DS had his first conversation today

[KrisM]

We were in a small shop today and DS had a conversation:

DS: hi
Saleswoman: hi
DS: how are you?
SW: I'm well. How are you?
DS: okay. Bye bye.

It was very cute. She was impressed. "How are you" comes out "howareyou", but it's understandable still.

[kedss]

Yay for Andrew! :)

DS has similar conversations on the phone, he says 'hidar' and 'hido' which I think think are 'Hi there' and 'how are you doing' just in shortened form. Then he will start nodding to whatever the person is saying...he doesn't quite get that the other person can't hear the nodding, LOL :)

[mudder17]

wow, that's great! Kaya has been having conversations for a while now, but not so that we can understand her. ;) Yesterday, she had this prolonged conversation with DH's boss.

Kaya: garble, garble, garble, pumkin (as she points to the pumpkin)
Boss: yes, that's a pumpkin, would you like to see it? (hands over the pumpkin)
Kaya: Thank you (in a singsong voice with the sign)
Boss: You're welcome!
Kaya: Garble garble, coat! Blue!
Boss: Yes, that's my coat and it is blue.
Kaya: garble, garble, garble, ha, ha, ha, garble, boat, garble, garble, outside clouds (pointing to the window)
Boss: Yes, that's outside...and yes, there are clouds out there

And it went on for something like 5 minutes! Every once in a while, she would crack up laughing like she told a joke. It was pretty funny to watch. She'll have conversations like this on the phone with my mom or sister as well and is thrilled to be able to talk on the phone.

I swear she'll be a story teller/narrator some day...when we can actually understand all her words! ;) I'm so glad we taught her signs because her vocabulary is well over 100 words now, and half of them are sign.

But no, she hasn't really had a conversation like what you described yet...well, unless you count "please", "thank you", and "welcome" (she's doesn't include the "you're") as a conversation. :)


Eileen

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[KrisM]

Too funny! Andrew's spoken vocabulary has really taken off this past month or so. We counted about 135 words and another handful of signs. He knows about 50 signs, but says most of the words at the same time. Most people wouldn't understand a lot of his words, but with the signs and context, we can. It's so much fun, isn't it?

[mudder17]

Definitely lots of fun! Yes, there are still a few words where she only uses the sign, but for the most part, she uses the words and the signs or just the words. I think so far this month, she's been picking up an average of 2-3 words/day. It's pretty amazing!


Eileen

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[kaylinsmommy2]

Wow, Andrew's only a month older than DD and he's so much more verbal! :)

I was excited about my first phone "conversation" with DD a week ago:

Me: Hi Kaylin! How are you?
DH on the phone with DD tells DD: (Say hi!)
DD: (wispered hi according to DH, but I didn't hear anything)
me: Hi Kaylin! It's mama.
DH tells DD: (say mama)
(long pause)
DD: mama!
me: wow! that's right! This is mama! Thanks for talking to me on the phone! okay, bye bye.
DH tells DD: (say bye bye)
DD: bye bye

:) So she'll only talk if prompted to, but I was still happy. Hee hee. Isn't it amazing to see how variable verbal ability is across different kids?
Caroline
Kaylin 6/5/04

http://b2.lilypie.com/9KMlm7/.png[/img][/url]

[kath68]

Sounds like the Spring 04 kiddos are all on the same page! Charlie doesn't have conversations like in the OP, but he does say things and expect a response, mostly when he is pointing out things. I don't even know how to count his vocab, since it is growing so fast, and he parrots so much. This stage is a blast. And the signs really have helped a lot. I would have no idea DS was into elephants, since he can't say the word, but I now know that "effant" is elephant because he does the sign when he says it.

I crack up when he says "Didit!" For "I did it!" -- when he accomplishes something, or "tadaaaaa!" when he does something physical he is proud of. Where does he learn that? And he is really great on the "thank yous." I am thrilled about that.

[KrisM]

I totally agree on the signs. There is no way we'd know the difference between bath and book if he didn't also sign them. What a wonderful thing signing is!

[jenjenfirenjen]

That is too cute. I'm so impressed!

Quick question on the signing. We sign with Luke but we only know the signs in Signing Time Vol 1-3. It sounds like you all know a lot more signs. Any suggestions for other books/dvd/resources for signing?

[kath68]

I just made up a sign for elephant, but there are some good websites out there that give the ASL signs for things, with video clips. I have one bookmarked on my home computer, not here at work, otherwise I'd give it to you. They have been mentioned in a couple of threads here in the past, but the fasted way to find a good one might just be to google "baby sign ASL"

[mudder17]

Well, I do have 4-6 now, but I looked up a lot of signs as well. Here are some of the places I've used:

http://www.masterstech-home.com/ASLDict.html
http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/ecarpenter/Topics.htm
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
http://www.lessontutor.com/ASLgenhome.html

and one that's not strictly ASL, I don't think...

http://www.signwithme.com/main_signs.asp?ID=35

HTH!

Eileen

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Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[jenjenfirenjen]

Thanks ladies. I'll check out those websites and Luke is getting ST Vol 4-6 for Christmas.

[mudder17]

Kaya has really liked 4-6, although she hasn't watched 5 that much. I can't wait for the 7-9 group to come out though, because it's going to be a lot of animals! Kaya is going to be thrilled!

Eileen

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Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[jenjenfirenjen]

Wow, does Kaya really sit and watch them? I'll usually turn them on while he's playing and he'll look at it every now and then but that's about it. I do think it really helps though to see other kids signing on the vidoes. Do you know when 7-9 comes out?

P.S. Sorry to hijack your thread Kris!

[kath68]

We hav had 4-6 for a while now, and haven't watched them much. They seemed way too fast for DS a couple of months ago, but they may be more appropriate now.

Thing is, though, DS is *consumed* with Sesame Street, and that is all he wants to watch right now. He has almost figured out how to get the Tivo remote to work so he can turn Sesame Street on all by himself. Yikes! I am not pleased about that. I tried one of the S.T. videos the other day, and he kept saying "Bird! Oscar! Melmo! ErnieBert!" OK already! I get the message!

So we watched S.S. instead. His interest in learning new signs seems to be fading, but I still have hope that he will want to learn them as he gets older.

[mudder17]

The only TV that Kaya watches is the ST's. She watches it almost once a day--maybe 4-5 times a week? (The rule is up to one a day.) When we first got 4-6, they did seem to fast for her, but after we had them for maybe a week, she seemed to really enjoy 4. So we let her watch that one for maybe a couple weeks before letting her try 6. Then she went through a phase where she either wanted to watch 4 or 6, but did NOT want 1-3 (she could tell from the opening that they were different). She's watched 5 maybe twice, but still prefers 4 and 6. But last week, she actually let me put in 2 and 3 on different days and she liked watching them because some of the words that used to mean nothing to her suddenly mean a lot to her (train, airplane, sun, moon, stars...).

She was at her friend's house today and we were looking at a Sesame Street book and Kaya was able to pick up on Elmo right away because the church nursery has a giant stuffed Elmo that she likes to put in the high chair and buckle up. We went through the book and she was able to identify some of the colors of the critters and could say Big Bird, Elmo, Zoe, and some garbled version of Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. Based on that, I decided I'm going to hold off on Sesame Street for a while, because otherwise she's going to be asking for it all the time! I'll just stick to her thinking they're characters in a book for now. ;)

Funny thing is that I've caught Kaya making up some of her own signs like for Balloon or a few other things. It's kind of funny, but I guess I better learn "her" signs! :)


Eileen

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Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[mudder17]

Uh, sit and watch? Actually, she likes to dance to the opening song and some of the middle songs, but she'll stand and watch at the TV unless I ask her to come sit with me. She also likes to nurse and watch for some odd reason, and will pop off to say, "Mouse?" a few seconds before the mouse appears or things like that. Yes, she definitely has a memory because for some of them, she'll say the sign before it starts. Some of her favorite signs to see are "jump", "moon", "sun", "cheese" (because of the mouse), "blue"...for some of these signs, she'll actually ask me to repeat the same one over and over again, and then she'll lose interest. So there are times when Kaya only watches part of the video, which is just fine. :)

And last I heard, 7-9 is supposed to arrive in a few days (I ordered mine from Julie) and she was going to ship on the 19th, although I told her (I think I did) to not bother shipping until at least Christmas is over!


Eileen

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Kaya's a cousin! 10/1/05, 5lb13oz

[mudder17]

I first heard about the whole signing thing from DH's childhood friends when they signed with their twins. That was when I decided we'd try it with Kaya (Kaya was a newborn at the time). But it was definitely these boards that encouraged me to do it as much as we have and I am so grateful!


Eileen

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[KrisM]

No problem with the hijack :)

We have 1-6 DVDs. If I ask him to, he'll sign most of the alphabet and yell the letter. Same with colors, although he doesn't know what "red" is. We don't sign very muc anymore and he picks up tons from the DVD. I didn't know he knew "tree" until we put ours up in the house.

He used to watch these every day (1/day), but now prefers music instead, so I'm trying to sign a bit more with him. I've used some of the sites Eileen posted.