Verbal Apraxia and Sign Language
 

I'm not a parent.

My niece has been diagnosed with Oral/Verbal Apraxia. She's just 3 and the doctors have given a positive diagnosis.

For those of you who don't know, oral apraxia is a disorder that causes the muscles in the mouth to "misfire" when speech is initiated. So, she thinks she's said the right words, the signal gets screwed up on the way mouth and gibberish comes out.

The speech therapist told us that using sign language, at least for the simple concepts, seems to work pretty well. They've noticed that in most cases it helps rather than hinders progress.

Which leads me to my question:

Does anyone know a good website or a book to help us with sign language? Any tips and tricks? I've been to about two dozen sites that might work, but thought I'd indulge myself in the greater wisdom that is the TFP. :)

As a member of the hard of hearing/deaf community, let me tell you there are TONS of books out there. www.harriscommunications.com is one resource with many different books depending on what you are trying to learn. There will be a different focus if you're learning words a three year old will need vs. words to actually carry on an intellectual conversation. One of my favorite items in their catalog is an ASL magnet kit. It's like those word magnets that you can piece together and make sentences out of. It's great exposure since it'll probably be in a visible place such as the kitchen fridge and makes the learning easier.

My son is almost 10 months old and we have been teaching him signs since he was 6 months. Even though he can't verbally "talk" yet, he can now commnicate ideas such as "more", "milk", "food" and "up", just to name a few. My wife and I used a book called "Baby Signs", which is great for beginning sign language and getting the basic ideas down. We plan on moving up to more advanced signing as the boy continues to grow.

Oh, and just to clarify, there is nothing "wrong" with my son physically or mentally, and his speech is developing right on schedule. My wife was a pre-school teacher for many years and found that teaching kids some form of sign language early on cut back on tantroms and general fussiness, and gave kids an outlet for communication when they hadn't yet learned how to speak certain words. Hand dexiterity matures much more quickly in children than speech does.

Best wishes for you and your niece.

Dawn Sign Press - http://www.dawnsign.com/ Has good resources on how to learn American Sign Language as well.