Communication is so much fun and productive too since it’s one of the main skills we’ll all use throughout our lives. Signs is a stepping stone to the verbal channel, but it’s still fun to see the results of your labour.
I had been teaching my son various new signs and in the moment decided to combine the two. I set up some blocks and instructed him to WAIT. This sign wasn’t new but the sign for FALL DOWN was. You can see his sign approximation in the video. He doesn’t wiggle his fingers but he does his best. It’s interesting to see him show his restraint for a 16 month old. He literally adds this into his sign showing his entire body tense up. Obviously he understands the words, because you can tell he really wants to smash the tower to smithereens!
I taught him the sign for FALL DOWN by using one of his teddy BEARS. We’d both load it up in his front-end-loader then drop him to the ground. We’d repeat this several times doing the sign before, during and after the sequence. After just a few short minutes he did his approximation to the sign which included his finger touching his upturned palm. To make the concept more salient for him, I caught him falling down and did the sign after dusting him off. Now he understands that more than just teddy bears can FALL DOWN!