When I was pregnant, I was determined to use Sign Language with David
when he was born. Jake and I went to a book reading on Baby Sign and
I was all gung-ho about it. Somewhere along the line, I was told it’s
best not to start until babies are six months old. So I didn’t start
right away. By the time he turned six month old, we had serious sleep
problems, we started introducing solids and there was way too much
going on for me to think about Sign Language.
A few months ago, I decided to stop feeling so disappointed in myself
and start signing little by little. As opposed to the typical fist
signs like “more”, “change”, and “food,” I picked “show me.” David
often walked into the kitchen and screamed and when I didn’t go see,
he’d come to the living room and scream until I got up and walked
with him back to the kitchen. Each time, he came into the living
room, I’d sign “show me” and I walked back with him. He didn’t seem
to pay much attention, but I kept doing it anyhow. It wasn’t out of
determination as much as boredom. Gave me something to do on the way
to the kitchen and distracted him slightly so he wouldn’t scream as
much.
Two weeks ago, he did the same screaming for something routine but
this time he signed. I thought I was hallucinating and he didn’t do
it again that day. But he did the next day. This time, it was so
clear, I was sure he was actually signing it. Over the last week, he
has become proficient in signing “show me” and uses it constantly. He
also started using “milk” which is a welcome replacement to the
previous “let me pull your shirt enough for you to lift it.”
Signing with David is so much fun. Now, when he wakes up grouchy from
his nap, I sign “show me” which makes him stop and think about what’s
on his mind. Such joy. Now that we’ve started communicating, I have
moved on to “help me”, “please” and “thank you.” Let’s see if we make
progress.
We did the baby signs with our first, starting at ~10 months and getting signs back at ~12 months. With the second, we’ve been less disciplined with it, so she doesn’t quite have the same vocabulary at 16 months that the first one did. The older one was speaking in sentences by age two, so she abandoned the signs, and the second looks like an early talker as well–maybe girls develop speech earlier?
Just wait till David starts puttings signs together into sentences… that’s really cool.
i love love love baby sign. i love that my girl can feel confident that i’m going to meet her needs because she’s able to clearly communicate them. the eating signs (more, eat, all done) saved us from mealtime frustration. we’re not adding new signs now that she’s able to verbally tell us what she wants but i think that with #2, we’ll be a little more diligent about the signing early on.
sounds like a lot of effort to figure out what a child may or may not be saying. When my kids were at their youngest and I was curious about why they were crying or laughing, I would ask the baby nurse. Now that they are older, I can ask one of the nannies if I don’t know why the child is doing or what to do.