Bubby has gotten into a very BAD habit of screaming! Chris calls him a "Dainty Boy" because he sounds like a little girl when he screams.
He has figured out that if he screams loud enough, he'll eventually get what he wants. Well, I decided I had had enough of the screaming, so I decided to try something new with him.
There are parenting books out there that encourage, parents to teach their children sign language before they learn to talk so that they can communicate with you before they actually start talking to you. Well...this can sometimes back fire obviously, because then there really is no reason to learn to talk if you don't have to, and then your stuck with a 4 year old who only signs, but I figured I would give it a try and see what happened! Anything is better than the Dainty Boy Scream!
I took a sign language class in college and I still remember different signs for lots of things. I decided to try to teach Bubby how to sign "more", since that is usually what he is screaming for! More food!
The first day I was totally frustrated, because he wasn't getting it at all, he was mostly just getting really mad at me, but today he surprised me! While I was feeding him his breakfast I would sign to him "more" in between bites, and then give him another bite, and before I knew it, he was signing to me! Sometimes he gets lazy and doesn't do the sign exactly how it should be done, although he CAN do it correctly, but the point is he is getting it! (The picture is of a "lazy" sign)
We still had some screaming, but not as much as we normally do. He signed all during lunch, snack, and dinner too! He is even smart enough that when you say "Bubby show me "more", he'll sign for you." Such a smarty pants!
I think the next sign I'll teach him is "juice", we'll see how that goes. It may be awhile before I do.
Cool. My oldest sister Penny did signs with her boys. She loved it. She bought me some "Signing Time" DVDs when Daniel was born. I want to try it with him. Kimball makes fun of the DVDs. They ARE pretty cheesy.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty amazing that Keric picked up a sign right away. It took Penny months of signing until they finally caught on. Keric is so smart.
That is the sign we are doing with Kyle right now. He is getting it a little bit. We did this with Sofie too, not a lot of words but just enough that we weren't as frustrated trying to figure out what she wanted. It definitely didn't backfire with us she talks a ton. Good luck and good job Keric.
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