Sign Language - ASL versus Auslan

We made the decision to teach BC sign language before he was born. As an audiologist, it is my job to support the auditory/verbal mode of communication through devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants, but in the case of hearing babies, I do believe that it is a fantastic complement to their auditory/verbal communication. Research has shown that hearing babies of deaf parents started to communicate well before the hearing babies of hearing parents as they were learning both speech and sign language. Children have the ability and the intent to communicate long before they can appropriately verbalise their wants and needs in a way that the parents can understand. Therefore the introduction of some basic sign language can bridge the gap between wanting to communicate and being able to vocalise.

We purchased the kit made up by Australian Baby Hands group at an expo here in Melbourne but have only recently started to sign. BC is now 4 1/2 months so it's the perfect time to start. (we've been doing 'milk' for some time now). I've heard so much about the wonderful DVD's available for baby signing on the Brill Kids Forum but haven't seen much for Australian Sign Language (Auslan) but didn't worry. It wasn't until we watched our Baby Einstein See and Sign DVD that I realised how valuable and important this type of media was for BC as he absolutely LOVED it and was laughing and chatting to the people and babies on the TV screen! I also loved it as I learnt so many signs so quickly. More research ensued and I realised there really wasn't much available for Auslan. This helped me make the decision to switch from Auslan to ASL.

I figure that as we are teaching BC sign language purely so he can communicate with us and our family, (none of whom know any signs) that it doesn't really matter if we aren't teaching him the 'native' language. I'm an audiologist and work with hearing impaired people every day but haven't yet come across anyone who communicates through sign language so I feel there is little chance BC will have a need for Auslan specifically at this point. Given the multicultural nature of Australia, there is far more chance that he will come across someone with Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Maltese, Japanese, Italian, Vietnamese, French, Greek, Arabic or Sinhalese than Auslan and I'm certainly not teaching him all of these!

So I have ordered the four Baby Signing Time DVD's from America and am excitedly awaiting their arrival, I've heard great things about them. We have watched the See and Sign DVD twice now and I downloaded 6-7 iPhone apps for ASL . This has all been finalised in the last few days and so far I've learnt the alphabet, numbers 1-10, mummy, daddy, girl, boy, good, bad, up, down, bath, milk, hungry, eat, food, drink, cup, friend, help, blanket, tired, bed, baby, kiss, more, finished, cat, dog and more! So far so good. Now we just have to see how BC goes learning all this!

Today we are heading out with Daddy for a swim! Fun, fun, fun. So far BC loves the water and is happy to splash and play. He doesn't mind if we tip water over his face after first preparing him by tipping it on his arms and head and then saying 1,2,3 and pouring it on his face. He just holds his breath and blinks it away and then smiles! We are also doing quick immersions as set out in 'Your Baby Can Swim' by Douglas Doman. More about Doman later!

No more dreamfeed!

Woo hoo, BC slept through the night last night without a dreamfeed! Since birth we have been using the routines set out by Tizzie Hall in her fabulous book, 'Save Our Sleep' and would highly recommend them to anyone! She certainly has her list of critics but I wholeheartedly support her and the routines have definitely worked for us. BC's routine is as follows; wake up and milk at 7am, solids at 8am and bed at 9am. Wake at 11am for milk, lunch at 12pm and bed by 1pm. Awake again at 3pm and a milk feed. Then a nap at 430pm if needed, wake at 515pm for dinner, bath and milk feed. Then bed time at 7pm with a dreamfeed at 1o30pm and night feeds as needed. It is essentially a feed - play - sleep routine as usually recommended but provides more of a guide for the parents. Of course we can change up the routine if we need to depending on our day. For example, Gymbaroo is at 1pm so we have to mix up the routine that day to get BC up from his nap around this time and ready to play! Otherwise he would be VERY grumpy! Well BC stopped needing his night feed at around 5 weeks of age and Tizzie doesn't suggest dropping the dreamfeed until they're established on solids for 8 weeks and then she slowly weans them off it. Well three nights ago BC was INCREDIBLY fussy for the dreamfeed and only had 40ml (although I'm sure most of this trickled out the side of his mouth!) but still made it to 7am. Then two nights ago he had about 10ml and again made it until 7am. So last night we skipped it and he made it though! WOO HOO! Notice how I don't say 'slept until 7am'? Well most mornings he wakes up around 6-630am but he entertains himself in the cot and doesn't call out for us to come and get him so we leave him until 7am and are then greeted with beautiful smiles. Hopefully he'll make it through again tonight and tomorrow and the next day and the next! Then Mummy and Daddy can go back to getting to bed at 8 or 9pm as preferred! Not that we have anything to complain about because we know he is such a good bub! Thanks Tizzie!

What's to come?

I thought you might all like to know what to expect from this blog so I thought I might include a list of some of the different things we are exploring with BC and hopefully you'll see something you're interested in reading about!

• Doman - reading, maths, encyclopedic knowledge, physical superiority, swimming
• Sign Language - Auslan versus American Sign Language and why we chose ASL
• Baby Signing Time
• Trebellina Music
• Hey Dee Ho music versus Mini Maestros
• Swimming ('Baby Play')
• BabyRoo (Gymbaroo)
• Mother's Group
• TweedleWink
• Baby Einstein
• Tizzie Hall routines
• Sleeping and routines
• Starting and moving through solids
• Choosing child care, kindergarten, schools
• To tell or not to tell others about our early learning experiences
• Flash Cards
• BrillKids website and forum
• Our family
• Having another baby?
• Physical development and milestones
• My work as an audiologist
• Possibly starting our own business?

AND MORE...!

How did we get into this?

Before our baby was born, I knew I wanted to provide him with as many opportunities as possible. I wanted to be involved in lots of fun activities that would stimulate him, as well as provide him (and me!) the opportunity to be social with other Mums. At the time, I was the only one in my circle of family and friends that was having a baby so I knew we'd need to find some other Mummy's for support. I looked into things like swimming, Gymbaroo and music but never realised there was more out there. Oh how naive I was! It wasn't until BC was three months old and a lovely friend of ours came around to take some photos of him that I discovered a whole new world. She brought along her two year old son who we entertained while she took some (amazing!) photos of BC. Master Two ended up entertaining us with his advanced speech skills, excellent sentence structure and intelligent comments. Lucky for us his Mum was kind enough to open up about some of the activities she does with Master Two and briefly mentioned the name 'Doman'. Well this sparked a VERY long session of research (got to love the Internet!) that spanned weeks and weeks and is still, and probably will always continue. And so the journey begins!

First post!

Ok, so here it is! I'm taking the plunge and starting my own blog. Hopefully there will be something of interest here to the world! I plan to blog about everything in the lives of myself, my husband and our gorgeous baby boy who shall be referred to as 'BC'  from here on! I am currently at work (naughty, naughty!) and promise to post more tonight and introduce myself and my family properly. The main focus for this blog will be our experiences raising our son and introducing him to a multitude of things through early learning. We are currently using Doman's methods and have all 7 of his books although I'm not perfect at flashing the cards 3x per day, every day...! But I'm trying to be better! I have also ordered lots of new products in the last few days such as Trebellina, Tweedlewink and Baby Signing Time and will update you all on this tonight. I had better go now and see my next patient.

Lisa