Well, after making fun of the 'crazy' parents out there teaching their kids American Sign Language (ASL) as a means of communication, this 'crazy' mom has come around-- well sort of. A couple weeks back, I got interested in whether a baby could learn and use sign language effectively. According to the materials I came accross, the answer to BOTH questions is a resounding YES he/she can.
Especially a baby who has good control of his/her arms, legs, etc but can not yet communicate their needs verbally with caregivers. So, I decided to learn a few signs. Well, I learned the usual suspects-- the signs for: MORE, MILK, CAT (we do have 4 of them), DOG, DAD, MOM, DRINK, EAT, etc and I started using them at home. Michael quickly learned the signs and we even watched a couple DVD's with Iyla demonstrating kids/babies signing. Ok great...
Well, according to my current signing resource ( Baby Signing for Dummies) it is supposed to take Iyla SEVERAL times before she 'gets' the sign and repeats it. That has NOT been the case at all. It is like she has been taught ASL before (not possible). She copies it right away and the scary thing is she uses it in context (Milk when drinking her from her bottle/cup)-- well most of the time. Sometimes she makes the sign for MILK and then SCREAMS when we give it to her--- what does THAT mean!?!??! We are SO confused!! Does she just like to make the sign? Does she mean something else entirely? Or does she change her mind in the 30 seconds it takes for us to get it to her mouth? AAAHHHH!!!
In any case, without further ado--- here is Iyla making the sign for milk:
No comments:
Post a Comment