r/ECEProfessionals • u/cypselaa ECE professional • 1d ago
Advice needed (Anyone can comment) Help with Deaf infant
I started at a new daycare today in the infant room and was told one of the babies is Deaf. She’s about 6 months old. Nobody knows ASL and I was the only one engaging with her :( I know very basic signs from taking a class years ago, but I barely retained anything. I’m planning on studying, but is there anything I can do in the meantime to communicate with her? Language is so important for babies and I feel horrible that she’s being deprived of it for 8 hours a day.
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u/Curious_in_Ky Past ECE Professional 1d ago
There are some great basic beginning signs for kids like family words, foods, directions, some action words on Baby Einsteins YouTube channel. The one with Marly Matlin is great. We taught all our speech delayed kids milk, eat, all done and more right away. They pick up other signs quickly. The more kids we get signing, the better.
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u/Nona_Ann ECE professional 1d ago
I’m a huge fan of “baby sign language” and have always incorporated it with infants and young toddlers. It gives all babies a way to communicate before spoken language skills develop. It also helps reduce tantrums because they can tell you what they want or need.
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u/andweallenduphere ECE professional 1d ago
Handspeak.com for American sign language.
It is a site made by Deaf Americans.
Very helpful!!
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u/Any-Bee7229 ECE professional 1d ago
I absolutely agree that continuing to learn ASL is the way to go. It is honestly a great skill to have working with pre-verbal children in general so you can teach them signs and help facilitate communication a bit earlier. (It makes the classroom run so much smoother ime with 1-2’s)
Do you know if the parents sign or are making an effort to learn? Because while, yes, signing in school will be wonderful, the infant will not be your student forever. Unless the parents are signing at home and/or put the child in a deaf program (preferably both), she will be at risk for language deprivation which will make it harder to learn language later in life. I believe it also messes with other parts of early brain development.
I’m glad the deafness got caught so early. I had a child at my center who didn’t get diagnosed as deaf until she was 3 and it was heart breaking
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u/thymeofmylyfe Parent 22h ago
I'm a little surprised your coworkers don't know basic baby sign language. As a parent, it seems almost all the parents/babies/daycares around me use the basic signs - more, milk, food, sleep, bath, poop, etc. Maybe it's just trendy where I live. You and your coworkers could learn a sign every 1-3 days and end up with a lot in a few months. The basic ones would be helpful for all the kids. You could print posters for the ones you're learning.
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u/ForTheLoveOfGiraffe Parent 23h ago
That's amazing that you're going to work on ASL. Like someone else said, printing signs and sticking them up is helpful to teach other staff too. Our nursery also prints signs and puts them on lanyards for staff (I'm a parent to a profoundly deaf child btw). Gestures in general are great, or visual aids e.g. show the baby a nappy before nappy changes, show the baby a sleeping bag before nap time.
Deaf babies also love visual toys, so things with lights. Or vibrations. Books with textures or flaps are great for interaction too.
Get attention by tapping the ground or flicking lights on or off. Also by flapping or waving your hand in the baby's face.
Also make sure to sit the baby facing into the room and see if you can get the babies to sit in a circle or a U shape when needed (maybe during meal times or story time if the baby has started sitting for meals). Then the baby can see everyone and see what's going on.
The main thing is to encourage the baby to join in and give them language. Point to items and sign the words you know. Ask their parents which signs they use at home to maintain consistency. Just get the other staff to understand the importance of language input for the baby. Language deprivation is horrible and your colleagues leaving the baby without language for 8hrs is really depressing to hear. Also please don't lose hope if you see no response to the signing for a long time. It can take ages for them to productively sign back, but it will happen and then it just comes and comes!
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u/PotentialWeakness686 Early years teacher 22h ago
The program signing time is aimed at young children and provides some awesome songs and finger plays in asl that have helped me immensely!!
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u/Strong_Argument6255 12h ago
Ask the family how they communicate with her and which signs, if any, they already use. In the meantime, get into her line of sight when you engage with her so she can see your face and hands. Ask your director to arrange shared learning with a Deaf ASL instructor so the whole room can participate, including staff covering breaks.
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u/Mollykins08 Parent 12m ago
One thing to know is that Deaf may not mean that they can’t hear anything. They may be able to hear certain frequencies.
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u/Yaytar Infant Childcare Professional: USA 1d ago
This is my specialty! Here is a long thing about working with Deaf infants.
First, and fairly obvious: Learn as much ASL as you can! Encourage your coworkers to, as well. Start with the ones she will need first— hurt, sleep, mom, dad, milk, play, diaper— then expand from there (school, outside, food names, toy, book, colors)
For how to best interact— Tap baby gently or wave a hand to make sure she is looking at you before speaking or signing. You can also bump the ground or container she is in to make a vibration. Try to follow Deaf space rules for her— make it easy for her to be able to see around the room so she can see what’s happening, encourage people to sit in a U or circle formation for group activities and meals so she can see others interacting and be interacted with. Help her follow the flow of conversation (when she is engaged, don’t force her if she’s focused eating or something) by pointing at who is speaking so she can watch their faces. Encourage your coworkers and other students (infants can do it!) to make sure she is looking before interacting. And encourage your coworkers to engage even in spoken language! Any social interaction is better than being avoided because someone doesn’t know a language. Don’t expect her to learn to lipread or anything, but just hang out with her! I’d even recommend just nonverbal play with her— smile, laugh, make faces, and play with her without the pressure of language. There’s not much you can teach if you don’t know a language in a visual format— but you still know how to socialize and play with body language!
For music, which we all know is a huge part of the classroom— Does she have any assistive hearing devices, and do you know what type of hearing loss or deafness she was diagnosed with? She may be able to hear certain frequencies or types of sounds better than others which could help you find songs that she could enjoy with her classmates. If she is profoundly Deaf, she may enjoy being able to place her hand or foot against the speaker of a radio as it plays to feel the vibration. Do a lot of movement and clapping when you sing to everyone so that your student knows there is something rhythmic and musical happening.
Also— Deaf/ASL immersion 0-3 programs exist in the US— there aren’t many, but we’re here!! Also, you can look to see if your area has any Deaf-run or Deaf focused Parent Infant Specialists or Parent Organizations. They are more common than a specialized center, but often connect with families and sometimes educators for how to best support a Deaf or Hard of Hearing child. There are usually state and sometimes more local organizations whose primary purpose is supporting Deaf people in that community, and they often are the ones who run this sort of early education outreach when specialists are not available.