Signing

#3 decided today that he'd start signing (milk). He's gone from 1-2 daytime
feeds to about every half an hour. Now I'm thirsty...
and I must make sure no one teaches him to sign "chocolate", that was a big
mistake with #2. Any idea for the sign for "healthy foods" anyone?
:-)
Debbie

"Welches" wrote in message
...
#3 decided today that he'd start signing (milk). He's gone from 1-2
daytime feeds to about every half an hour. Now I'm thirsty...
and I must make sure no one teaches him to sign "chocolate", that was a
big mistake with #2. Any idea for the sign for "healthy foods" anyone?
:-)
Debbie
One suggestion given in one of my early signing resources was to use signs
like COOKIE to mean what you want them to mean-so if an animal cracker is
acceptable, use the sign for COOKIE for it. Or DESSERT for yogurt or fruit
after a meal. I never managed it, mostly because my DD was verbal early and
picked up on the words for things I didn't particularly want her to have
signs for, but I did have a friend who managed to have her child asking for
raisins as CANDY until she was almost 3, before a relative slipped up and
gave the child candy when she asked for it (and at that point, the game was
over).

I used FRUIT, VEGETABLE, BREAD, CHEESE, and similar signs a lot when DD was
pretty young. I also ended up looking up signs for a lot of fruits and
vegetables, and creating a few (ALLIGATOR FRUIT for avocado, for example).

The Signing time discussion boards were a good resource for me when I needed
to know what a given sign was, since there are quite a few parents of deaf
preschoolers there, and they often have signs for everything. Unfortunately,
DD mostly stopped signing once she started talking well, and at 3, I don't
know how much she remembers.

"Welches" wrote in message
...
#3 decided today that he'd start signing (milk). He's gone from 1-2
daytime feeds to about every half an hour. Now I'm thirsty...
and I must make sure no one teaches him to sign "chocolate", that was a
big mistake with #2. Any idea for the sign for "healthy foods" anyone?
:-)
Debbie

We use words for what they are.
DD2 (and even DD1) both sign for what they want/need. There's a difference
between cookie and cracker, and since they know the difference between a
cookie and cracker, they sign both. I just go with what they are.
Something like "apple", "banana" and "snack" are easy enough to sign.
"Chocolate" isn't really in their vocabulary, unless as chocolate milk. If
simply "chocolate" was asked for, I would simply sign back with 'no
chocolate'.
"Snack" could be a simple sign for any healthy food. A snack doesn't always
have to be garbage or unhealthy. Snacks around here range from everything
from bananas and grapes down to cookies. When I see snack, I simply ask
what snack and give options if requests are not ones I care to meet (I have
had requests for some strange ones - cat food, is one that always comes to
mind lol)