In high school we had an ROP class where we could go and work in a preschool down the street. Did I go to the regular preschool side of the school? Nope, not me! I headed to the special needs preschool. Apparently, God knew the heart he was creating in me for these special little ones. My girlfriend Allyson and I soon convinced my mother to take us to the local community college to start learning sign language. What a great time in life! Allyson and I still tease mom that she signs better with her feet. As a matter of fact, every so often you will find Allyson and I signing to mom with our feet. Yes, even 15 years later, I still find myself laughing out loud just thinking about it. Life was good!
I continued learning sign after high school hoping that one day I would become an interpreter. By the time I was 21, I fell in love and decided to put school on hold and work full time in order to pay for our wedding. (Not a good idea, but hey, I was young and in love!) Like most people who say, they’ll go back, I didn’t. I worked for another 5 years, until we planned our first baby with the knowledge I would be a stay at home mom. I started signing with our son without even thinking about it. It was just what I did and he picked it up pretty easily. No big deal, right? Well, a couple years later, I gave birth to our daughter. At 3 months old she was diagnosed developmentally delayed. I was thrown into a world where I knew very little. I held on a tried to learn all that I could about this new land of “special needs”. (I will have to share my favorite poem “Welcome to Holland” on another posting) My sweet little girl did not babble, did not crawl, she did not grow. We started physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. There were so many changes at one time that life as I knew it felt like a deck of cards that had just been thrown into the air.
Without question, I started to sign with our little one just as I did with her brother. Except this time, something clicked within her. She got it! I had a little peek into her world. Her first word was “more”. She started learning more words, but they were all set around her music. Her first two word combo was “more music”. We were introduced Signing Time through one of our teachers and I will be forever grateful! It became reinforcement within our home. She has become ADDICTED to Signing Time. You know the two year old tantrums? Well, it is clockwork that there will be a tantrum every time the credits role. Today our sweet Faith has worked hard to learn 40+ signs. It is her only means of communication. Things have settled in the past 4 years of this new world of special needs, and yes, I am now an interpreter. Who knew it would have been for my own daughter?
So, the question becomes why tell us this?? Well, Signing Time is having a blog contest. We could win a special autographed Baby Signing Time Gift Set including the brand new DVDs - Baby Signing Time Vols. 3 and 4! Can you say Happy Girl??? We LOVE Signing Time! Check out new clips from the new videos coming out soon…
1 comments:
The videos are great. My grandson Carter learns sign language in his preschool at the Childrens Courtyard. He knows probably 10 signs. I think is is WONDERFUL to teach these children, this can be such a productive asset in their lives.
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