Signing With Your Baby: The Signing Toddler
My son Corbin is almost 22 months old and has been signing for
11 months. While he is learning to talk, he still signs much of
the time and it has really given me insight into his rapidly
developing personality.
I can really see Corbin's sense of humor emerging when he sees
something he thinks is funny and he will say or sign it and
laugh.
He'll purposefully knock over his glass of milk and say,
"Uh-oh," while signing "milk." He also loves to put things on
his milk or juice glass (like a toy) and sign "milk" or "juice"
and laugh. He tries to get my attention so I'll think it's funny
too.
My favorite story involves the "milk" sign too. He weaned
himself at the age of 20 months and probably still remembers
nursing. One day he spotted my bra lying on the floor and
grabbed it up. I thought he would maybe pretend to wear it, but
what he did was much funnier than that. He put the bra on his
head, signed "milk," and laughed uncontrollably. It was so funny!
While he is now learning to put two spoken words together, he's
been putting two and three signs together for months. He'll sign
"mama" and "rain" if he wants me to look out the window and see
it raining. He'll sign "cloud" and "bye-bye" if he sees the
cloud on Teletubbies going away.
What is sad is to see some of his signs disappearing as he
learns to say the words. For a long time, he would both sign and
say "mama" and "dada." Now he rarely uses either sign, but I
still use them on occasion to remind him of those signs.
I definitely don't plan on stopping signing with Corbin any time
soon. He is still eager to learn more signs and learning words
right and left. I'm so glad I sign with Corbin because I feel it
has really opened up a world of communication that wouldn't be
there if we hadn't signed.