Tell Mummy what you want

I know I’ve been quiet around here, and my posts have been mostly about food. I guess I always try to share things that I think others may benefit from or take something from. It’s more of a practical blogging angle rather than a ‘dear diary’ approach.  In saying that, it does feel good to sometimes share parts of this journey with you, to say things out loud and to get them in writing so I remember them too in years to come so my next post will be a little more daily insight stuff.

In the meantime, I wanted to touch on something which I think others may be interested in. 
Baby Signing.

The first I saw and heard of baby signing was in that movie ‘Meet the Fockers’ which I LOVE and there’s that crazy Grandad who teaches his Grandson baby sign and everyone thinks it’s nuts. I secretly thought it was really clever, but actually thought they’d made it up for the movie. Turns out it actually exists and parents have been doing this for many years. Who knew? Not me.

I then saw baby signing for a second time, watching my friend with her baby girl. We traveled overseas with them, and her baby just seemed so content all the time, even in 35 degree heat… I had to know… what’s the key to this contentment? It’s a combination of things of course, but the main, most obvious one, was the way they communicated. She so clearly (at 10 months) could signal what she wanted, she never had to cry or complain. I want water. I want milk. I want food.

When she would start to get unsettled, my friend would simply say “show me what the problem is, what do you want?”

I want food (hand to mouth sign).

OK, well we will eat shortly OK? There’s no food here (backstreets of Bali), but we will get some very soon.

And with that, content baby returned. Even though she didn’t immediately get the food, she knew she had communicated the issue and her mum had understood and had responded. I was gob smacked.

I was sure I would be using it with Arthur… but as time went on, I kept forgetting to use it. When he started being cared for one day a week by my above mentioned friend, she introduced it to him… First word. Dog. Within a week he was patting his leg every time he saw a dog, or heard the word. So I started doing more words with him at home. I’ve only chosen a few that will help us to communicate while he learns to talk. 

It takes a few weeks for the signing to start, and you keep doing it and doing it and they don’t respond… so you’re not sure it’s working… but you keep doing it, and sure enough… one day they get it!

We gave him a small piece of bacon to try one morning as he’d never had it. He turned around to his Dad and clearly signed “MORE!” We looked at each other… surely not? So we did it again. Gave him some bacon, and as soon as it disappeared, he signed “MORE!” (very enthusiastically). It’s an exciting moment when you see their brain working like that. Needless to say he was VERY pleased with his new skill.

So far we have a few words/actions which he loves. He sees a dog and signs to me DOG! And his little face is all lit up with excitement when I say “Yes Arthur, It’s a dog! Clever boy”.   He has since learnt cat. He signs cat and looks around? As if to say, where’s that cat? I want to schmooze it and pull its fur and poke the cat's eyes….or sees a cat in a book and subconsciously starts doing the sign. 

It’s amazing how quickly new words are learnt. We just do one a week, and choose ones that really help us in day to day life. Eat/Hungry, milk, more, finished (stops him throwing food!), and his latest one, book. He does book when he wants to read, so we go and get books and do our reading. Next on the list is please… never too young to learn manners. 

So even though it makes us those slightly nutty parents. I’ve seen firsthand that it works, and just how happy it makes Art. He is so pleased with himself that he can tell me things, and he is trying to verbalise the words at the same time. He says bah bah noises while signing book, and mo mo noises when signing for more. So those theories about baby sign delaying speech? I don’t buy into that. This doesn't replace speech development, it simply gives them another way of communicating until their vocal language develops. It's no different from them learning to clap, or learning to nod their head or wave goodbye. It's all communication. 

Like all baby theories, there are numerous studies and opinions on the matter. I haven’t read them and don’t care to. I’m not doing baby sign to improve his language or boost his IQ . We aren't signing up for intensive baby signing courses or following any particular technique. I do it because we can communicate with each other. Overall we have a less frustrated child, and he is absolutely loving it and is almost desperate for more words to learn... I'm just forgetful with incorporating them into our daily conversations... and repetition is key. 

It’s maybe not for everyone, but I’m going out on a limb and ignoring the baby sign jokes and cynicism. This is working for us, so I’m going to keep doing it. We’ve just kept it to a few words, but that’s enough for us. 

Art at dinner - signing more...