baby sign

I had planned to start teaching Stella baby sign way earlier but time got away from me and before I knew it her first birthday was approaching.  One of Russ's aunts told me about how she taught her daughter and she made the point to start small.  I think part of me wanted to learn alot of the signs myself and then teach them to Stella but when she said that, I got really motivated to just start.  I thought about which signs would be most helpful to me for Stella to learn and went from there.  One common frustration we have when our kiddos aren't talking yet is knowing what they need or want, especially when they are fussy.  So I googled some signs and decided to start with teaching Stella how to sign 'more', 'food', and 'all done/finished'.  I wanted to be able to know when she was hungry or full and not have to decipher it via the volume of her whining.  

I taught her by demonstrating the sign for her.  Before I fed her I would do the sign for food and when she seemed to still be hungry I'd ask her if she wanted more and demonstrate the sign for more.  Sometimes I would try to show her how to do the sign herself, but she wasn't always willing to let me do that.  I was amazed at how fast she picked up her first sign, which was 'more' (she's signing it in the photo above).  At first she used 'more' to tell me she was hungry too, but it was great because  she was able to communicate with me!  Sweet success!!  As long as your child is communicating with you in a way that you can understand their wants or needs, that's all that matters. 

So far Stella has learned 'more', 'all done/finished', 'food', and 'please'.  I'm working on teaching her 'thank you', 'bath', and 'nap/sleep' next.  If you're thinking about trying baby sign, definitely start small and be patient...it'll pay off.