With my older daughter, she signed up to about 21 months and then dropped it like a hot potatoe when she got her voice geared up and went to talking sentences. At least that is how I thought of it... I did not know anything about gifted and when people commented about her talking and shocked at her age etc. you know the drill...welll I just said that she learned ASL and it was easier to sign than to talk and so she just had more time with language than the other kids.... She was talking in paragraphs when she was just over two...So I don't know what to make of that...If she would have talked more fluently earlier, I don't know. She never attended day care at that age. She went to work with me and I worked in the Deaf community so she was really immersed in it. With my youngest I did use sign and voice together and she was not immersed. I no longer work so deeply in the Deaf community. But she used sign when she was very young. She would ask for more of stuff when she was 9 months old. (Using two signs together) She no longer signs of her own choice although at times I wish she did because her articulation is hard to understand. Did it slow either child down.... I don't know now with this new gifted stuff.... I have thought for so long that it accelerated my oldest. I think I have to think on it some more... With my oldest she came to work with me so she really had no choice but to be exposed to it pretty intensely. I'd love to read where you read about it slowing verbal kids down. I think if I knew I was going to use day care I would not have used it so much maybe. I also wonder and this is sort of off the cusp here but it may also depend on if a kid is a visual learner/thinker or not. I am a pretty strong visual person I think. I think my older daughter is as well... Things to contemplate.. thanks for the response.
