Signing for Babies

So, we have ventured into the realm of signing, which isn't scary or odd at all for me since I signed songs for special music often at my home church and I took ASL classes in college. What's been hard is getting into the habit of signing. I read a couple books that gave advice on how to sign to your child. I recommend Babytalk. It covers all bases of signing with your baby and gives great instructions on how to start, which signs to start with and how to expand signing as your baby grows. Anyway, we picked our starting signs and are working on them. We are signing "milk," "eat," "more," "all done," "up," "down," and "fan" (because Alexis is fascinated by fans). I've also signed duck to her since she loves her bath duck. And...

She signed!!! Alexis signed her first sign yesterday, "milk." Now, she hasn't connected the sign to the exact object, but she signed. It was definitely "milk." Babytalk noted that most babies pick up one sign first and then start using it indiscriminately. It's a good sign the author says because it means your baby at least understands that the sign is communicating something. Eventually, Alexis will be able to connect the sign to her bottle and understand that the sign means something specific.

Anyway, so stoked that Alexis signed! And just had to brag a little :-D