SmallTalk Learning: Benefits: Success Stories

	Katia, daughter of Dawn and Sam
	Kyle, son of Susan and Brian
	Henry, son of Brenda and Tony
	Noah, son of Britt and Ari
	Veronica, daughter of Jennie

Katia, daughter of Dawn and Sam
We started casually signing to Katia when she was four months old and started signing more consistently when Katia was six months old. Katia started using her first signs between seven and eight months. Her first sign was 'more,' or her version of 'more.' By 12 months Katia had a 25 word ASL vocabulary. By 14 months she had a 35-40 word ASL vocabulary in addition to several verbal words. At this stage she could regularly sign her food and beverage requests. She would wake up in the morning and sign to us what she wanted for breakfast. When she woke up crying in the middle of the night, she would sign to us that she was thirsty for water. By 18 months she had a verbal vocabulary of 140-150 words (yes, we kept track…). At this stage, when she had difficulty pronouncing a new word verbally, she would hold out her hands and say 'help mommy,' so that I would show her the sign. At this stage she also used signs when we couldn't understand a word that she had repeated several times verbally. Katia continues to be highly verbal, but she seems to enjoy adding new signs to her vocabulary for fun!

Kyle, son of Susan and Brian
I signed up for a SmallTalk Workshop so I will be ready to sign with baby #2, Brandon, due in April. Kyle, who is 2 1/2, attends the workshops with me, but he has not been interested in doing any of the signs. Kyle has a significant verbal vocabulary, however many of his words are still difficult for those outside his immediate family to understand. I thought using the signs would provide an opportunity for language reinforcement. I wasn't sure if Kyle was learning any of the signs until he spontaneously signed 'grape,' when a playmate recently pulled a bag of grapes out of her lunch bag. Boy did I cheer when I saw this! On the way home, Kyle confirmed that he has been grasping the signs, when he spontaneously signed banana when I offered him a snack. This is great!

Henry, son of Brenda and Tony
We started learning signs by attending a SmallTalk Workshop when Henry was nearly 20 months old. He learned the first grouping of signs such as 'more,' 'all done,' eat,' and 'thirsty' right away. He was especially interested in signing 'more' for ice cream! He has even used the 'hurt' sign to let us know that his diaper rash is sore--he signs 'hurt' and then says 'bum.' Today Henry asked to eat and then pointed at grapes and did the signs for both eat and grapes! Truly amazing and great. THANK YOU!

Noah, son of Britt and Ari
We just started signing with Noah, 17 months. Although he can generally communicate with us through pointing and directing our attention, he is not yet talking. On a recent afternoon he earnestly pointed at the cookie jar on the windowsill. We took the opportunity to show him the sign for cookie, and then gently took his hand and made the sign for cookie before giving him a cookie. This routine repeated a few times over the course of the afternoon, but by the end of the day, he was consistently signing his version of 'cookie.' He continues to use the sign for cookie and has repeated the sign for 'all done' once. More than anything, he seems to like the activity of signing. We look forward to watching his vocabulary grow!