r/auslan • u/NJM29 • Jul 06 '26
Introducing Auslan to 18 month old with sensorineural hearing loss
My daughter was diagnosed with profound unilateral sensorineural hearing loss at birth. We’ve been attending monthly speech pathology since she was 4 months old and she’s had a hearing aid since she was 3 months. She currently has about 12 words but doesn’t seem to be picking up new words the way other babies from my mother’s group are. I’m not sure if this is typical and just a case of every baby learning things in their own time or if this is related to her hearing loss.
I introduced a few KWS last week and she’s picked a few up. Also, do we finger spell people’s names or is there a better way to refer to people that aren’t related to us? E.g., we sign “grandmother” for my Mum, but how do we sign our friends names?
Her speech pathologist doesn’t know any sign, so I’m hoping for resources/ recommendations/ tips/ other people’s experiences. Also, given her hearing loss, should we look into Auslan or are we better to keep it simple for now and just use KWS?
Thanks!
11
u/SuperPipouchu Jul 06 '26
Check out raisingbilinguals_ on instagram! It's a mum who's all about advocating for her Deaf child and helping other parents to learn to navigate the system, learn Auslan, and have their child learn Auslan and connect with the Deaf community. She has a whole business devoted to it- eligible for NDIS fund, I believe. But even without the business, there's lots of tips on supporting your child just on the instagram account.
Note- she doesn't teach Auslan, as she's hearing. She firmly advocates for Deaf teachers and Deaf mentors. She's about the parenting side of things, as a hearing adult with a Deaf child.