Just Sign It

As your little one is maturing and finding new adventures and discoveries of life (such as the discovery of “candy” this holiday season^_^), it not only brings the opportunity to teach new words but to introduce these words with signs at the same time.

*A cold late afternoon brought my daughter and I to our back yard where she kept saying “dirty” as she pointed to the leaves. Last year when there were leaves on the ground, she was only 6 months old, so this time, she was well of age to understand “tree” and “leaves” as I pointed to the both and signed each word. Then upon coming inside she saw big brother with candy in his hand. SO, I took the same opprotunity to sign cany since I was going to give her one.

I realized within a twenty minute time frame, I was already teaching her three new signs. As little eyes mature and observations run wild, enjoy the learning opportunity for not only your child but for yourself. Learning a new language can be fun and exciting for both of you.

Here are three tips in making signing fun:

1) Obtain a small notebook or use your computer to jot down three to five words a week that you’d like to introduce or teach the sign to your child

*as you strive to find ways to teach these signs, don't forget to jot down the unforeseen signs that you were able to teach that week; tree, leaf, and candy

2) Make a goal when introducing a new sign to sign and say it at least three times

*"there's the leaves?" "yes, those are leaves... are they dirty?" "hold the leaf."

3) Keep a log of what signs you have introduced to your child... realize how many words you have already introduced and test yourself to see if you can remember all the signs to those words

*if you forget the sign or don't know it yet such as when your child is pointing to a leaf and asking what it is, don't be afraid to look up the sign and teach her the sign at a different time

*you could keep a separate log of the words you did not know but want to eventually learn

Please share your own tips with us! We’d love to hear and see^_^!

As some of you may be fluent in ASL and others still learning,

here is a list of five online ASL dictionary sites:

ASL Browser

Signing Savvy

ASL Pro

Lifeprint

Handspeak

Written by Shawna Tran: www.mybabydetails.com