Will he ever do a sign???!

[steph2003]

We've let DS watch Signing Times 1x a day since about 5 months or so. Ok, sometimes several days go by w/o him watching it & I admit we aren't the most consistent parents when it comes to using signs....but one sign we have CONSTANTLY used is "milk." Each & every time he gets his bottle we sign milk. We ask him if he wants his milk (using the sign) & he just looks at us. Will he ever sign milk??? Granted he is not yet 10 months but I've read so many other posts of babies signing from 6 months on & I feel like the ONE sign we have been completely consistent with his milk!

[mudder17]

Okay, Steph, this is really funny! You're asking all the right questions today. :) Yes, I'm also curious when DD will start signing. We're much more consistent about "food" and "water", but most of the time she just smiles and maybe claps her hands. Well, actually, she will sometimes grunt in frustration that we're not feeding her or watering her fast enough. :P She has only watched the DVD since she was 6.5 months, though, if that. So we haven't been as consistent with letting her watch the DVD. But I know moms have taught their kids to sign without the DVD, so I don't think that's it. I'm just thinking that one day the light will suddenly turn on and she'll learn "water", "food" and "milk" all in one go. :) ETA: Oh, I forgot, I also do the sign for "cat" fairly frequently because DD loves to watch our cats.


Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya, www.chemicalgraphics.com/kaya
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http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_amber_9m.gif Breastfed 9 months and counting

[steph2003]

LOL! Griff does the grunt thing too in frustration & I keep signing milk, milk, milk - trying to get him to sign it knowing it is milk that he wants! but no go, he just starts getting really mad then & then I feel bad for witholding what he wants!

[papal]

He will sign in his own good time. For Leela, suddenly, one day, it all clicked in her brain and she was signing away like crazy... i guess some babies are more consistent in their learning and some just learn it all in one day. I think Griffin might be like Leela. :)

[rrosen]

I agree with everything you have already been told. Just give it time it will happen. Once Gabrielle learned one sign the rest came fast and furious. She can learn a sign now after seeing it just a couple of times. Be patient your effort will pay off.

[LucyG]

I also signed "milk" like crazy from about eight months on, but DD didn't start to sign until she was almost a year old. After she started, though, she picked up lots of signs. Now, we can show her a sign and she learns it the first or second time. Since she is talking a lot now, I find that I've gotten much more lax about using signs with her. I did order volumes 4-6 of Signing Time, though, because she enjoys them so much, and I thought the new signs about emotions and feelings would come in handy as we approach two years of age!


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21 months and counting!

[icunurse]

It's nice to know that I'm not alone in wondering if I will ever get a sign back. DS will clap his hands when I say "yea!" and will open and close his mouth to copy me chewing, but yet he can't seem to manage the sign for eat (which we have done since about 4 months old). We try to use as many simple signs as possible (cat, mommy, daddy, etc.), but I think I am just talking to myself :) But I will keep trying!
Traci
~Connor's Mom~
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[babymama]

If Santiago is any indication, you might prepare yourself for singing strikes. Santiago will show us a sign (not totally clearly of course, so we say "did he just do mama?"). THen it will disappear for weeks. It's like he's done it once (or maybe for 1 day) and that's all he's gonna do. He's averaging about one every oh, 8-10 days, but then it disappears (not for lack of encouragement bc we are big on signing to him). He watches the videos about once a day and on weekends usually 2x/day. Like you, I guess we'll just keep plugging away. Maybe we can break the strike soon?!?

Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03

[murpheyblue]

We started signing at about 6 months with DD. She picked up milk around 8 or 9 months but then not much else for a while. Then at 12 months it was like a floodgate of signs. It was like she all of a sudden started figuring it out. It took a while and there were definitely times when I wondered when she would ever pick it up or if we were just being silly but WOW. When she got it, she got it and she's been using them all the time and picking up new ones rapidly.

Keep at it.

[deenass]

BE PATIENT, all of a sudden one day, something will click in his brain and he'll be a signing machine! We started signing with my son 11/03 and he didn't sign back until 7/04 but once he started there wasn't a sign I showed him that he couldn't remember.

it can be frustrating to wait, but in the end it will be worth it!

[Karenn]

Colin didn't sign back until he was 11 months and we watched the videos religiously starting around 7 mos. I was also surprised that his first sign was not "all done" which was the one sign we had been really consistent about. He signed that much later. Even with him starting to sign so "late" it was well worth the wait. He communicated primarily with sign for the next year after that. I think he ultimately knew close to 100 signs. I can't imagin the tantrums and meltdowns we would have encountered without sign langage! It will come together and you'll be ready to buy stock in Signing Time. :)

[tina-t]

As the other posters said, be patient. We started signing with ds when he was 9 mos old but he did not start signing until he was 15 mos. old. Once he started signing, he just kept on learning the new ones fast.

[kellyotn]

With my DD, we didn't do videos, but CONSISTENTLY did the sign for eat, from when she started eating food (6 months). She did not get it at all!! I was sure she'd never get it.

We eventually added in "more" because she was obviously trying to tell us when she wanted more food at times, but this was closer to 11 months by now. Then one day, "more" became the sign for "eat". Which is fine! She's 2 and is a complete jabber jaws and will still sometimes sign and talk simultaneously.

After she picked up her version of "eat", other signs came fast and furious. She picked up "milk" in a day, 1 or 2 days after getting "eat".

"play", "outside", "bath" and "night-night" were within the next week. For some reason, she just didn't like the official sign for eat, but once she found one she would do, it worked great!! :-)

I'd say just keep plugging away with 2 or 3 signs, it'll come. Also, be flexible, if they use something they make up, that's great too!

We really enjoyed signing with her and look forward to doing it all over again with our infant son. It really is amazing how much they will learn to sign!! They have lots to say, but their mouths just don't agree yet!

kelly

[essnce629]

My son is 15 months old now and still won't do the sign for milk when he wants it even though I've used this sign religiously since he was about 5 month old. Instead he chooses to whine, push his head into my chest, and just started trying to lift up my shirt. When he starts doing this I know what he wants so I say "Use your signs" but he just gets more angry. It's not until I reluctantly say "do you want some milkies" that he'll actually sign milk. I was in the same boat as you and never thought Conner would sign back either, but sure enough, at 10 months old he signed his first word-- light! Whenever we saw a light he would make the sign frantically. Since then he's progressed a lot more. I just learn the signs from the ASL browser online and teach him-- we don't have the signing times videos although I plan on getting him a set for Christmas. At 15 months old now, my son's signing vocabulary consists of: eat, more, milk, binky, baby (his lovey), blanket, light, dog, monkey, elephant, down, please, and grandma. He also understands several other signs when I do them, but hasn't signed them back to me yet. So don't worry, you're son will catch on.

***Latia
Conner 8/19/03
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/aug2003angel
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"The greatest of life's joys is to be a mother. The second greatest is to be a midwife."

[LucyG]

I remembered this and thought I'd add it to the discussion . . .

My cousin, who has been deaf from birth and is married to a man who has also been deaf from birth, has a 2.5 year old. Their DD can hear. They have, obviously, been signing to their daughter since she was born. Even so, the little girl did not start to sign until around a year old. I would have expected signing sooner from her, but I have to remind myself that she was really in the process of learning two different languages, ASL and spoken English, just as the babies of hearing parents are. She is fluent in both languages now.

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21 months and counting!

[steph2003]

Good point - I forgot the fact that essentially they are learning two different languages!

I'll keep signing away....:)