Colby's First Sign

It's recommended to start signing with your baby at 6 months because that's when they can sit up, have a longer memory, and desire to communicate back. I started to sign to Colby at 3 months because I figured it never hurts to start early. He began to react to the sign eat, milk, and fan at just four months. I knew he wouldn't sign back for several months, but I also knew that he was learning. Around 5 or 6 months I thought Colby was trying to sign "eat" but I wasn't sure.



When Colby was 7 months old he woke up really early on a Saturday morning. Colby was use to me getting him up and then quickly nursing. Chris, my husband, was being sweet and giving me the option to get some extra sleep. When Chris picked up Colby he immediately signed "milk" because he wanted to nurse. Chris came into our bedroom and woke me up to tell me that Colby wants something he can't offer. I was so excited that he used his first sign! I realized that he was waiting until he felt like signing was necessary.



Over the next couple of months Colby used signs very sporadically and not very often. He reacted to many signs but still didn't sign frequently. At 10 months old, he had about 5 signs and I was wondering when he was going to use the tool we had given him to communicate with. Between 11 months and his 1st birthday he went from 5 signs to 25 signs. Ever since Colby realized he could sign to communicate his every want and need he continues to learn new signs daily.





Colby's signs and the order in which he produced the sign

10-12 months

milk

more

eat

fan

water

all done

cheese

banana

no

outside

bee

light

all gone

elephant

zebra

keys

cat

cheerios

potty

out

tree

ice-cream

baby

bath

sun

moon

dog

bye

apple

please

thank you

car

wind

bird

cold

change

up

fish

airplane

love

sorry



13 months- 41 signs

morning

again

pacifier

animal

cookie

KK (aunt)



14 months- 67 signs

help

umbrella

yes

poo poo

kiss

comb hair

bread

bike

flower

music

gorilla

daddy

mouse

kangaroo

telephone

pray

down

socks

dream




So, if you have been signing for awhile and your baby has yet to sign back;

don't give up

be consistent

and be very patient



IT WILL HAPPEN AND YOU WILL BE AMAZED!



I have so many great stories of Colby signing but the funniest is the bathtub situaton. Colby was playing in the bathtub (11 months old) and he got really still, looked at us, and then signed "out" "potty". When Chris lifted him up out of the water to put him on the potty he was beginning to take a poop. He tried to tell us but we weren't quick enough, at least some made it to the potty. We could not believe that he was putting two words together to try to get the point across.


Shocking Experience (14 months)
Colby woke up one morning and we went to potty. He has a basket of flashcards by the potty that keep him entertained while trying to do his business. He loves for me to hold up the card and he shows me the sign. The airplane flash card was stuck under the potty and the only thing Colby could see was the word "airplane". He looked at me and signed "airplane". I almost flipped out but I didn't won't to get too excited if it was just a coincidence. I held the card up and covered the picture with my hand and asked Colby what the word was, and he signed "airplane". At this point I was freaking out! I grabbed another flashcard and covered up the picture and he signed "fan", he was correct. I was so overwhelmed with excitement that I had tears in my eyes. I called Chris, Mom, Dad, and my three bestfriends at 7:00 o'clock in the morning to tell them that my 14 month old can read words. He also read ice cream and baby. I'm not bragging that Colby is a little genius by any means, it's just the results of signing. We spend our days talking, signing, reading books, singing songs, drawing, looking at pictures, and playing. All these activities create a print rich environment that builds literacy skills. He has learned to associate a word to a particular picture. Think about how much easier that is than learning every sound of every letter and then trying to sound out a word, which doesn't work half of the time because our language is bizarre ( ex. night, phone, bar). You have to try to explain to a child that you can't sound out most words because the -gh might be silent or the -ph sounds like an F or you can't hear the -a sound because it has a controlling r. Seriously, and we wonder why kids get so confused at 5 years old.



Colby does not watch Your Baby Can Read because we don't allow him to watch TV, but I think they have great research on how important it is to take advantage of learning in the first three years of life.

Your Baby Can Read
A baby’s brain thrives on stimulation and develops at a phenomenal pace…nearly 90% during the first five years of life! The best and easiest time to learn a language is during the infant and toddler years, when the brain is creating thousands of synapses every second – allowing a child to learn both the written word and spoken word simultaneously, and with much more ease. Dr. Titzer (creator of Your Baby Can Read) says the current practice of starting to teach reading skills in school is too late and children benefit greatly from getting a much earlier start since a child basically has only one natural window for learning language -- from about birth to about age four. During this period it is easier for a child to learn any type of language including spoken, receptive, foreign and written language. The earlier the child is taught to read the better they will read and the more likely they will enjoy it. Studies prove that the earlier a child learns to read, the better they perform in school and later in life. Early readers have more self-esteem and are more likely to stay in school. Meanwhile, a national panel of reading specialists and educators determined that most of the nation’s reading problems could be eliminated if children began reading earlier.



Can Colby read a book? No. Can he read a lot of words? No. Colby is just using his schema and experiences to become an emergent reader and it's a great start!


Sign Class- A two-year old signing the alphabet