how do you teach sign?

someone recently asked me how did I teach Owen to sign? I have not had any training or support, I haven't read how to do it, I have just followed my own instincts and I wonder what others do ?

When Owen was about 8 months old I started reading to him before bed and I read the same 2 books every night they are a really simple one animal/item per page


I went on to the Auslan website and found some of the signs for the animals or items in the book at first I just did Dog and Duck and Cat. I read the book with Owen sitting on my lap, the book in front of us and use my hands over his and make the sign or I would do the sign with my own hands (for example duck is hard to do with a hand over hand).

When he watches Playschool or his Your Baby to Read dvds, or when I sing nursery rhymes I would do the same thing, hand over hand signing.

I really think for Owen it was the sensory input that was most valuable in learning the signs, I mean I know the visual is important but I really think it was feeling the sign that was most vaulable. Now that we use sign to communicate Owen can learn a sign very fast (recently he learned "poo" in one day. At the moment I am not learning any more new signs I have hit a hump, we know about 40 and it meets our needs in the day. Owen also sayes just 5 or 6 words I am also working on him verbalising more and sharing baby babble back and forth with him.

Cheeky Monkeys and a Hat

There are three cheeky monkeys in our house but it is the middle monkey that is the most mischievous, I love the first photo where you can actually see him plotting to take Owens beanie and the last photo you can see his delight at Owens reaction!

MIA

No posts and no photos recently because I have been sick with vertigo for the last 10 days. It was probably a virus but I realise that this crisis in my health is probably a reflection of the constant day to day stress I put myself under with little time for friends, time out, hair appointments etc. The vertigo was completely debilitating all I could do was lay in bed, if I got up I was staggering and bashing into furniture and the walls and the nausea was overwhelming. Randall was calling me "Future Mum" - because I would have to have someone to support me to walk to the toilet! My partner Col looked after the boys, the house, the cooking and me (and I am a pretty awful patient), but he had to go back to work last week so my mum flew from Adelaide to look after us all, she left yesterday. I am running on about 90% of normal just the ocassional dizzy, nothing debilitating. Back to fulltime parenting tomorrow !

Here comes the sleep train

One nap a day has shifted things big time.
Owen is waking just once a night now and woke at 6.30 this morning !!! and I can put him down at nap time without nursing him (he is just so tired he falls asleep with just a little patting) YAHOO fantastic. I feel a million bucks.
Its a job to keep him awake at 10 o clock but with a quick snack and a drink he can get through until about 1130 (he is having lunch at 11am. I moved Cy's nap too now his going down at 12pm (was 1pm) and waking at 2.30pm an hour earlier which means he is sleeping through the night without the antics.

Owen has found EYES are for poking ! I ask him where are your eyes and he points to my eyes and then his own eyes (well sometimes its his ears) and he goes back and forth back and forth sometimes poking both my eyes one after the other as if to say, and you've got two of those ! Very cute. Photos to follow

urrrrrgh to sleep to dream

Owen is not sleeping well
two weeks ago he was waking every 1.5 hours at night then it stopped YAHOOO just when I was threatening to do some "sleep training" (read night weaning).
But the new pattern he has adopted in no fun either, sleeping till 2am then he has a feed back to sleep then awake at 4 am sometimes for the day sometimes I can get him back to sleep for another hour so our day starts at 5am - it is beyond a joke.
But to top it off his big brother Cy is waking at 2am and STAYES awake until 4am (around the time Owen is waking for the day).Cy talks and giggles and plays with his teddy's for the whole 2 hours, he doesn't call out for us or cry, just wild laughter and voices (which would be cute at any time after 7am) His bedroom is right across the hall from ours and it is so hard to sleep through the antics well I speak for myself because this is when Owen is sleeping soundly.
The last few days I am starting to feel really depressed even now I sit and type in my PJ's (Its 1pm in the afternoon).
Today I am going to give Owen just one day sleep, because maybe he is getting too much sleep in the afternoons? So my plan is to have him have just 1 sleep each day for a few days to see if it improves things or makes it worse (heaven forbid).uuuuugrrrh I am just so exhausted.

Honey Bear

Our speech therapist did a drinking assesment on Owen about a month ago and was happy with the tiny amounts he was taking from an open cup. I wasn't happy the amount he would take was just so tiny. So it was time to hit the blogs, I saw so many children having success with the Honey Bear, it was time to order one.

I had to order it through a distributor in Brisbane and after only 4 days of squeezing the bear - squirting water into his mouth and me making exaggerated slurrpy noises with pursed lips HE GOT IT.

He can now drink good amounts from the bear instead of having to rely on breastfeeding alone (I feel more hydrated already !).

we have movement !

Owen is on the move !
He is creeping forward just a little bit just 30cm or so but in combination with sliding onto his tummy and sitting up again he is managing to move about the room. This is the first movement he has had since he was rolling, which he only did for about 3 weeks before rolling off the bed he was 10 months old, (thats 4 months ago !).

As a total bonus I have noticed his habit spasm is hardly happening at all Yippee.