I decided to introduce Calvin to baby sign language so that he could communicate to us before he is able to speak. The book I ordered recommended that you start off with a few signs and once they start to sign back to you, associating the sign with the word, then you can begin to add more signs to their vocabulary. I began to sign to Calvin at 6 months. His first sign was waving “byebye” and at 12 months I recognized his second sign, “bath”. Shortly thereafter, we recognized him doing the sign for “sleep”, which is putting his head down to the side. But for awhile, these were the only signs he could do. Lately, as we have begun to add more signs and ask him to sign back to us, he has really begun to pick up quickly on the signs and show them to us when we ask. He can now sign the words: byebye, bath, sleep, milk, eat, more, finished, please, thank you, gentle and book. We're in the process of teaching him: blanket, flower, hurt, drink, phone, wait and play.
Some cute things that he has done lately: Normally Calvin won't sign until I ask him to do it or if I make a suggestion like, “Let's read a book” then he'll sign the word “book” to me. But this past week, for the first time, Calvin initiated the sign for book on his own, letting me know he wanted to read some books. And, 15 minutes before lunch time, he signed the word “eat” letting me know he was hungry and it was time to eat! He quickly picked up on the words “please” and “thank you” especially at the dinner table. He will point to his cup and sign “please”. Yesterday he was pointing to his blanket, wanting me to get it for him. I was trying to get him to show me the sign for blanket. I said, “Show me the sign.” Instead of signing “blanket”, he signed “please.” Also, the maid had vacuumed his bedroom before one of his naps. I said “thank you” to the maid and Calvin signed “thank you” to her as well. What a polite little guy.
It is so exciting and amazing to see his level of comprehension at this age. We are enjoying the sign language and love the fact that he can communicate to us and show us his understanding.