Today I went to put my DD down for a nap. She laid down on her bed and I laid with her, as is the norm. After about five minutes she sat up and started using her baby signs to tell me that her nap was finish. She first used the sign for sleep and then the sign for finished. I told her, that no her nap wasnt done and that it was sleep time but she persisted with the sleep finished signs. This went on for a while until she started with the sleep sign then the sign for food!!! So I laid down and feed her off to sleep. Amazing stuff. Just goes to show how smart the littlies are.

That's amazing Kittennu! I started with signing with my DS but never persisted, so all he knows how to say is duck, which he still does now at 19 months when I ask him what sound a duck makes (does the sign and says duck duck duck, instead of quack quack quack ) I wish I'd persisted, because he gets so frustrated when trying to be understood and I've had to do alot of guess work over the months. Thankfully he can now say yes and no and eat, etc.

That's so cute!

A baby in my mother's group made a joke at that age - she was signing milk to her mother, and her mother was saying no, later. So the baby pointed at another mother and signed milk, with the cheekiest grin on her face, like she knew how cheeky it was to ask to nurse from someone else! So cute!

Im not really fond of the idea of Signing nor am i fond of the idea of "baby talk -".
Hubby and i always spoke to DD like an adult. She started telling me when she wanted food, or if it hurt when she was about 9 months.

Now she talks quiet clearly (21 months)...sentences of up 5 words.

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Thats cute!

I had an argument with DS about some fake fruit on display in a shop. He pointed to the apple - the conversation went something like :

DS "pear"
Me "no darling, this is an apple"
DS "pear"
Me "it looks a bit like an pear, but this is an apple"
DS "Pear" (getting a bit more insistant)
Me "apple"
DS "PEAR" (yelling with a cheeky grin on his face)
me "it really is an apple"
DS (looking at the apple carefully) "apple" with the expression on his face that suggested the he had been right all along!

I think he realised after I first corrected him that he was wrong, but just wanted to test me out!

She's not an adult... she's a baby...

kittennu - I never got around to teaching DD to sign but it sounds worthwhile - what a gorgeous story!

N xx

I have a question?? and I am not wanting to start a debate. When teaching your kids to sign have you found that they are slower to talk or faster? A friend found her daughter was great at signing from a very young age however she has been very slow to talk and now wonders if it was the signing that has slowed the talking down. Any opinions??

The idea of Makaton signing is to encourage kids to talk. With Makaton you also say the word as you sign it. That is the way I did signs with my DDs.

This sort of signing didn't slow down DD1's talking at all - she had 5 word sentences at 17mths (not trying to compete with Sonny1). DD2 is slower to talk than DD1 but each child is different and there are so many other variables affecting the skills they develop and the way they develop them.

Normal is a very broad range - I think it is impossible to 'blame' one specific thing for helping/hindering development. We are all different in the things we do as parents but we (generally) have one common aim - to do the best for our kids.

And, if it was true that because your friend's DD was a great signer that was the sole reason she didn't talk as early as her peers - does it matter? She can communicate and has been encouraged to communicate from a young age - I can't see how that is a bad thing.

That's a terrific story!

Persist with the signing! We have, and my DD speaks in a combination of signs and words.