Signing Accelerates Speech

I have been amazed with Colby's verbal vocabulary in the last couple of weeks. It seems like he woke up one morning and realized he could talk. He tries to get our dog's toys from him so he chases him around the house saying drop it, drop it, drop it. He woke up the other morning and from his bed he started screaming Mama Mama, fruit bar, fruit bar (don't ask me what kind of a child wakes up thinking about a fruit bar). He will try to say any word we say but it doesn't always sound exactly right. I know that signing has accelerated his language skills in so many ways. Signing has made him so interested in books because he loves to read the book to me through signing. He loves to read and sign about rainbows so it made him eager to say the word rainbow, which isn't a typical word for a 16 month old. Since he loves rainbows, I started teaching him colors. He loves books about colors and has started to sign red, white, yellow, orange, and blue, as well as trying to say the words. The best book to teach colors is Brown Bear Brown Bear by Eric Carl. This is his favorite book and he has to read it several times a day.

Signing "red" "bird"



Every time I say lets read Brown Bear he signs "fish" , turns to this page, and loves the fish. I guess he likes fish!

He signs "white" "dog" and then says woof woof.

I haven't taking pictures of Colby signing lately due to his busy busy body, but I tried to catch a few on camera last night and this morning.

I asked him what was on his shirt and he signed "gorilla" and made the gorilla sound.
"daddy" he says daddy perfectly but I encourage him to still sign words he can speak because it's another language that can benefit him in the future.

Plus putting signs together is laying the foundation for speaking sentences. The other day he threw my phone and then looked at me and signed "no" "throw" broke". He was able to communicate to me that he shouldn't throw my phone because it broke.

"flower" you touch both sides of your nose

this is the end of "sweet dreams" but he does it too fast for me to get the picture.

"where"

"truck"

Colby is my little preacher man. He is praying and when we get done saying the prayer he says amen.

"Jesus"

I sing Jesus Loves Me every night before bed and he babbles the entire song and signs "Jesus" the whole time. The only word in the song he can say really good is bible, so when I get to that part he yells it. I guess he will be yelling Thank ya Jesus soon!

Have you ever wondered if your baby misses you when your gone? Yes, he does. I went to a brunch for a few hours and when I got home he signed "miss" "you". Oh my, that was the sweetest sign ever. He use to just sign "love" "you" when we said it to him but now he will just come to us and sign "love" "you". I was holding a baby and he signed "love" and tried to crawl in my lap with us. He wanted to assure me that he loves me more than the baby does and please put her down right now, hehe! I wouldn't have known that he was feeling that way without signing. Signing creates a special bond because of moments like these when they can communicate their feelings.

New signs at 16 months

candle

medicine

boy

girl

cow

orange

red

yellow

broke

throw

miss you

white

blue

lizard

beautiful

happy