jmcseals SEALS

I actually picked up a copy of Baby Signs, the book, and we are, shall I
say, I am working on them, so as to teach them to Caeleb. I've been
teaching my older kids ASL and would like to teach him that, rather than
obscure, made up signs. Although, we do stick with whatever he comes up
with. For example, his sign for ball is to raise his arm over his head and
'throw the ball down'. It works and I know exactly what it means, so we
stick with that. He also grabs his diaper when he is wet or dirty so that's
easy to recognise, too. We are working on need signs right now...eat,
drink, sleep, etc. Those are usually the things he has a hard time with
(anger, frustration), especially when I am distracted by other things.
Although he will come grab my hand and lead me to the fridge or to his bed
here and there.

Is anyone else doing ASL with their kids? We are having such a blast with
it. The first sign we did was soda....I told the kids we were going to play
a game and they had to learn to sign it if they wanted a Coke and BOY, we've
got a million little hands signing soda all the time! LOL Now they are
begging me for signs for everything! They love trying to learn signs *I*
don't know to throw me off. It has really been a wonderful time for us all.

Jennifer








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[email protected]

My favorite of the kids' is the ASL "Whaaaat?" with shrugged shoulders and
waving, open hands. It looks just like the question it's asking :)

I find, too, when I'm really frustrated with Hayden in public [and I'm gonna
say that thing that my mom always said but I swore I never would...], I'll
begin to sign to him instead ~ it throws him off, gives me a chance to
recollect and the resolution comes quickly.

For reassurance, most *natural signs* that babies make up become ASL with
little intervention; just as babbling becomes spoken English. Model the
adult version while accepting the baby version and soon you've got a
bi-lingual family :) {the secret to unschooling a second language}

diana,
The wackiest widow westriver...
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule
of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”
--Frederick Douglass


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Sorcha

I don't know what it is about sign language that I just don't "get" but
my brain doesn't seem to process it well. When my son wasn't talking
yet, I got some sign language videos and watched them over and over.
Then my son started signing and I had no clue what he meant. Sometimes
I had to pull out a video and watch it again to see what he was saying.
Just a few weeks ago we were at my parents' house and he was feeling
tired and overwhelmed and for some reason didn't feel like making the
effort to talk. He started signing, and my husband and I could not for
the life of us remember what the signs meant, even though we recognized
them.

Sorcha