeah he’s going to learn sign also. Because more people knowing how to sign is excellent.
hearing you talk about adopting a deaf child and offering them a home that already fits their needs gave me chills. that'd be so perfect!
I had my first lot of hearing aids at 3.. I cried…😅 my parents are both hearing so it was focused on me being able to hear, it’s better than it was but my hearing will always go up and down🙃🙃
it’s amazing that he can pick up signs already😍😍
When you said "I can connect with him" my heart burst with just pure AWWWW