Sign Language

When Avery was 10 months old or so, we started doing some sign language with him to help him communicate. He very quickly picked up the sign for "milk." Experts suggest you start with three basic signs: milk, eat, and more. We found that you use the sign/word "more" a lot and thought this made perfect sense to start with this sign. For months Avery just signed for milk and never did any of the other signs.

Today, Avery started doing the sign for "more!" We soon realized however how impractical this sign is. Whenever Avery is eating for example, we ask if he wants more and we do the sign. The same goes for when he's drinking water or watching Sesame Street or we're reading him a book. So now when he does the sign, we're not always sure what he wants! He sometimes wants to eat and sometimes wants a drink and sometimes Sesame Street is over and he wants to watch another episode, but he also wants to eat while watching it. Basically, he does the sign for everything now, even milk. We're pretty sure he thinks the sign means, "hey, I want something." It's still super cute and eventually we guess correctly and he gets what he wants. But now we are going to try really hard to do signs specially for eating and drinking when he's eating or drinking so he learns more specific signs. I hope he catches on soon instead of getting confused that we're changing signs on him!

What I learned: Avery now understands and does the sign for "more." Also, we need to be more specific in our signing now so we can communicate better.