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Tuesday 11 October 2016

Ninja Moves

Nothing like a little Ninja Action to boost your mood!


Now I have a craving for sushi...

Thursday 6 October 2016

Show Me a Sign!

Gideon is over 2 years old now but still not speaking.  He babbles sometimes and will cry when upset but has not really been able to communicate with us using words.  His smiles tell me he's happy, his squeezes, that he loves me.  When he pushes something away, I know he's really not in the mood.  Occasionally he will reach for something just out of reach that interests him and "complain" for help.

I expected some language delays because of his mild hearing loss, but there should be more emerging than what is accounted for.

Our speech pathologist suggested using sign language.

Surprisingly he has been picking up some words.  It's mostly when we say the word that he will sign it... he's not really instigating them.  So far ball, more and milk are the most consistent.

These are the words we are working on:
Ball
Sleep
Eat
More
Book
Dinosaur
Car
Tower      
Milk

Signing with Gideon is tricky.  Because of his visual impairment, I'm sure that when I model, he just sees my blurry hands moving.  Trying to figure our what the fingers are doing must be hard.  I try to do hand over hand with him.  Sometimes he lets me.  His signs are a little different from standard ASL right now, but I know what he's trying to sign.  

He likes the word sleep.  (Click for Demo)

He laughed when I first brushed my hand across his face and he then tried it.  He seemed to pick up on that one really quickly.

The other morning I was feeding Gideon his bottle while Alex was trying to eat his breakfast.  Gideon was signing milk (Click for Demo) while he was drinking.  I then told Alex, who was trying to escape the breakfast table, that he needed to drink more milk before he could play.  Gideon then signed "more milk".

It made me smile.  I told Alex that even his brother thought he had to drink more milk :)

I'd love to know what signs other parents find most helpful with there kids.  I feel a little lost in this new language I'm learning.  I really hope Gideon can catch on and start to express himself.  Fingers crossed!