Mina Signs

I taught my daughter several signs from the American Sign Language (ASL). She does not have a full ASL vocabulary as she only knows 7 signs. But you know what, just three of those signs have saved us so much grief. I know when she wants "more", I know when she's hungry and wants to "eat", and I know when she wants her sippy cup to "drink" from. I don't have moments of frustration at meal times (okay, maybe some frustration sometimes..we're both human after all). The short of it though, is that sign language has helped us communicate better, even with just a few signs.

Has it hampered her speech? No, not really. I think it wires the brain to connect that all objects have names. And the words she can say, she says. She can say more for example, while signing. But she can't say the hard word "cracker" yet, so she signs that (it's incidentally her favorite word). Other words I didn't teach her the sign for but she instead says is "bird" and "water".

It would be the ultimate understatement to say I'm proud of her. Here she is: