My son doesn't speak. Unlike children who don't speak because they are mute or have difficulty speaking due to deafness or another reason, my son doesn't speak by choice. He makes some sounds and uses a few words, but instead of speaking, my son uses sign language to communicate.
Now understand, my son is seven years old, has Down's Syndrome, and he has personally chosen this form of communication.
His summer school teacher uses spoken language and doesn't know sign language. Neither do the aides in her class.
Now with all of this, we have established goals for school. These are things we expect him to do or accomplish within a given period. Typically these are what you and I would consider very simple, but they hide a great deal of complexity, eye hand coordination, and fine muscle control.
His recent communication goal is :
my son "will identify numbers 1 - 20 on flash cards when requested, and give the sign for numbers 1-10 with 80% accuracy as measured by the special education teacher by" a given day.
This is actually a very low goal as far as we are concerned. My son communicates with well over 300 signs (far beyond what I know) and he has very little trouble getting me, my wife, his siblings, or most people to understand what he wants or needs.
SO IMAGINE MY SURPRISE WHEN I RECEIVED HIS REPORT CARD AND READ:
"Though none of the summer teachers knew sign language prior to the beginning of the summer session, letter and number signs were practiced with the aid of a book on sign language. (My son) seemed amused at our attempts to communicate with sign language."
My son is very tolerant of people when they try to communicate with him so It had to be really bad if they were amusing him.
Now understand, my son is seven years old, has Down's Syndrome, and he has personally chosen this form of communication.
His summer school teacher uses spoken language and doesn't know sign language. Neither do the aides in her class.
Now with all of this, we have established goals for school. These are things we expect him to do or accomplish within a given period. Typically these are what you and I would consider very simple, but they hide a great deal of complexity, eye hand coordination, and fine muscle control.
His recent communication goal is :
my son "will identify numbers 1 - 20 on flash cards when requested, and give the sign for numbers 1-10 with 80% accuracy as measured by the special education teacher by" a given day.
This is actually a very low goal as far as we are concerned. My son communicates with well over 300 signs (far beyond what I know) and he has very little trouble getting me, my wife, his siblings, or most people to understand what he wants or needs.
SO IMAGINE MY SURPRISE WHEN I RECEIVED HIS REPORT CARD AND READ:
"Though none of the summer teachers knew sign language prior to the beginning of the summer session, letter and number signs were practiced with the aid of a book on sign language. (My son) seemed amused at our attempts to communicate with sign language."
My son is very tolerant of people when they try to communicate with him so It had to be really bad if they were amusing him.
