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Baby signing testimonials all from Daisy’s Mum who is head of modern languages at a school in Peterborough. I chose the signs I was going to start with: “milk”, “change nappy” and “duck” (feeding the ducks was part of our weekly routine.) I signed these all the time, mostly with the purpose of getting me signing. When Daisy started weaning I added “food”, “drink,” “more,” and “all gone.” One day when Daisy was 7 months old and not wanting her breakfast I signed “milk.” She stopped crying and the widest smile lit her face. Wow! I extended the range of signs I’d been using and got myself booked onto a baby signing class. Daisy started signing when she was 10 months old. She just went for it all in the space of one day. Her first sign was “milk” and her second was “duck.” Several others followed that da. When it was time to go I signed “home” and she crawled over to her car seat and climbed in. But our real breakthrough came at bath time. Daddy came running out of the bathroom asking urgently “What does this mean?” Daisy had been trying to tell her dad she wanted milk. So if a 10 month old could remember a few simple signs daddy must be able to too, especially if he wanted to be in on his daughter’s first attempts at structured communication with her family.
Through baby signing I can see that Daisy makes connections between words and ideas. For example she signs food at the mention of breakfast, tea, lunch, food, eat etc. She's outstripped me, I need to know more. Daisy's signing goes from strength to strength. She's been putting signs together to make 2 word sentences for a while eg "where dog" I'm sure it won't be long before she says something similar out loud although that would be early, it usually happens around 2 years old. She's invented a sign for "bubbles", which is one of the words she uses every day. Her speech is becoming more distinct so that even people who don't know her can recognise some of her words Daisy's signing news... the
last one is fantastic, you've got competition! But first of all,
Daisy is seriously off colour this week, cutting her canine teeth
which are widely held to be the worst of all. She has been very
unhappy. One morning I actually regretted teaching her to sign
as when I told her we were off to nursery she signed "home" back
to me. Nursery also told me that one day this week when she woke
up uncomfortable she signed home to them (they recognised it hallelujah!)
so they knew to tell her that mummy was coming after tea and give
her lots of reassurance. And now for the best... they were bringing
the children in from the garden, singing old macdonald. Daisy put
a fist up to her nose (pig) and all the children copied her! |
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