I admit that I haven't really been very consistent with our baby signing practice. Our dear boy is still signing "milk" to us, but only when he is frustrated or when we forgotten his milktime (oops). He hasn't really sign more words back to us but we knew that he understood a few signs like more, apple, eat, water, ball, juice, finish, cat, bird, juice, bathe,shoes,car, thank you.
(For eg when I do the sign for "shoes" (without saying out the word shoes), he will look at his feet and etc)
(For eg when I do the sign for "shoes" (without saying out the word shoes), he will look at his feet and etc)
Well until today when I was trying to open a packet of dried mangos, baby Reagan crawled over to me and stared at my mangoes. I casually asked him " Why? You want some? say PLEASE first." And instantly I swore, right before my eyes, baby Reagan signed PLEASE! (circling hand near chest area). I repeated myself and he did the signing for PLEASE again. He showed me TWICE! Excitedly I let him nibble a little of my dried mango before he crawled away in satisfaction.
I've been trying to expose signings to my baby boy by making him watch me do the signs (not very consistent though), and also with the help of the Baby Signing Time DVDs which I play to him once in a while (especially when I desperately need a 15 minutes break). Although my boy is not an infant anymore, I'm still not comfortable with using DVDs to teach. Till now I've been very strict with the amount of screen time he gets. Although he shows no interest in the Hongkong drama series that I often watch, but still of course those children educational dvds or BabyTv channel are able to capture his attention pretty well.
Now after he passed the 1 year old age, I've adjusted his TV-rules to..
1) Amount: 3 times in a week and each session strictly only 15minutes (the rest of the days he attends his enrichment classes so strictly no TV on those days. In fact on days with no screen-time,he concentrates better in class. This "experiment" on him is tested and proven!)
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2) Content: I also control what he watched, mainly Baby Signing Time, Baby Can Read , Sparkabilities and Hi-5.
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3) Interaction : Instead of allowing his eyes to obsessively glue to the TV screen, I make sure that I'm watching together with him and try to interact with him by reinforcing what we learned, or sing and dance to the songs together.
4) No obsession - I have to monitor closely and ensure that he doesn't get too obsessed with watching the screen that might cause him to lose control of his emotions if anyone switch it off. Same goes to the dreadful Ipad which in my opinion is even more addictive and TOXIC...(because of the much "convenience" that it brings..)
No gadgets are going to be in control of my kid.
4) No obsession - I have to monitor closely and ensure that he doesn't get too obsessed with watching the screen that might cause him to lose control of his emotions if anyone switch it off. Same goes to the dreadful Ipad which in my opinion is even more addictive and TOXIC...(because of the much "convenience" that it brings..)
No gadgets are going to be in control of my kid.
Anyway, after baby Reagan signed PLEASE for me today, I'm so motivated to continue with the baby signing practice. So instead of making him watch more of the Baby Signing Time dvd, I decided to order the Baby Signing Time books and flashcards!
With the pictures and simple signs illustrations on them, I can show, sign and read to my boy. Baby Reagan enjoys reading and flashcards, so I guess these may be one of our favourite learning tools that I look forward to start him with.
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