Teaching my child sign language

That would suggest "tired bear" to me, which of course is not necessarily a bad thing.

hmmm
interesting. THAT may work well.

We just used the sign for "sleep."

Duh!! Right, that's what we did when she was a baby. "Sleepy" instead of "tired". A real sign, just do "sleep" a couple of times.

oy.
DUH indeed.... the whole time I AM using sleep.. and trying to teach her tired...
oooo.. can you tell who really needs the sleepy tired naps? HA! ( if you translated my sign language at bed time, that is probally EXACTLY what I am saying...)

Unfortunately, no, she doesn't tell us when she's sleepy...

She'll say "night-night." Then point at her doll that's laying on the couch...

..She'll put blocks, puppets, cats to bed... ("night-night!")

...She'll sign <sleep> in the middle of play time and lay down, pretending to sleep....

...But she does not use the sign or her words to tell us when she's actually sleepy.



I think she's having a hard time identifying the physical sensations of being sleepy. We try to help her identify her feelings, but it seems to be a long road.

Do you have a night time ritual? I taught Bean the word sleep with her ritual.
It starts with a bath, then drying off and getting rubbed down with lotion on her changing table, then in the rocker with a bottle.
Just before I was finished rubbing her with lotion, I would start the ' sleep ' sign. I would tell her she was going to sleep.
Then I would continue doing it in the rocker ( boy was that a challange ) and then finally, when I put her in her bed I would sign it one last time then leave her to fall asleep.
It helped doing things she NEW led to bed time for her.
Maybe that can work for you?
Bean uses the word sleep. Sometimes it means she wants her bath, and other times it does mean she is tired. Depends on her moods.

Oh, she's a great sleeper. We have a similar night-time routine... wash hands, brush teeth, get changed, read books, lay down. Then she crashes for 12 hours or so....

Ooohh yes. We LOOOVE the 12 night time sleeping. ;-)
Jillian does the same thing. Has always been a good sleeper.
Mr Wolf and I call her 12 night time sleep our " off the clock " parent break.

Combining words...>sigh<

Out of her frustration, 'more' is her word for everything.
more food, more water, more -pick me up-. more more more more more.. I feel like I am back at square one, teaching her one word at a time.
I know repitition is the key.. but I cant rev this key any faster can i?!

Are there signs for specific names?

like jillian?

Could I teach her a sign for herself besides 'baby' with out having to spell it out to her?

Namesigns are individual. The sign for "sozlet" is the first letter of her name over the heart -- that's a fairly typical child sign (and may change as they grow up). While it doesn't have any specific "meaning", it connotes a certain precious/ close to your heart sort of thing.

Namesigns almost always (but not always) are the first letter of the person's name at one of the (10?) namesign "spots" on the body -- center of chest, over heart, inside of elbow, chin, cheek, forehead, etc.

However, you can also go with "Bean" if you want to -- stick out your pointer finger, then (uhhhhhhhhh, too hard to explain, I'll see if I can find it somewhere)...

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm

Click on "B", then on "bean".

By the way, in terms of general ASL communication, namesigns are pretty much only used when making introductions and when referring to someone who is not there -- all the rest of the time, variations of "me"/ "you" are used.

One cool thing that shows how even the most iconic [representational] signs are processed by the language center of the brain is that just when hearing kids are at the developmental stage where they confuse "you" and "me", deaf kids are, too... even though "you" is pointing to the other person and "me" is pointing to yourself. (Seems like it couldn't be more straightforward, but the same language processes are happening.)

Hmm...

funny you should mention that.
That is the whole reason i wanted to introduce a specific sign for her because she was confusing me and herself.
or better grammer might be confusing us.. ?

Any way.. She would be trying to say SHE was hungry, and signing Mom food.

Wich was very cute, it looked like an over dramatic slow slap in the face.
Thumb would hit her forehead, then her open hand would slide down her face, pat her lips , then she would just drop her hand..

I thought for a while that she was learning to ask a specific person for food. The mom / food combination..
But, that isnt the case. At least.. I dont think so..

Could well be. "Mom, give me some food" or "mom feed baby" or any number of combinations would make sense, there.

The "you/ me" langauge confusion is more specific to personal pronouns. It's not so much that I'd say shewolf when I meant Bella, it's that I'd say "you" (that specific word) when I meant "me" (same).

Cool that she's getting more and more into signing!

hmm..

Ok that makes sense.
Because she isnt QUITE to the point of using the 'me' you thing..
It is still specific names.
Mom , dad, cat, etc

I know that most of the times she is telling me to get her some food..
but it had crossed my mind before, maybe projection on my behalf, that she was trying to say
"im hungry"
Instead of mom-food