It must be really scary to be in that position of having to make decisions about your daughter's care...

I am NOT an expert in this area, and have NOT dealt with this personally, but I did think of a couple things.

My pediatricians, both very experienced and well loved (Reinstein & Zimble) both indicated that teaching sign language could actually HINDER language development, that it's similar to two languages being spoken at home.  Not exactly a "delay", but children speak later. Personally, I think sign language is great if you are dealing with major behavior challenges (frustration, etc), but I stopped using it with my first child when I could see that she was putting her energy into mastering the signs, instead of just talking/gesturing to me.

The other thing I though of was that many people don't know that the county (la county) has EXTENSIVE resources available to parents and children who are diagnosed with ANY kind of developmental or medical challenge.  You must seek services before the age of three, and then you will have access to speech therapy, physical therapy, respite care, etc.  A lot of people think that this is only for children who are severly handicapped or delayed (autistic, etc), but that is not so.  You should be able to get details from your pediatrician-I have friends who are using these services, and it has been a life saver for their family.  I also used to teach middle and high school-there are lots of resources for kids who need help with all different kinds of issues.

Again, sorry, lots of second hand info.  I'm sure it will be fine, and just the fact that you care enough to explore this means that your baby will be OK.

Hugs,Carrie

Hi,

 Definitely contact Early Intervention.  Not sure if it is called that in MA but every state has services for child with any kind of developmental delays before the age of 3. 

When using sign language you should always pair it with the word that is being signed.  Example, she is signing drink and then you would sign it back and say "drink - you want a drink"  Try to also get her to make any kind of sound when requesting something, even if it is not the right sound right away.  This way she learns that she needs to make a sound to get something.  Once she starts doing this start increasing the parts of the word that she needs to say.  Also do an ABC puzzle and work on the sounds, sing songs and leave a word out so she can try to say it. 

 I'm not a speech therapist but a behavioral therapist who has works with tons of kids with speech issues and these are some of the main things that I work on.

the only tip I can give you is start working on it asap (like you are doing)  I have a 7 year old who has been inn speach at her school for the 2nd year now and if only people would have understood how serious it was when she was that age and even at age 3  but in Va it seemed I didnt get much early help for her.. now her in FL things are dif my son is being monitored and my daughter will be next year as she is showing signs of speach delays as well.. 

 as for the talking part and getting more words and such as long as hearing and sight are in normal level just keep saying things VERY SLOWLY and CLEARLY this way she can learn them right the first time.. correct her unitl she can say it right dont give up and let her do the words wrong (can you tell this is what i did with my daugther lol)  it frustrating but it pays off in the end my son who was the next born after her has wodnerful speach  but I guess I slacked off with the fourth as the same problems are comign around with her..   try spelling the words out to her as well she might get the simple ones now and might suprise you with some larger words liek 4-5 letter words.  you can do flash cards and even do songs and just do it over and over. the best way to learn anything with a child is makign it somoething they overlearn therefor do not forget.  talk to her abotu everything you can even label everything in the house to help and just point to the words and say them

for my yougest her school is doing sign lang. with them all (mostly due to her though :( )  so that they dont teach her to use a made up lang. to communicate with  of yea that is the worst thign to do for them LOL  let them make up there own words for things yes the ones they cant pronounce are ok but just keep working on the correct way.  you can do motuh exercises as well to help get the tounge and mouth to get into the correct shapes  things like blowing bubbles and blowing kisss work well then there is the stickign tounge out and saying aaaaa then jsut go though the alphabet with her and help her from the words  the s isnt to hard when you do it by snake and then the slithering sound of ssssssssss

r is easy with rrrrrrun rrrrooo (last one from whine the pooh )   

ok I'm done but theis is what we do with the youngest now as told by the ladis working with her older sisters  I hope it helps  and on a happier note my oldest now 8 didnt talk correctly unitl she was 21/2 and then it was like this light bulb went off and she coudl talk clear as anything..   

christina

sign language is a wonderful way to communicate w/ babies as old as 4 mos!  IF you & everyone in contact w/ your baby are consist w/ the SL, & then your baby could be signing by as early as 6 mos.  as for my 2nd son, Vincent could sign "eat" & "more" at 9 mos!  ;-)  my 1st son Dominic (who just turned 5 yesterday) was not into SL & was diagnosed w/ a delay when he was 2 yrs old.  i couldn't get an appt for a language specialist till my son turned 2.5 yo.  by then Dominic's speech EXPLODED!!!  :-D  he was talking english AND spanish!!  well, he really got into watching Dora & Diego, so i was speaking in both languages.  of course, being chinese & a cantonese-speaker, i would throw in a couple of cantonese phrases for good measure, too.  by my preference was to speak to him in french to make my son multilingual.  yes, i've heard that teaching kids too many languages is a bad thing.  that is a very american-monolingual-narrow-minded idea.  i think of myself & my family as being very multicultural living here in LA there is a little bit of every nation in our corner of the world.  besides, european & asian children learn about 6 languages in their respective schools!  since they are little sponges & parrots, i teach my little guys to respect differences & acknowledge their uniqueness!  wishing you all the best of luck!

have a great weekend!  happy father's day to your babies' daddy!

mitzi

temple city + ca + mighty mama to dominic & vincent + super wifey to cleveland since 2000

My son (23 months) also has a speech delay.  We've had speech services through the county for a little less than a year now.   He picked up a few signs early on, but we used them more as a transition to ease the frustration than really building his sign-vocabulary.  His major problem is that his expressive language skills are behind, but his receptive skills are advanced.  The discrepancy between what he can think and what he can say is a great source of frustration for him (and us).  He rarely initiated any type of verbal communication.

The biggest obstacle that we had to overcome was my son's personality :D  He HATES doing anything that aren't HIS idea, so therapy was actually counter productive for a while.  Trying to "force" the words out of him made him talk/babble/communicate less (such as putting things out of his reach and only giving them to him if he made some sort of verbal 'request)'.  We also noticed that he didn't want to try anything he wasn't confident doing - he hated to do something incorrectly, and I think that extended into his speech. 

Once we switched to a non-pressure approach with LOTS of encouragement, especially when he tried something new, we saw a huge improvement.  He started initiating vocalization and trying out new sounds/words.  One thing that was highly sucessful was to work on simple sounds instead of whole words.  Once we broke things down into phonetical sounds that were less daunting a task, he started experimenting and playing with sounds more.  He'll say puh-puh for purple, kuh for cup, etc.  He really gained some confidence one it was broken down into pieces he could manage.

I think another factor was the way my husband and I were around him.  He had some medical problems when he was born (he's healthy now!), but I don't think we were out of "really concerned about EVERYthing mode" and I think my son picked up that his language development was an issue and further withdrew from it.  It wasn't until I started reading up on the topic that I began to relax (thus relaxing my husband) a bit about his development.  After reading all the parenting sites that profess doom & gloom for children not meeting a milestone, I was pretty worried, so I did some further reading that made me feel MUCH better (and more relaxed) about him.

I would definitely recommend reading: 

Late-Talking Children by Thomas Sowell
The author is well-known economist who writes about his own experiences with a late-talker as well as trends he's discovered in certain group of late-talkers.)

Growing Up With Language: How Children Learn to Talk by Naomi S. Baron 
The author is a Professor of Linguistics. This book is written for "parents, medical practitioners, educators and students" in a language that is very readable.  She covers language development from conception on, including explantions of the corresponding brain development, and gives case-studies of three children's development.

I've read other books on the subject and could give more rec's if you'd like, but these two are a really good place to start.  They gave me reassurance that while there could be a serious problem (like the parenting sites warn you incessantly), there isn't ALWAYS a major problem, and this is normal development for some kids, and they will turn out just fine (given the right type of help/intervention).

-Amanda