I finally started to really work on teaching my boys baby signs. My little boy picked it up first. We were working on "Want". And after hours of, "Don't scream say 'want'*make hand motion*" I look down and my son is making his own variation of the sign "want". I can't even explain my joy! It was the best thing in the world to see him use his new form of communication.
My big boy prefers to use this nasally, whiny, barnyard type noise to try and communicate. We can't figure out what the noise means because he makes it all the time- happy, sad, hungry, mad, before naps, after naps, you name it. Well we've been working really hard on getting him to use another form of communication because mommy and baby cannot be in the same room as long as that noise is being made. Finally, tonight, we made a breakthrough. He finally uses his own form of "more". The trick was showing him that clapping his hands works just as well. He caught on really quickly, and started using the sign like crazy. I was so very happy with his accomplishment! And my big boy seems so much happier now that he has an effective form of communication.
Oh the joys of effective communication! Welcome to the perpetual struggle of humanhood. Wouldn't it solve a whole mess of problems if we could all learn to communicate clearly? Now that I think of it, I suppose the tricky part is being willing to listen.
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