I used to think that teaching sign language to babies was a bunch of new age hippie crap. That was, until the Bean started using signs at nine months and I was forced to admit to my wife that I had been wrong about the whole thing. I don’t know what I hate more, being wrong or having to admit to her that I was wrong.
Sprout has now started signing. I don’t know why, but I’m still kind of stunned that baby sign language works. I think this has been one of the only things that has truly surprised me the second time around. Sprout’s newfound ability to communicate has eased some of her frustration and brought a modicum of peace to our house. But she’s starting to get really pushy, constantly demanding, “Milk! Milk! Food! Food!”
Sprout has also started to speak. Her first word was “buh bye” which was soon followed by “hi” and “up.” She even has a special word for her brother. Yes, it seemed as if Sprout was on her way to a fairly substantial vocabulary, until she learned the word “doggie.” Everything now is “doggie” from an actual dog, to the cats, the Bean, me, a button on my shirt…
6 comments:
I didn't believe in it either, and didn't do it with our first son But then I saw a friend doing signing with her daughter (although apparently girls are more susceptive to it than boys) and she was communicating very early on. I'm going to start it with our second son and will be interested to see how we get on.
We did signing with our daughter and continued with our son. He's already into the hybrid phase, signing Daddy while saying "Dada", plus we now have a better idea of what he wants when he's screaming his lungs out.
Signing is cool. One of my coworkers developed temporary deafness due to a severe ear infection. People began apologizing to her because they didn't know sign language to communicate with her. They missed that fact that she didn't know it either. As if the ability to sign comes magically with deafness.
We did signing with Lukas and it was great. It has faded since his vocabulary took off, but he still throws in an occasional sign to remind us he hasn't forgotten. Usually this is 'more', but he did airplane just the other day too.
I took sign language in college. It is the one thing I proved wrong with my guy also.
The SigningTime videos were my kids lunch buddy. It went on as they sat down to eat and they watched it starting as earliey as 3 months.
They were able to communicate at an early age of what they wanted and when they were hungry. it was amazing. :)
Baby sign language rocks. I wish I'd been hip(pie) enough to teach it to my kids.
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