baby sign language January 26, 2008

I am so amazed at my son. Corey and I started teaching Ezra a couple baby signs when he was about 5 months old. “more” and “all done”. Just a couple weeks ago the sign language thing kicked in. In a matter of a couple days he was signing “more”, “all done”, and waving “bye-bye”. Not necessarily on cue, nor at the appropriate times always. But nevertheless we could see him really trying to communicate with more than facial expressions, body language and crying.

Ezra is usually having breakfast in his highchair when Corey leaves for work, and a couple weeks ago, about 10 minutes after Corey left, Ezra looked out the big window (where we wave goodbye to daddy when he leaves) and waved his arm, as if to say “daddy went bye-bye”. I was shocked and so excited! He’s done it again several times and has even done it in the evening when he is waiting for daddy to come home. For me, it’s the coolest thing so far. But it gets even better.

We went to visit some friends who just had a baby a few nights ago. While sitting chatting I showed Ezra the sign for baby (which he has seen a few times before). Almost immediately after I showed it to him, he looked at the baby and did the gesture. It looks very much like his sign for “more”, but later when we ask him to “show us baby”, he does the same sign, and smiles, as if he remembers adorable little Tobias.

And finally last night, I was praying for our dinner with my hands folded. Corey and I regularly practice this ritual and usually Ezra just ignores it, or smiles at us like we are doing something strange. But last night, as I said amen I looked up to find him smiling at me with his hands clasped in front of him. Hallelujah! The boy wants to pray.

His vocabulary continues to grow by the day: elephant trumpeting sound, car sounds, airplane sign (yesterday), banana and cracker sign (today)…

Now I know these behaviors are not unusual for children, but to experience it as a parent, not just as an educator or teacher is indescribable. To see the stages of development in communication with my child is something to “wow” about.

I would recommend babysigningtime to anyone wanting to enjoy this type of communication with your child. It’s a fun-to-watch sign language series for babies and little kiddos.