The Top Ten ASL Signs for a Newborn I Wish I Had Known

When we came home from the hospital with Peter I knew he had something going on with his hearing. He had gotten "Refer, Refer" on several of the newborn hearing screenings. Basically he failed the hearing tests, but they don't like to say FAIL! We had appointments for further tests, but we didn't get a lot of information at that point. I did know that even if the problem was "fluid in the ears" or a "late maturing auditory nerve" and would eventually be resolved, that couldn't hear me at that point.  I wanted to communicate from the start in a way that was accessible to my baby.

I had used sign with my hearing daughters starting at a few months old, so I knew some signs, but many were not useful at all for a brand new baby with limited daily activities.  I had to look up some signs below, and they are the ones I with I had gotten in a pamphlet right after that first failed screening. At that point I didn't want to learn about the top 100 signs for parents. I didn't need to know LION or BALL. I needed something simple. Those first few weeks were overwhelming enough, without having to dig through the web for the ASL words I could use so often with my baby. I also wish I had gotten something that talked about using sign at first EVEN IF the oral route is preferred, and something that talked about ASL without an anti-CI bias (and CI's without an anti-ASL bias!). 

A friend just posted an an article about early language access, and that got me thinking about my (fantasy) project to design a brochure for REFER,REFER folks. Anyone have any other suggestions about what 10 signs a hearing parent might want to know? I chose these because they could be mixed and matched to say so many things about a newborn's day, you can do them leaning over t he changing table so the baby can see them, and they are an easy entry into signing. Also, with CLOTHES being close to GET DRESSED, i felt this group had even more possible combinations. But I am no expert.  My ASL grammar is non-existent. Hopefully someone who is fluent can take what I felt I needed, and massage it ;)

And now that Peter has his CI? I am still signing.  I am always talking, too, but being able to "chat" when his CI's are off, or knowing what he is thinking about, so I can talk about it...priceless! He just learned the sign for LION ( he just sort of rubs the side of his head) and I can tell he loves his stuffed lion, because he signs to it/ about it a lot! I talked about the lion's (and Peter's) eyes and ears today since he was focused on it and excited about it :)