At the end of 2010 here is what Owen is signing
cake, dinosaur, cook, bike, chicken, egg, mouse, cat, hat, queen, dog, milk, drink, eat, toast (gesture), giraffe, ice cream, flower, play, poo, train, music, shark, fish, bee, crocodile (g), frog, sheep, pig, monkey, horse (g), tree, swing, toilet, paper, bath, ball, happy, sad, phone, glasses, star, boat, fish, finished, friends, go, bird, duck, pasta, hot, book, sleep/bed, jump, elephant, run, boy, rock, orange, more, bubble, please, bear, huge, little, rain, rabbit, rainbow, butterfly, wash, gorilla, crash, where, baby (74)
and he sayes - Santa(this week), apple (this week), Randall, Cyrus, car, tiger, cow (moo), ball, hello/bye, light, up, tah (as in give), teddy, Owen, Dad - (15) This week has seen a leap in his attempts at sounds, we are hearing lots of awwwh ba ba ba and la la and hearing two new words in a week is an absolute joy !
He is having his second round of speech therapy this week (his first since he was 13 months old), which is why I have made these lists because I like to go in knowing just what he is doing.
Also this week I put a bowl of pasta onto his highchair table and he put his hand in the bowl and went to take a piece out but dropped it immediately and signed HOT ! and then started to blow, I was so impressed with his understanding, use of sign and what to do next, he has definitely had a little development spurt this week.
I am wary of counting words and signs because I know it can be very misleading for instance Cyrus only had about 30 words/signs at 2 years old and he took an amazing leap this year and now has hundreds of words which he can put into 4-6 word sentences, so there was definitely alot happening "in there" but he just couldn't express himself and his visual learning wasn't very good - perhaps it was his long-sightedness that made it hard or perhaps his gross motor delay but he was never a huge signer, he knows what they are but he didn't use them like Owen does.
And just because Owen knows the sign doesn't mean he understands for instance if he sees a picture of a Gorilla he signs horse and if I say no its not a horse he might sign sheep or some other animal (he is having a guess) and then I have to say no its a gorilla and then he signs gorilla- so he knows the verbal word gorilla and signs appropriately and he can read the word gorilla and sign appropriately but he still has remembering what the actual picture of the gorilla looks like. I guess this is where I see the learning difficulty, the need for for constant repetition I know he will get it one day. Its like the word friend he knows the sign for it but I am pretty sure he has no idea what a friend is but over time I know he will develop an understanding of it just like he has the word hot.
I know that Owen is doing really well with his signs and I enjoy teaching him, I am so grateful for the Internet it has been such an amazing resource, it makes me cringe to think where he would be at if we just relied on the service provided by Disability Services in this country actually its a disgrace but that is the subject for another post at another time.
So looking forward to this new year roll on 2011
Holy smokes! I am so impressed, Owen is doing so well in language. You have done an amazing job considering you've had no outside help at all.
ReplyDeleteThats pretty darn good!! I think the most difficulty I have with signing is being consistant...Doing it EVERY time...and not only that but getting everyone else in the house to do it also, EVERY time. Hopefully we all get it together soon so Russell can learn from us. We still havnt seen a speech therapist yet, we have been refered to one though, so just waiting to hear back from them now.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Owen is doing awesome!
I am the only one that really signs to Owen, though Col and the other boys know many of the signs they don't use them to him often. I just started with 3 signs and once he started using them I added more. Owen loves music and nursery songs are great for learning animal signs, when I read a book to him I might learn and sign a couple of objects from the book e.g. - cat, and milk. This is how he has learned most of his signs. I didn't start out using them every time, just during the song or book but now I have found I use them more and more when I talk. It has just built up slowly, I know he could do so much more if I were more consistent or had more support but I just do what I can - its like learning a second language a word at a time and then having to teach Owen, when I hardly know it myself. I get all the signs I need from the australian sign language website have you got a BC signing site?
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