Baby Sign Language

I haven't really talked about this much because it was never something I anticipated doing when I had a child. But we are now avid believers in Baby Sign Language. 

McKenna signing "more" (blurry bc it's a screenshot of a video). 

It all started around 11 months, I was with a client (a younger male at that) and McKenna started yanking on my shirt and whining because she wanted to nurse. There may or may not have been a nip slip. I was mortified. I KNEW there was a better way for her to communicate with me that she wanted milk. I read one or two articles on BSL and figured I'd just give the sign for milk a shot. There was no other intention for me other than Milk. There was no intention to expand her sign language vocabulary. Milk was all we needed, right?

All I did was use the sign for milk any time that I said the word milk. During this "learning" time I did use the word Milk more than I typically would. I would say it a couple of times in a row. It took a few weeks before I noticed her using the familiar gesture and just a couple of weeks after that it was officially her "first word". 

After that I was curious, so I began using another sign... I can't recall which one was our second. But this time she caught in quicker. And then quicker with the next and quicker with the next. The last couple I've only used for a couple of days before McKenna picked them up. It is absolutely incredible how quickly she makes these connections. 

So far we're at:

Milk (which I recently switched over to call "Nibbles" so as we introduce milk there will be less confusion)

Food

Water

More

Sleep

Shhhh

All Done

Cold

Gentle (it's a made up sign, I couldn't even tell you what the "real" one is, but that's not really the point!)

We're working on Hot (temperature) and Book at the moment. 

Tapping her head is McKenna's version of Water. (water is actually tapping three fingers against your mouth). 

Honestly we'd likely have more under our belt if I could remember the signs myself!! And in the last couple of weeks McKenna has started to pick up speaking words quicker and quicker so I've just been sidetracked on working with sign language. 

I really wish we would have started signing from the get go, we know for the next time around. McKenna doesn't need to cry or struggle to tell us what she needs for basic necessitities. And to watch her have an "ah ha" moment it such an awesome feeling. It has been such a tremendous lifesaver in how we understand and communicate with McKenna.