Progress Report on the Experimental Use of Baby Signing

I have experimented and adapted the use of Baby Signing for 4 of the kids under our care and from zero speech and advanced speech delay, all 4 are showing progress in not just signing but also speech. Case 1 who is already age 8 years old is finally using his voice although more of guttural sound with clear intonation to indicate "I want..." and words like "banana/nana" , "cereal", 'gimme' to name a few started to come out more consistently. Case 2 who is about 6 years old is finally using the gestures but a lot more impromptu utterances come out like 'food' etc. Case 3 who is about 3 years old who had never used his voice is starting to vocalize even more. Case 4 is 5 years old with Down Syndrome who took up signing easily. His speech is mostly one word and selective. For each of the cases, the accompaniment of gesture and verbal is expected and when the words is expressed more and more, no expectations of gestures are used. These children seem to calm down better when an outlet is provided for them to express themselves. We still have a long way to go but the journey itself is already interesting and exciting.

The feeling that my staff and I have when these kids and others get to use their voice to express their desire and needs is unmentionable. It has been a challenging journey but at times we have to always think out of the box for progress to happen.