Baby sign language questions

pb_bride · April 2014

For those of you who have toddlers that sign, do you notice that some signs are "too hard" for them to do (ie, require more motor skills/dexterity than your toddlers have)?

DS is 17m and is learning signs quickly and is signing them appropriately. He now knows 2 dozen + signs. But many of them are approximations. And because many of them are quite similar, when DS signs them, they all look the same to me. He doesn't have good use of individual fingers.

For example, "squirrel" and "more" are pretty much the same. "Bear" "train" and "dinosaur" are almost the same (he can't do the 2 fingers with the train, so he just crosses his arms.)

And a lot of times, he simply is just "waving" his hands in the air. Like "cat" he can't do the stroking of whiskers, so he just wave his hand in the air next to his face. Or "tree" he doesn't know how to use 1 arm as the ground, so he only uses the other arm for the tree and he just "waves" his arm. The same for "fish" - he doesn't know how to twist his wrist to make the swim motion, so he just waves his hand.

For cars and trucks, he waves both hands in the air. For monkey, instead of having his arms go down, he holds them up and waves them, so essentially it looks the same as cars and trucks.

It's not a huge deal as I usually can figure out what he's signing based on context, but I'm now hesitant to teach him any more because either they are too complicated for his skills, or they are too similar to the ones he knows already (eg, boat looks almost like book, or frog looks almost like pig).

What has been your experience?

hilsy85 · April 2014

Lo only has one sign, so I"m not much help there but this reminds me of his speech as well. He has a lot of words, but A LOT of them are basically the same word, i.e. banana, ball, bus, and blocks are all basically "bahh". I know which one he wants based on the context, but to a stranger they would all be the same.

Sorry, that probably wasn't helpful...I also think it's amazing that he knows squirrel and bear and all those words though!

LimaD · April 2014

That's pretty impressive. And I assume very normal that he doesn't do them perfectly.
DD only knows "more" and "all done." And for both of those it's her own version of the actual sign. (Like for "more" it started out as her tapping her wrist...I knew what she meant. Now she does the right signing motion, but with only her pointer fingers instead of all fingers closed together)

And I agree w/PP about words sounding very similar. "Bahh" for banana or ball. Bear is slightly different, "beahh"....almost everything else is "this" or "that" lol

maryxc1 · April 2014

I only taught DS a few signs because I used it as a tool to communicate basic needs. The time period between him being able to do the signs and learning to say the words was only a couple months.

ashiscute · April 2014

We had this with DD when she started signing. She knew about 15 signs and sometimes I couldn't figure out what she was signing. Most of the signs she didn't do properly but she did her best way. Honestly, context was the best way to figure it out. After that, trial and error. However, we really only worked on signs that would help her to communicate her needs and wants to me so we didn't do a lot of cat, train, etc.

Does he attempt to vocalize along with the sign at all? That would probably be my next step is encouraging a "baa" sound for ball or a "ma" sound for more or something like that. Not the whole word but maybe the dominant sound. Does that make sense? It was helpful when we she was able to combine a vocalization with the sign.

Also, ditto PP about it being the same with words. DD has an articulation disorder so even at 3 I'm still not sure what she's saying at times.

emberlee3 · April 2014

maryxc1 said:

I only taught DS a few signs because I used it as a tool to communicate basic needs. The time period between him being able to do the signs and learning to say the words was only a couple months.

Same here with both my kids. Sign language development is essentially the same as speech development. The fine motor skills for signs develop a little earlier than for speech, making it useful for communication in young toddlers. But articulation won't be perfect with either one.

smileybabyboy · April 2014

This is normal. This is baby sign instead of american sign language. It will take awhile for them to learn the exact sign but baby sign is usually just that, signs that are "tweeked" a bit to accommodate their squishy fingers

and their lack of fine motor control. DS is the same. His sign for help is just his hands on top of each other moving upward. It's just like their verbal words, parents usually understand what they are signing and saying when it's not quite clear to others.

pb_bride · April 2014

Thanks for all your reply. And good point about some words sounding the same when vocalized.

DS still doesn't say much (3 words and 3 animal sounds), hence my attempt to teach him more sign language. I always say the word out loud when I am (or he is) signing them. We are also a bilingual family so I assume he's just taking his time absorbing before expressing.

DawnLilly · April 2014

We have dozens of signs. I started with DS very early. Yes, some are approximations but as he gains knowledge and dexterity I try to show him how to do it properly.

You will eventually correct mispronunciation when your LO speaks but not until they can distinguish a difference in the word.

I would continue to let your LO sign their way and start correcting one at a time. More confusion comes after they start doing phrases. Sometimes DS moves so fast from one sign to the next it looks like he's just flapping his hands about.

christinasullie37 · April 2014

We are in the aame boat. Sorry no words of encouragement. Dds language is all pretty much the same word "bah" . I did research a lot of the aighns and some of the words I even have a hard time cooridinating my hands.

sschwege · April 2014

We only do basic sign, but DS's 'more' looks very similar to 'help', but based on the context I know what he's trying to say.

littlemurphy2912 · April 2014

With my DD she has learned lots of the simple signs for ASL at her daycare and we also try to keep up with it at home. My DH's dad is mostly deaf and he grew up learning sign language but since his parents divorced years and years ago he doesn't sign much anymore but when he's around his dad he will sign to him and I try and pick up on things. I know more than I thought I would and we try to teach DD that as well. If she has trouble understanding how to do a sign and saying what it means or vice versa, we always encourage her however she does it so she knows she's getting the idea of it but we also always ask her while doing the sign if that's what she is trying to tell us so she keeps seeing us being consistent with it and understanding so we can help her communicate with us more. She knows how to say many words and is starting to try and put words together and say them together but has a hard time so we are always trying to listen to her and encourage her and try to sign with her as well.

pearlsnow · April 2014

I didn't read all the replies, so maybe someone already suggested molding? My mom told me to mold my babies hands to the signs. I show her a few times say the word each time sometimes she tries right away, and then take her hands and shape them to the correct sign. Most every time she will try again and be very close. We started signing at 4 mo but she wouldn't until ~ 9 mo although she understood and responded to our signing. I was so happy when she started signing. Now she wants words for everything and makes up stuff lol.

mimi603107 · April 2014

Hi, I know this reply is late but thought I'd tell you my experience. My 5 year old used sign language and still does from time to time because he didn't speak any words at all until he was about 4 years and 3 weeks old. When he was younger he had trouble signing certain words like "juice" for instance because he couldn't hold up just his pinkie finger so he used his index finger instead. Same thing with the letters "m" and "n" ...they were just to difficult to manipulate his fingers that way. Eventually, as he got older, he was able to sign those certain words and letters correctly. We constantly manipulated his hand movements when showing him how to sign and he watched a lot of sign videos and played with a lot of sign apps on the iPad too. The thing was that he knew the correct way to sign, he just had trouble and tried how ever he was able until he could do it correctly. I heard that it's very common in younger children. Hope that helps

vrj0522 · April 2014

This is very normal, and however they are able to sign is correct. Just because a kid might not sign the word correctly, it doesn't mean that they mean something else. It's just up to us as parents to figure out how they sign each word. There really is no need to correct them, you just need to learn to understand them.

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