Sign Language

Josh has become a pretty good communicator with his sign language. I had always dreamed of teaching my baby to sign, but when it came time, I wasn't very diligent about teaching it or encouraging it. But around nine or ten months, it suddenly clicked for Josh. I was just about to give up and, viola!, he signed "more".


Some signs he does pretty correctly, others need quite a bit of refinement. The rule is that the non-Joshes have to do the sign correctly - not the way that Josh signs it. So there's a matter of not only knowing what the correct sign is, but what Josh's version of the sign is.

I thought I would just list out the words he can sign as of today:

milk
more
please
thank you
help
shoes
I love you
Dada
patience
water
food
bird
book

We're working on puppy, kitty and banana, but these have proven a little tough. Some signs he has learned in a day and others have taken a little more work. They say that kids who sign tend to start talking later. I'm okay with that because with the signs he is communicating earlier than if we waited for him to speak.

My favorite story was about a week ago I walked him in the stroller to the grocery store. As we were waiting in the checkout line, he looked up at me and started to desperately sign "help". He tends to use this sign when he really means "please" or sometimes just to get my attention. But this time he really seemed to be wanting something to be done. He kept frantically signing it as I looked around for what he could possibly be wanting. Then I spotted his link toys had dropped to the bottom part of his stroller where he couldn't reach them. I handed them to him and he was instantly happy. Another kid would likely have screamed and fussed, but my BRILLIANT child communicated to me through sign and without making an unhappy peep.

I'm not biased or anything, but he is just the smartest kid EVER! =D