Skip to main content

Baby sign language

So this kid never ceases to amaze me. Well, maybe he's my kid so i feel proud at every single thing he does (like pooping, in the potty of course). But just after 13 months old, he started to use sign language to speak back to us (like one day it just clicked i think, just like him deciding that he wanted to walk and was done with crawling). He did the sign for 'eat' when I was prepping dinner and i was amazed! Yes baby, we are going to eat!!

We started signing with him around 8 months old. J and I did a small 'baby sign language' class when he was around that age just to get used to it ourselves. I also learnt that sign language is just like any other language; the American Sign Language (ASL) is different from the Dutch. And the Malay sign language is probably different as well.

To standardize things we decided to follow the Dutch sign language. Meaning i would still be speaking Malay to him, but use the Dutch sign. We went to Baby Gebaren in Almere and the teacher Desiree was really good!

After the sign 'eat' then really quickly came the things that we did over and over for months like drink, bathe, milk, music, ball... All in the span of a couple of days. It really blew me away because all this time he didn't do anything back to us at all. But i guess he was always watching :D

Lennox doing the sign for Horse in Dutch




Here's a list of  other stuff that he can sign now (at 14 months)

more
cry
baby
book
star
car
bicycle
painful (ouch)
sun

bird
dog
cat
sheep
horse
giraffe
rabbit

Of course his signs are not perfect. His flapping bird sign kinda looks like the dog sign. And other animals sometimes are also 'dog'. But it's pretty awesome to watch how when i say a word from a book, he looks at me to check what the sign is.

And it makes life SO much easier when he can tell me what he wants!

Here's a video of him reading the Dutch version of 'Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see'. Well actually he just likes to look at the picture then go to the next page. It doesn't look like much but the subtle difference in the signs are.

If you're thinking of doing sign with your kids, i would say go for it! Especially before they start being able to vocalise what they want. It sure makes life with a toddler a lot less frustrating!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Baby-friendly Banana & Date Muffin

We always have bananas at home. ALWAYS. It's the perfect snack during the day especially before and post workout. Also, bananas with almond/peanut butter on top?? YUMMY. When we have too many ripe bananas though, i like to cut them up and freeze them for a smoothie later in the week. Earlier this week i had one measly overripe banana and lots of dates leftover so i decided to whip up a banana-date muffin. A quick google search gave me recipes where i didn't have all the ingredients on hand at home, so i came up with something on my own. And guess what, it turned out awesome! Ingredients: 1 ripe banana 10 dates, pitted 2 eggs 5 tbs plain flour pinch of baking soda pinch of cinnamon

Lennox's Baby-led Weaning (BLW) Journey

From my previous post about Introducing Solids , I mentioned that I would also document Lennox's journey with BLW. He started when he was 24 weeks old (5 and a half months). By the time he could sit up on his own and was already holding items and putting them into his mouth. Here are some tips i learnt when starting BLW, suggested first foods and basically photos of him looking terribly cute while eating! :P Food prep for BLW Babies do not need teeth to chew! Their gums are strong enough to bite stuff off (just check with moms who breastfeed babies without teeth - the gummy bite can still be painful! :P) Babies around 6 months would be able to pick up objects, but using their whole fists. So one tip i learnt was to cut food into strips that are a little longer that their fists, so that even when they grabbed the food, one part would be sticking out for them to eat. I have here a few examples of Nox holding pieces of carrot, beans and cooked plaintain with his whole fist. ...

Breastfeeding & Ramadan? Part 1

Tomorrow marks the first day of Ramadan in 2016. Last year i did not fast as Lennox was born on the 5th day of Ramadan, my little ramadan baby! :) This year I plan to fast as usual. Only difference is that I'm breastfeeding. Lennox is almost 1 and nurses on average 4 times a day: in the morning, before nap #1 (about 1130am), before nap #2 (about 5pm) and before he goes to sleep at night (about 830pm). Throughout the night he still wakes up sometimes and the quickest way to get him back to sleep is to nurse him. The night needs are comfort feeds i think, i don't think he's having a full meal in the middle of the night. There are fears that my milk supply might run out when i fast. But I guess since Lennox is already almost 1 and also having solids, it would be very different than a newborn or 4-5 month old exclusively on breastmilk. I did some research about breastfeeding during ramadan and it pretty much says it's up to the mom whether she wants to fast or not. Re...