I posted this over at BlogFrog in one of the communities I am a part of, but I know I can get some great insights here, too.
I am wondering if I am doing this right. I am SO FREAKING TIRED of my 15 (nearly 16) month old pulling on my shirt when he wants to nurse, so I am attempting some baby sign language with him. We're starting with the sign for milk.
So, what I have been doing for the past several days is when he pulls on my shirt, I tell him, "Say: 'I want to nurse' " and I do the sign. Then I pick him up and begin nursing him and repeat that while doing the sign.
Well, this morning he did the sign AFTER he had begun nursing.
Am I reinforcing this wrong?
11 comments:
We have been using some signlanguage with Anna. We ask her if she wants milk and do the sign at the same time a couple of times and then we start to nurse. Ask it as a question and then help Anna make the sign before I start to nurse. I haven't been doing it during nursing.... I don't know if that helps at all...
interested to see how this works out for you... for whenever we have another one. i have my 22 month old pointing to my chest saying "boobies"... and he hasn't consistently nursed in almost 4 months. not a big deal at home, but in public it's kinda embarrassing... especially when the hand goes down the shirt faster than i can catch it. oye!
We used a lot of sign language with Vangie before she was verbal, and we taught her the sign (us demonstrating it, then helping her do it) before we gave her anything she wanted. Once she demonstrated that she understood what it meant and that she could physically do it on her own, we got tough with her and wouldn't give her what she wanted until she signed (Josh helped me take that stand). She learned really quickly how to ask for the things she wanted... lol :) However you choose to teach Jude, I would definitely make sure that you're only demonstrating and using the sign when you want him to use it so he understands how to use it appropriately. Hope this helps! :)
Okay, so I just realized that our name is listed under Josh instead of Teresa :) The previous post was definitely NOT Josh! lol :)
i do not know but i want to applaud you for nursing so long
This all came along after my kids were talking but I'm fascinated to hear how it goes for folks.
I think this is great whether it's wrong or right. I never did signing with my kids, and find it awesome when little ones can do this. Good for you...and I am sure it will work itself out.
I think it just takes time, you are doing fine! When I was teaching my godson, he picked things up oddly at first too, but then it just took off. It got to the point where even when he could say "please", he was still signing it.
He'll figure it out, promise!
Hmm, I actually never did baby signing, but my former coworker did that with her son, and according to her it was successful. I say keep doing what you're doing, give it time, and he'll come along.
Psst! Happy ALMOST BIRTHDAY! :-D
I would say Do you want to nurse, and then do the sign for it. Do that a few times in a row and then do it a few more times but help him do the sign those last times.
Benny just learned the 'more' sign. He uses it correctly as well. Having a non-verbal autistic child helped me learn signs and now I use them all the time. What I did to teach him this was when he would cry and reach for something he had but then ran out of I would know he wanted more of whatever that thing was. So I would tell him 'No crying' and when he stopped I would show and say 'more' and give him ONE more. Then when he's start to cry again, do the process all over again. He now does it without ques.
I suggest telling him not to pull your shirt and ask him if he wants to nurse (when you say nurse sign the word nurse). Then help him to make the sign and say the word, then nurse him. Do this everytime. Again this is my suggestion. Hopefully it will help.
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