We have been using baby signs with Rose since she was born and she used her first sign (milk; open and closed fist, like milking a cow) at 5 1/2 months. Now she's 12 months and using a multitude of signs and spoken words to communicate with us. At 12 months babies are expected to communicate between 8-10 words either verbally or through signs or gestures. We were impressed, on counting up what Rose says to us, that she uses approximately 20 words! Here is a list of what she can communicate, with pics and clips where possible!
Milk; Rose's first sign is now coupled with the words 'nan nan' to show that she'd like to nurse.
Dog; Rose's second sign showed us how much she adores Ollie. She has used this sign to tell me that a sheepskin rug that we were leaning on reminded her of Ollie's coat!
More; This is Rose's most used sign which she uses to tell us that she wants more of something. We then have to use other signs and words to work out what exactly she wants.
Light; Rose sometimes will tell us that she wants the lights off, if she's tired, or that she likes the light, or that she's noticed the light etc etc etc
All done; This sign tells us that she's had enough at meal times, bath times, play times and any other time!
Water; Rose loves to drink water and uses this sign to show that she's like a drink of water, usually after a meal time.
Eat; This sign is often confused with 'toothbrush' but when we interpret her properly she's telling us that she's hungry and wants to eat. Its only really confusing when there's a toothbrush around!!
Toothbrush; Rose will remind us that she needs to brush her teeth at bath time. Good thing too as both Robin and I are terrible at remembering!!
Hairbrush; Rose actually made this sign up herself when she wanted to use her hairbrush at the same time that I was brushing my hair!
Baby; Rose's favourite toy at the moment is her baby doll (thank you Grandad Alan!) She doesn't use a sign for Baby but says 'Dee Dee'. She uses this word for all baby dolls and teddy bears too. Her new doll has become known as Dee Dee by all the family and Rory has been known to go and grab the doll when she's cried out 'Dee Dee'!!
Mummy; Another spoken word!
Daddy; Her favourite person in the evenings!! Another spoken word!
Ollie; She will call for Ollie, especially if he's out in the garden and she's stood by the door watching him!
Rory; One evening Rose called for Rory, which sounded more like 'ooooor eeeee' when he's left her room without saying goodnight! She loves her brother!
Car; Since there are so very many cars in this house, courtesy of her big brother! Rose has become rather fascinated in cars also. When she sees or plays with a car she will say 'Brrmmmm!'
Duck; Rose loves her bath time ducks (thank you Granny Gloria!) and will play with them and say 'quack quack quack!'
Tickle; This was one of Rose's first words and I think says a lot about her personality!! She's not quite worked out how to tickle though! She woke me one morning basically head butting me and saying 'tickle tickle tickle tickle'!! Not so ticklish- rather more painful entirely!!
Hat; Rose loves to try on hats, especially bike helmets! They never stay on long though!
Hi and Bye; Rose loves to wave hello and goodbye and will say Hi whenever someone walks in the room!
UPDATE; The day after writing this post Rose treated us to two new signs or sounds with meaning. Rather confusingly it appears that she's using the same sound for two different words; balloon and cat (or squirrel)!! She makes a growly back of the throat noise, not unlike Charlie growling, when she sees a cat and/or a balloon! We're working on more specific signs, as well as the real words, for each word but luckily there is not often a cat close to a balloon in our house!!
We will add more pics and clips of Rose and her words/signs as we are able to record them so stay tuned!!
