If you’ve skipped right to this chapter, it’s likely because you have encountered a specific issue with signing. If not, then you’re probably reading to prevent issues from developing in the first place by being preemptive. Either way, you are in the right place!
This chapter was created to deal with the most common pitfalls and stumbling blocks with respect to signing with your baby. While signing is pretty straight forward, there are some usual suspects when things go awry – which occasionally happens. Since signing is a mix of art and science, we can usually apply a bit of tact and creativity to solve any problem that surfaces. Usually problems in signing are perceived, rather than real, which should immediately put you at ease. Thankfully, signing “issues” have more to do with parent’s misconceptions about what signing should look like when done by babies. In most cases, parents will simply be advised to carry on signing and modeling the correct signs while allowing junior to catch-up on his own.
Read along to find out what to do when: baby seems to not want to sign, uses the same signs for everything, when signs start all looking similar, signs which were used suddenly drop from your baby’s vocabulary, you fail to add motivating signs your signing program, or you feel like giving up altogether. That’s just the short list. This chapter covers much more. Aside from the general techniques spelled out in previous chapters, this troubleshooting chapter is probably the next most important because it can quickly dispel myths about signing, and suggest corrective measures to put your mind at ease.
Above: Talking about what we’ll see going outside in the snow. I get to pick his brain to see what he can remember about winter stuff, like the neighbourhood CATS, SNOWBALLS, BIG and SMALL SNOWPLOUGH before being ALLDONE (he says “no more”)!