Baby Signs, Sort Of
Jay and I recently decided to start using some signs with Joshua since he's getting to the point where he's a little frustrated by his inability to communicate. And, honestly, we were getting a little weary of him following us around making the baby bird face and saying. "Ahhhh" when he wanted a bite of what we were eating. So far we've taught him three signs: more, water, and finished.
The sign we taught him for "more" is actually ASL for "again," and after modifying it a bit, he makes the sign for "more" by pointing to his palm. We taught him the true ASL sign for "water," but that's a little tough for a toddler, so he points to his mouth rather than making the "w" sign by his mouth. Finally, we taught him "finished." His own version consists of waving his hands wildly in front of his face.
We've been at this for two weeks and are slowly learning that his definitions of the words are slightly different from ours. Here's what he means when he makes these signs:
More [mohr]:
1. Put food in my mouth now (Often done while running into the kitchen after naptime and looking for his snacks)
2. Give me some of whatever you're eating now (Done when you have something to eat and he doesn't. This has recently resulted in his first experiences of pad thai and spicy breakfast sausage, both of which he surprisingly enjoyed).
3. Let me drink from your glass. (Joshua has a large selection of lovely sippy cups, but once he hears his dad pouring a glass of water, dad must share).
Water ['wot-er]:
1. More.
2. Water.
Yes, these are interchangeable, and understandably so. If "water" is signed by pointing to the mouth, and "more" means I want you to put something in my mouth now, then shouldn't I be pointing to my mouth if I want more?
Finished ['fin-isht]:
1. Put me down, I want to play. When eating, often followed by the word "more"
2. Put me down, I want to play. When being picked up after a nap, means "I like you and all and snuggling's not so bad, but I'd really like to stick my fingers in the fan."
The sign we taught him for "more" is actually ASL for "again," and after modifying it a bit, he makes the sign for "more" by pointing to his palm. We taught him the true ASL sign for "water," but that's a little tough for a toddler, so he points to his mouth rather than making the "w" sign by his mouth. Finally, we taught him "finished." His own version consists of waving his hands wildly in front of his face.
We've been at this for two weeks and are slowly learning that his definitions of the words are slightly different from ours. Here's what he means when he makes these signs:
More [mohr]:
1. Put food in my mouth now (Often done while running into the kitchen after naptime and looking for his snacks)
2. Give me some of whatever you're eating now (Done when you have something to eat and he doesn't. This has recently resulted in his first experiences of pad thai and spicy breakfast sausage, both of which he surprisingly enjoyed).
3. Let me drink from your glass. (Joshua has a large selection of lovely sippy cups, but once he hears his dad pouring a glass of water, dad must share).
Water ['wot-er]:
1. More.
2. Water.
Yes, these are interchangeable, and understandably so. If "water" is signed by pointing to the mouth, and "more" means I want you to put something in my mouth now, then shouldn't I be pointing to my mouth if I want more?
Finished ['fin-isht]:
1. Put me down, I want to play. When eating, often followed by the word "more"
2. Put me down, I want to play. When being picked up after a nap, means "I like you and all and snuggling's not so bad, but I'd really like to stick my fingers in the fan."
Comments
I can only really sign two words. Dog and vagina. Don't ask.
http://tinyurl.com/y95u43
Grats on teaching Joshua some signs! There's tons of evidence (and books now) about how this helps even hearing kids develop expressive language skills earlier in life. One mother I know who has 5 kids (the third one is deaf, the others hearing) says the best thing she ever did was learn sign for her deaf son. She then used it with her next two hearing kids of course as her deaf son was around and it elminated the guessing game of "wet diaper" or "food" or "hot" when her kids were fussy!
Don't fret about the 'inaccuracies' so much either. A lot of deaf infants with deaf parents have the same sort of articulation problems. It's like when hearing kids learn speech and go from babble to syllables (mama papa) to full words (mother father) etc.
The index finger handshape instead of more articulated handshapes like W for water or even and open palm for Mom or Dad is common.
One of my deaf co-workers recently had a baby girl (hearing) who is of course learning sign from mama and papa and working her way through the same sort of articulation things.
Kirk--Thanks for the encouragement. It's good to know that it's possible to "babble" in sign language, too, and that we're not setting him up to be a sign language dropout.
Anyone else who wants to sign with kids--
This is my new favorite site if you don't have a real live person that can teach you.
The best thing I ever did was teach Ty signs. For the longest time his “more” sign meant
1. More
2. I want that
3. I want that now
4. Again, please
5. I want your attention about something
Thank goodness he finally learned a few more signs. For a while I was wondering what good sign language was if he only had one sign. What’s the difference between pointing and grunting and signing more and grunting if I still had to guess as to which meaning of “more” Ty was talking about. It did get better.
The ones we use most often now that he is close to two are hungry, thirsty, please, and thank you. I never could get him to figure out the sign for help, so I am stuck with screaming and whining until he gets a little more vocal.
messiest. sign. ever.