You’re Your Baby’s Model ~ Courtney

Remembering that you are always a model for your signing child gets a little more difficult the more he begins to sign.  Most of my baby’s signs are approximations.  For example, his sign for COOKIE has never resembled the cookie cutter that it should.  Rather, he touches just his index finger against the palm of his other hand while saying “cookie.”  Likewise, he says “water” and puts his index finger to his lips instead of the W sign.  I know exactly what he wants and because I see these signs several times each day, I have caught myself signing back to him using his approximations!  Even though it seems as though these versions have stuck with baby, I feel it’s important to continue to sign the correct sign to him.  Some people will advocate for home signs, but we believe that it is more beneficial to teach our baby ASL.  He doesn’t say cookie or water correctly yet either, but that doesn’t mean we mispronounce it back to him.  We provide him with the proper model in both languages.