Which Signs Do You Find Most Useful For Your DC?

[randomkid]

DD is really picking up on signing and now absolutely loves the Baby Signing Time DVDs. She signs baby and says "baby?" when she wants to watch it. She has picked up signs from the DVDs that I have never shown her and she is saying the words more now as well.

What signs have you found to be most useful that I could teach her?

Here's a list of what she already knows (what I can remember anyway)

milk
water
eat
drink
wash hands
sleep
hat
book
more
all done
dog
bird
fish
car
banana

Thanks,

[elliput]

Brush Teeth! My DD goes bonkers over "brush teeth". :7

[bunnisa]

"Please"

We only taught DS a few and that was one that wasn't on your list.

Bethany
blessed wife and mama to two!

"And children are always a good thing, devoutly to be wished for and fiercely to be fought for."
-Justin Torres

[megs4413]

down...

[hez]

We stuck to the basics-- you already have them. Milk, eat, water, more, all done... Payton used 'milk' for 'nurse' and he was a crack up signing 'milk' with both hands when he really wanted to nurse. He started talking right around when we would have spent time on more signs, so we went with that.

[erosenst]

We used all the ones that you have. Additional ones that were helpful were

"blanket" (her word for that was garbled for a LONG time, so it was helpful when she signed it, too)"

"shoes" (she learned the sign relatively early, but it was a surprisingly late spoken word for her)

"Please" and "thank you" - by the time she could talk, she was already used to saying these.

"Music" - without this, I wouldn't have known that she liked to have the music turned on every morning when we got her out of the crib

"flower" - you'll be amazed how many flowers are on things - and it's a fun way for DD to begin communicating with you about what she sees

"telephone" - another ubiquitous thing today!

"dirty" - she didn't like her hands to be too dirty when she was eating - so she could let us know it was time for them to be wiped

"duck" - lots of toy ones around

"bib" - great that she could remind me when I forgot to put one on her

Those are the ones that come to mind. Have fun!

[lisams]

Emma is older, so my list of most used is a little different, but ones to keep in mind that are nice to use:

please/thank you
my turn/your turn
sharing
May I be excused please (a series of signs)
potty
happy/sad

She is a very vocal 3 year old, but still responds very well to signing. Sometimes she "listens" better when I sign - it's interesting!

[Raidra]

I think you've got all the useful ones. Maybe bath? Colwyn used to sign bath and point at his toys when he wanted to pretend to give them baths.

Signs Colwyn has really loved are: plane, helicopter, crocodile, octopus, and motorcycle. His newest favorite is pay attention. They come and go, though. He's got over 100 now, but doesn't sign them all the time since he's so verbal.

[brittone2]

Two that I don't think I saw mentioned that we found helpful were "wait" (more me using it to tell him to wait, and this still comes in handy, particularly if I'm on the phone and he's bugging me for something and I can't say much), and also "help" which was/is a huge life saver when he's frustrated. He mostly says "help" now but for a while he didn't say the word and would cry or shriek or scream, and we'd show him the sign for help. That was a big help to DH and I :)

DS ended up being very verbal pretty early on, so we didn't sign as much as I thought we would. We still play around with signs though and he likes trying to remember and do them when I "quiz" him ;)

Other biggies for us were more, all done, eat, drink, and nurse (milk).

[randomkid]

Thank you to everyone for the great ideas. I plan to continue using signs for a while because it does seem to help her understand more. I have noticed that sometimes I can say something to her and I don't get much of a response, but if I use the sign with it, she seems to understand much more readily. Makes sense because signing is more concrete and is based on concepts rather than actual words. I also see potential for use when she is older in settings like church or other situations where speaking may be limited (I like Beth's idea of "wait" when on the phone).

It's interesting to me that I can tell what DD is signing even though some of the signs are very similar. I can tell her subtle differences between "ball", "more", and "shoes". It's sort of like knowing what their different cries mean :-)

Did anyone's DC ever use "hurt" in a helpful way - such as when DC was not feeling well and could tell you what was wrong?

I like the fun signs as well because DD so enjoys being able to communicate to us. She will be watching a Signing Time video and will look at me and do the sign. The other day she ran into the kitchen, showed me "wash hands" and ran back out. She walks around the house saying and signing "hat" all the time! She always looks so proud. I find that it has helped her verbally since they repeat the words so often on the videos. She is also now very good at washing her hands since she does the sign.

Keep 'em coming.