As parents my husband and I wanted to help our infant son to communicate with us what he needed and wanted. Wanting to avoid at least some of the frustrations that come with trying to communicate with an infant (sometimes trying to interpret crying fits is futile), we started using sign language with our son when he was five months old. After five months of signing with him, he finally started signing himself. The first word he signed was “milk,” and lots of words followed. He started to sign “fan” and “up” and “more” and “all done” and “yogurt” and “apple,” and words that I cannot remember (now that he is three). We would look up words that we felt he needed to know so that he could understand what was happening (since I was working full time and his dad was a full time student and part time instructor) and could communicate with words instead of cries, angry faces, and temper tantrums. By the time he was fifteen months old he was signing
for most things that he needed or wanted. Occasionally he would not sign and get upset when we did not understand him, but we told him to use his “words” and, initially to our surprise, he would then sign what he wanted or needed. Around the same time he was learning to say more and more words. He would sign in conjuction with speaking which really helped us to know what he was saying. He continued this pattern for several months and to be perfectly honest I cannot remember exactly when the signing tapered off and when the speaking took over completely. What I do remember is that friends, relatives, and strangers were shocked at his use of so many verbal words before the age of two and shortly after turning two, his impressive use of complete sentences. I would like to think that it was definitely the signing that helped him with speaking as well as he does. Either way he is still a good communicator and is now helping us sign with his baby sister!
(To be continued …)