I realize it hasn’t been that long since I did my original baby sign language post, but Peanut’s signing has exploded so I figured I’d do another post.
My favorite sign that she started doing is “I love you”. She mostly does it when people are saying bye to her and it makes me almost cry. It doesn’t look like the traditional “I love you” sign, but rather more like an L. I don’t think she has the pinky strength to hold it up on it’s own yet.
She also started signing cat and bird. Also Mommy and Daddy.
A lot of her signs are just mimicking me nowadays. If I do a sign and ask her to sign it, she’ll likely do something with her hands. That doesn’t mean that she’ll necessarily know what it means, do anything like it, or ever repeat it without me specifically asking. It’s still pretty cool though!
She probably has 15-20 signing words (I wish I kept better track) and she has 6 speaking words (Mama, Dada, Cat, Dog, Mum Mum, and Ya!). I think we’re finally seeing this more spoken words because of signing thing. I was concerned in my last post that Peanut spoke less because she didn’t have to speak. Now she has twice as many words as other kids her age.
If you want to sign with your kids, I definitely recommend taking a signing class together. We did Sign 2 Me because they use real sign language. It was at this class that I learned that Peanut really started signing at about 9-10 months, but I didn’t recognize it. We also made friends and were able to ask questions about signing. We saw a big difference in her interest in signing once we started the classes too. She instantly started signing more and paying more attention to the signs we were doing. I think it was helpful for her to see other people besides Mama and Dada signing. I also think that all the grandparents took it more seriously because we were taking the class. I honestly wanted to keep coming back, but we had completed the series and didn’t have money to take it again.
Do you have any questions about signing that I may be able to help you with? I want these posts to be more than updates, I want to have information that’s helpful for parents who want to sign with their kids.
I realized today that I have a lot of posts where I mention our sign language adventure (like here, here, here, and here), but not an actual post about it. So here we go!
First off, I definitely recommend teaching your child sign language. There are all sorts of benefits regarding IQ and what not, but honestly what I like best about it is being able to communicate with Peanut. Of course I could still communicate with her without sign language, but definitely not as much as we do now.
We started signing with Peanut when she was about 5 months old. We started with “milk”, “change”, “I love you”, and “more”. Later on we added “all done” because she would get really upset when we would stop giving her yogurt so we needed something that would tell her that it was gone. This is where our first issue came up—we taught her a sign that isn’t really a sign. I thought that I was on a good site, but obviously wasn’t. I can’t even remember where I got the sign, but if you want to teach your child real ASL, you need to watch out. Sites that say “baby sign language” often aren’t real ASL. They use a modified version of sign language that is “easier” for babies. I honestly don’t see a point in teaching my child a fake language.
The first thing she started signing back was “more”, though it didn’t recognize it as such at the time. She probably started signing back at around 9-10 months. First she hit the table, then she’d clap her hands, then eventually she moved to putting her hands together in an obvious sign. Really, she still doesn’t do the sign right (at 14 months), but it’s obvious that it’s what she means. She points one finger to the palm of her other hand over and over. It’s entirely normal for them to do their own modified version of the sign and if you keep doing the sign right, they’ll eventually do it correctly too.
I wish I would have started blogging about her sign language journey earlier, because honestly I can’t remember when she started doing specific signs or even all of the ones she can do. It’s normal for them to do a sign for a while and then “put it in their pocket” for a while. Like she used to sign “yay” or “applause” a lot, but now she never does it. I know she still understands it because if I do the sign she claps, but she just stopped doing it herself.
Signs I know she can do: yay, milk, more, food, book, shoes, blue, and dog. I know she can do more than that, but I can’t think of any more right now. Still, that’s more words than any non-signing kid her age would have and she uses them a ton. She’ll come up to be and sign “book” because she wants to read one. When she was sick she signed “milk” about every fifteen minutes because that’s how often she wanted to nurse. Also, she started pulling on my shirt to tell me she wanted to nurse and I explained to her that it wasn’t nice and she should just sign milk. Now she rarely pulls on my shirt and when she does, it’s because I’m not paying attention to her signing.
The only disadvantage I can see to signing is that she may have less spoken words because of it. I think she just doesn’t feel the need to find spoken words for things because she has signs for them. This doesn’t bother me, but I can see how it could bother other parents. She does say “mama” and “dough” means dog. Also when she sees my breast she points at it and says “dat” in an excited voice. It could also be that she would have been just as slow with words if we didn’t sign, who knows? Studies do show that kids who sign actually have more spoken words than kids who don’t sign so this might just be Peanut.
I’m going to try to keep a more active log of Peanut’s signs and when she does them. She comes up with a new one every week or so and I want to document our success. So be ready to hear a lot about Peanut’s signing! Starting now!
Peanut signed “food” this morning for the first time. I was giving her a Mum Mum and asked her to say “Mum Mum” because she used to say it a while ago, but has since stopped probably because we don’t give them to her as much. Rather than saying “Mum Mum”, she signed “food”! Food looks like this:
Isn’t that cute?!? My Smart Hands is actually a really good site when you’re beginning with ASL. It doesn’t have many signs, but it has the ones that you’re likely to use and it has the baby doing the signs too so you can see the approximation of how yours might sign it.
She just hit her open hand to her mouth, but she was trying to sign “food”. How do I know that? You just figure out how to recognize your child signing something after doing it for a while. Like when I sing the ABC’s, but don’t sign it, she moves her hands as if she’s trying to do the signs. It really doesn’t look anything like the signs, but she does it to the rhythm of me singing. If I weren’t used to recognizing signs, I might think she was dancing.
I realize that I totally skipped out on your newsletter last month and I apologize, but to be honest I just forgot. I was in the middle of my last semester for my Associates degrees and we were trying to find a house and really, Mama is just a forgetful person. I can picture you a few years from now lecturing me on how I need to write something down or else I’ll just forget it. You’re going to be a sassy little lady, I’m just sure of it.
Wait, what am I saying? You’re already a sassy little lady, aren’t you? You have everyone under your pinky with that cute smile and blowing your kisses. You shake your head “no” even when the answer is “yes” just because you can. Even other parents talk about your cuteness and even when you’re not around. Seriously, y0u’ve got the whole world under your spell and you are oh so aware of it.
When I think back to two months ago, I am honestly amazed at how much you’ve changed. You sign “more”, “milk”, “dog”, “book”, “yay”, and you even signed “blue” when we showed you the sign the other day. Do you know what “blue” means? Probably not, but you sure did sign it! You call dogs “daw” and say “ah!” when you’re in agreement. You probably have about five times more signs than words, but that’s perfectly okay with me.
You love spinning in circles and recently figured out how to spin all by yourself. When I start spinning you look at me with a look that says “Oh my god! I forgot I can do that!” and then you spin with determination until you inevitably fall down laughing.
You even kicked a ball today! On purpose! And you throw the ball for the dog. Really only about a foot away, but you certainly expect her to fetch it for you. I have a genius for a child. I am simply sure of it.
You “read” books on your own. The other day you accidentally had a book upside down and you realized it and flipped it right side up. You also point to the bunnies in the books when I ask you to and you’ll go get more books if I ask (or for that matter don’t ask) you to.
You’ve discovered the joy of temper tantrums. You color and mostly don’t try to eat the crayons anymore. You help me dress you. You think that brushing your teeth is fun. You love yogurt and grapes. Really, you’re just a little person now, aren’t you?
