I May Have a Signer Afterall part 2

Since Brook has shown an interest in something, we're continuing to build. No captions again but all she's trying to do is spell her name...that K is a little tricky. She starts and then keeps starting over at first but for a brief second you'll see that she does actually get that K. I only showed her twice how to do her name and she seems to be picking it up quickly. Gage wouldn't let me film him as he tried to do his name...it took him quite some time (like three minutes) to get his four letters GAGE and he swapped back and forth from left to right hand...he's just not very coordinated w/the signing. Both kids have mastered spoken language so no matter what you believe about withholding signs or not withholding signs while developing spoken language...you can see there is no need to withhold anything now. She has her speech down pat, as a lot of kids do now days, adding a second or third language even, is quite common for those w/or without hearing loss. Rachel C. as you know has spoken language down and went on to learn and master French. As Brook ages, she may choose to add something else. Who knows. Most of you know by now we tried signing w/Gage as an infant when he couldn't hear but he wasn't having it. There are some kids who just aren't interested, he is one of them and Brook is not. We used AVT all the way w/both kids and now that their spoken language has a solid foundation, we discovered that Brook is going to be much more interested in signing than her brother. I'll have to go to the library and check her some videos out. I will say that this may spark some competition between the siblings. Gage told me the other day as I was putting their batteries in their ci processors..."make sure you make me hear the best!!"...he's told their audiologist this before too! Oh, sibling rivalry! p.s. This is in no way meant to spark any type of battle of the communication modes. This is, as always, a post about what's going on in our house, our situation, our lives. The intent is to show that just because something may be witheld at first, doesn't mean it will always be witheld. What we chose to do worked for us, kids are very different...you can see that plain as day from my two. I'm excited as Brook has a new interest that involves learning. We will continue to build her verbal language but we will also set aside a few minutes each day to add to her signs. I would be just as proud of her if she had chosen French or any other language. Go "B"!! I have to also let Gage know that just because he's not interested, that's okay too. He's good at other stuff.