Of course in reality I know that this is not really true. We do, however, teach our kids to use ASL signs from an early age, and have had great results with them in the past! I have started signing "milk" to Lyle when I am about to nurse him, and we will start using some other basic signs in the house soon, in order to get the girls used to them so that we can all help Lyle learn them in the coming months. If we use signs like "milk", "more", "father" and "mother" consistently, we should be able to see him making efforts to form the signs himself by the time he is 9 to 12 months old. We have found signing to be tremendously helpful between the ages of 1 year to 2 years when the girls were still establishing their spoken vocabulary. They were able to tell us what they wanted instead of us having to guess (they used signs such as "eat", "drink", "milk", "more", "yes", "no", "finished", etc.) and we really feel that the ability to communicate earlier through sign has helped them develop their verbal communication skills as well.
For more info about signing with babies and young children, visit the following sites:
www.sign2me.com
www.mybabycantalk.com
www.babysigns.com
You can also use the following site to look up specific signs and see videos showing how to form them yourself:
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/Sites/aslweb/browser.htm
That is very cute! You never know, he might be telling you something for real. Signing is a wonderful concept to introduce to babies! We've got a pic of Peter making the peace sign when he was two months old. It was so cute we had to buy an extra sheet of pics from SearsPortrait Studio, lol.
ReplyDeleteSigning Time is great too. I bought the first six disks and it's addictive (the music/songs are) and the girls have learned alot of ASL. E has signed alot and she's starting to pick up on colors too. And I agree... it's so very useful during the toddler years. The main root of all the "terrible twos" is just basic lack of communication skills vocally. Theresa
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links. I have a foster son that we received from the hospital at not even 24 hours old. He just turned one. I have been teaching him some signs . He knows all done the best.He uses it for no more food, and dont take me out of the tub. I didnt try it with my birth children. That was a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteLove Karen
TOO CUTE!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you for posting this. I keep meaning to look into a few basic signs for Lena but it always slips my mind
ReplyDelete:-(
I love You All this much [------------------------------------------------------------------] Pops
ReplyDeleteHey, Jen-- interesting links! I still remember the sign for C O O K I E .... Love, Grandpa
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