Learning for my deaf/blind son.

[SaraAsh]

Hello everyone,

I'm here to try and keep up to speed with my son's ability to understand signing. We've been working on it for years, which has been slow going as it's difficult to teach my son signs and to know that he understands them. But he's done so well and we're now at the stage where I need to be ahead of him so that I can continue to help him develop his own vocabulary. 

My son cannot sign back to me, but he absolutely loves understanding what I'm signing to him and in the last few months he has stated being able to follow full sentences. It's amazing and exciting! But I am still only really a beginner and I have so much to learn! 

We do SSE rather than BSL, but we mainly use BSL signs. My son uses total communication, so we adapt things in a way that best suit his learning abilities. 

I'm so excited to be at this stage after 5 years, when he first had his diagnosis of Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, with additional bilateral sensory hearing loss, Along with all of his other difficulties, including his visual impairments and his cerebral palsy with severe dystonia, it has been a complex path we've been walking along. 

It is very difficult to learn signing when it's one sided, so I'm considering any and all other options available! If anyone knows of any SSE courses available I'd be very grateful to know of them. My son's SLT isnt aware of any at the moment, I have been scouting for the last few months.

Thank you for reading.

Best wishes,

Sara.