Miracles in Baby Sign Language

Last May I met up with some of my fellow moms for a sensory pool party for the kids.

One of the kids had a plastic rake and he bopped another child on the top of the head.  He didn't know he was going to hurt the other child and my dear friend Amy, looked her son in the eye and said, "Not cool!  Say you're sorry." 

Thomas was about one and a half at the time, he looked very embarrassed, and signed in sign language to the other child, "sorry."

I almost fell over.  I was so impressed!!  Amy never ceases to amaze me.  If Thomas, who is a very active kid, can focus enough to learn sign language and learn the importance of, "Please, Thank you, and Sorry,"... then this is something I have to teach Alex.

I hear the terrible twos are so terrible because children don't have the ability to express what they want.  So they throw tantrums which drives their parents nuts.  Amy lent me the second dvd in the series.  Alex was 10 months at the time.  We watched it so often, I knew all the songs and all the signs.  The songs would get stuck in my head.... all.... day..... long.  So we got the other three dvds.

I took a baby sign language class when Alex was 4 months old.  The teacher said to begin with sign language at 6-10 months.  So I thought we were late in the game when we started.  After the first couple months, not a single sign came from Alex.  I was starting to wonder if we were wasting our time?  Was he not understanding it?  Until he hit about 13-14 months.  Then Alex could sign the theme song.  He knew if he signed "Baby", "Sign", "Time", he could watch it.

Alex is now almost 17 months old.  In the last 2 weeks he's starting to sign more and I am getting sooo excited!!  It started with "all done", which he can sign and say verbally.  Now he can sign, "please", "thank you", "bubbles", "more", "food", "hot", and "apple".

The dvds are awesome.  They show the word,  the spelling, how to do the sign, and the object of the sign. It also shows kids doing the sign (so you know what to expect from a child signing) and it shows your child, other children doing it.

Three days ago, Alex pointed behind me and said, "nah nah".  He followed it with the sign for "banana".  If I had not seen the sign, I probably wouldn't have figured it out.  Kids talk so much jibberish, it's hard to understand when they're actually trying to communicate.  He then ate one and a half bananas.  My little monkey...

Right now Alex says, "bah bah" for balloon, "da da" and "ma ma", "hi", "bye", "all done" and "mo mo" for Elmo.. and now "nah nah" for banana.

Sign language allows him to communicate words which are too difficult for him to say.  And right now, the words he can sign are far more important and useful than the words he is learning to say verbally.  So if anyone is wondering if sign language is a valuable tool?  I'm here to say it is.   Alex asks to watch Baby Signing Time 2-3 times a day.  It's the only tv he watches.  Half the time he plays while listening to the songs, he loves it.

And it's all thanks to Thomas.