Before Lily came to us for adoption, we had read about the use of signing in children with Down syndrome and were convinced this was the way forward. 

In the UK, Makaton signing was the usual system used, but this was not designed for young children learning language but rather for adults with severe learning disabilities who had been unable to learn speech.

Makaton contains much vocabulary that is irrelevant to babies and does not include many of a baby’s usual early words.   It is also designed to be taught in stages, learning all the signs in stage 1 before proceeding to stage 2 and so on.  This seems very different to the way children typically learn language, being exposed to full adult language as well as there and picking up relevant words within this.

Having decided we needed more than Makaton, we joined a beginners British sign language class.  We learnt the signs for the vocabulary a baby first acquires and became able to sign key words as we spoke.

I planned out a signing and language programme that I considered ideal for a baby with Down syndrome.

Six times a day, we would have language learning sessions, concentrating especially on the signs for “spoon, ball, teddy and book”.  I chose these as I could use life size objects which were rewarding to a baby and were typical early words.  I collected an assortment of these objects in varying sizes, colours and textures.  I also chose six books that I thought would catch her attention and reinforce the concepts.

Aiming to encourage hand movement skills and to stimulate vision, I collected bright exciting toys and shiny Christmas tree ornaments to encourage the baby to look and reach and planned to include this in each session.

All these plans were made before we had our baby and once our daughter Lily finally came to us, aged five months, and we were faced with the reality of everyday life, they rapidly changed.

Basic baby care and Lily’s need to adapt to a new family dominated our time, so the plans were soon drastically modified to much simpler proportions and instead of a regimented training programme they became a fun play time fitted in among the usual chaos of family life.

After her first month with us, I found I was mainly signing at meal times, as this was a time when I was sitting down and had Lily’s attention.  I tried to always sign “food” or “drink” before giving her anything and would sometimes put her hand to her mouth moulding the sign for her.  It was really only one handed signs near my face that were easy to do (I always had something in my other hand and Lily would only concentrate on my face) this meant we signed mummy, nice, clever, beautiful and girl frequently.

When we were reading books, I would attempt to make the signs for some of the pictures but I would have the opposite problem in that I couldn't use signs that were signed near my face as Lily was looking at the book rather than me, again I had one hand holding the book so two-handed signs were difficult.

I tried to make signing opportunities of occasions like getting dressed (items of clothes, "good Morning", "happy”) changing nappies ("dirty, clean, new”) walking to school ("go, school, pram, bike, tree, car, look”) and going to bed ("tired, sleep, bed, night”).

Lily would sometimes randomly wave her right arm and I would wave back and try to encourage her to repeat the behaviour and take turns but she didn't seem to understand this.  However she loved the sound of her own babbling and would willingly engage in a turn-taking "Conversation" of this.

Lily’s communicating to us at six months was by crying when hungry, raising her head when she wanted to be picked up and pushing away the spoon or bottle when she had had enough food.

Over the next few months Lily’s hand control improved and she began to take more notice of our signing.  When aged 9 months we thought she recognised the sign "drink” and by eleven months there was definite recognition with a display of great excitement at the sign even when there was no bottle in sight.

I cut suitable pictures from magazines and slipped them into photo albums to make Lily individualised books of her favourite things.  She loved these home made books and spent a long time looking at them by her or with me when I would help her form the signs.

 She started signing by copying signs or making the signs for pictures in her books then gradually became able to use these signs spontaneously

At age 22 months she could spontaneously use 4 signs; eat, drink baby and duck.  She used the sign duck for all animals and would accompany it with a quacking noise.  She could also copy or sign to a book another 23 signs; all-gone, ball, banana, bath, bed, bird, book, bread, bye-bye, car, cat, daddy, dog, family names, hat,  jumper, mummy, naughty, push-chair, shoe, sock, teddy.

At 26 months said 4 words "ball, no, dad and yes" and used these additional signs; aeroplane, apple, bicycle, biscuit, cake, flower, hurt, hot, keys, more, nappy, rattle, spoon, tree

At 27 months Lily signed her first sentence, "more bread”. At 30 months she had 61 signs and 15 words. New signs were bib, brush (teeth), coat, comb, cry, down-stairs, eyes, fall,  hair, hand, mouth, nose, rabbit, school, slide, swing, train, trousers, up-stairs, vest, wrist-watch

 At 34 months she spoke her first two word sentences. (Ha is short for her sister Hannah)  "Ha walk" , "NO  Ha" , "Ha shoe"  and "mummy drink"

At age 3 she was talking more than signing and used her first longer sentence, "mummy get-out walk", ordering me to take her out of her push-chair. From then on Lily started dropping signs and talked to communicate.

When tested formally by a speech therapist at age 6 Lily’s comprehension level matched that of her expressive language, both being at a 4 to 4 1/2 year age level, and in her most recent formal assessment aged 9 1/2 her comprehension was at a 5 1/2 to 6 year level and her expressive speech "appropriate for her developmental level".

 Lily’s speech is well understood by most people and because of her  good communication skills she easily builds  relationships with people and often gives the impression of being cleverer  than she actually is.

 We are pleased that Lily has avoided the frustrations many children with Down syndrome  experience if unable to communicate, and that her language skills have not lagged behind her general developmental level as is often the case for children with Down syndrome.

We feel that signing was of great benefit to Lily in her early language learning and would recommend the use of signing to other parents