sign language

One of the items on my 101 list is to teach Trent some sign language. I'm not sure when this first became popular/common, but I know that most daycare centers teach kids sign language and/or spanish. The daycare we send Trent to does not do this, but I always knew I would teach my kids some sign language either way.

My reason for wanting to teach Trent sign language is basically just because I really enjoy sign language (not because I secretly want some super genius mega-baby, haha). Some background on me: I graduated from our local community college with an Associates Degree in Architectural Engineering Technology (a degree I do not, and don't plan to ever, use). It took me five and a half years to get this degree while working full-time. Towards the end I decided to take a sign language (ASL) course that was offered at my campus. I enjoyed it (as I knew I would. I took classes as a child and my middle-school best friend's parents were both deaf, so I was already familiar with ASL). I did not, however, pursue this field because I was already so close to being done with the Architectural stuff, so I pushed ASL to the side and focused on getting my Associates. My plan is to eventually go back to college and become a certified sign language interpreter. That's what I think I want to do with my life...but who knows. I doubt the pay is good but the hours would be fantastic (the same hours a teacher has...which will be the same as my kids' when they are in school).

So, several months ago I started to sign a few basic words to Trent. I'd do it only when I felt I had his full attention and when I did the sign I would say the word out loud. Then I would basically just repeat the sign and the word several times.

I'm not sure if there are specific rules and guidelines to go by when teaching your child ASL, but I'm winging it. I've been doing the sign for "milk" and "mom". And sometimes Kevin will try to do the "dad" sign with him. The main sign I'm focusing on right now is "milk". I do this sign while he is eating so that he can make the association with the word, hand gesture, and activity. For some reason when I first started to teach him "milk" i always associated the hand-sign with the word "hungry" instead of "milk". I may or may not switch that up at some point.

Time for the good part - A couple weeks ago i was nursing Trent and felt his hand doing something weird. I look down and sure enough he was trying to do the "milk" sign. At first I was skeptical and thought maybe i was just seeing what i wanted to see (like, maybe he was just scratching himself or something) but now that a couple weeks have gone by I feel confident in saying that Trent has definitely developed a connection between the word, sign & activity!! It's very exciting stuff for me!!!! I didn't think we'd have success with that word so quickly since Trent is in daycare and doesn't consistently get the sign, but I guess he saw it enough. Right now he only makes the sign while he is nursing, so I can't get a video of him doing it (sorry, I know how disappointed you all must be right now), but soon he will hopefully be able to sign "milk" to me when I'm fully clothed to let me know that he wants to nurse. Once he does that I will cross the item off my list and post a little clip of it.

every new development is just so exciting!