When we say sign in full sentences, it doesn’t mean signing every single word in a sentence. In fact, as we covered earlier, signing all the words in a sentence is unnecessary and counterproductive. Instead, signing in sentences means that when you teach a sign, you should phrase it into a sentence, say it out loud and sign the one key word only. You should then repeat the key word in several different sentences. Thus, if you want to teach the word BATH you wouldn’t just repeat the word BATH over and over again doing the sign, but instead, will say things like “Do you want to take a BATH?” and “It’s BATH time.” and then during the bath will say things like “We’re washing our body in the BATH” and once done “BATH time is over, time to dry and get dressed.” To teach the sign for CAT, you might say, “Look at the CAT isn’t he pretty”, “Watch the CAT walking”, “Do you want to go over and pet the CAT?” and so forth.
Full sentences gives a baby proper context which ends up being more effective than trying to teach just the signed word. Framing the context for your baby is half the reason they understand the word, and by doing so it gets tied to many additional words and ideas which will be remembered when you do the sign the next time. It is the full experience that a baby remembers when you teach signs in this way.
Above: In this signing marathon we sign TIME, SNAIL, WINDY, SONG, ORANGE, WHITE, FIX, PEACOCK, KETCHUP, PROUD, LAUGH, ME, PURPLE, BLACK, SOUR, SPICY, EXCUSE ME, RICE, FRIEND, DOCTOR, STORE, POLICE, GREEN and BYE.