The State of the Baba

[ailbhe]

Yesterday Rob brought Linnea swimming for the birthday party we attended; I sat at the side and watched them until they went and hid behind the pirate ship where all the currents are.

It looked great. We have to get her one of those baby floats that she can sit in; she borrowed one and adored it, though she did tend to paddle away from Daddy faster than he could catch her.

Today she said Mama. Several times. It seems to mean "I want acknowledgement or a cuddle or something nice to eat" or similar. She also said "Ban" distinctly, to mean banana; she's always said baBAba before. And "cat" is a very useful word, covering a range of things in the category "small and stroky".

I'm wondering whether she'll increase or decrease her signing as she uses more spoken words. We probably ought to investigate a class seriously, but I doubt there's one in easy public transport range. Last time someone phoned to ask if we were interested, Rob took the call, and I don't remember what was determined, because when he was asked how old she was, he said "Six months, but she's very advanced," and I was so horrified and hysterical that I gasped and laughed enough to drown out the rest of the conversation.

She is sleeping more, this weekend, than she used to. I hope it's not permanent, or two days a week Rob won't see her at all, rather than the 15-30 minutes he gets now.

This week, I am mostly really liking my house. It's a nice place to live. It's the way we want it, and it's easy to get to from anywhere with a major train station or an airport. I believe driving is more difficult, but almost none of the friends we have regular contact from are wedded to their cars anyway. Our house has just about the right number of books and the rooms are just about the right size for us and we have nice chairs to sit in.

The telly's too big, but that way lies marital disharmony, so I'll keep relatively quiet.

We're clearing out Rob's office to use as a bedroom for Linnea, because babies who can climb out of the bath will be climbing out of the cot soon.

Comments

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

She does signing? Can you tell me more about that?

[k425.livejournal.com]

just about the right number of books

Not a concept I'm familiar with, that...

You probably have a reason for wanting to a more formal course in signing, like meeting other signing parents/babies, but we just got a book from Waterstones. All we need is more consistency using the signs we've chosen.

The right number of books

[ailbhe]

They're not all the right ones, of course, but if Rob would let me replace some of his with *good* books, we'd be fine.

Re: The right number of books

[k425.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Even I'm not that harsh! Mind you, I reckon OldBloke's contribution to the library comes to roughly 2 Billy bookshelves. The rest of the 6 bookcases are all mine...

Signing? ¿qué?

[krabbe.livejournal.com]

So two people have commented on signing, and k425 has drawn a connection between "signing" and "classes".

Would you mind expanding on what you refer to with both? I had understood "signing" as her personal gesticulation- and pointing-based sign language, and had no clue what kind of classes you might be referring to - indeed, what occupation for a child of her age could be called a "class" (she appears to be learning to talk just fine, rather speedily at that, from your telling).

Please explain and make the world a less confused place...

Yours,

Confused in Munich^WDublin^WMountain View

Re: Signing? ¿qué?

[ailbhe]

It's based on adult sign language, and it's useful because babies want to talk long before they can coordinate those complicated mouth movements, and in - ah - spirited children, this leads to frustration and tantrums. The main ones we taught Linnea are to ask for breastmilk or a drink of water, but she understands a few more which she doesn't use, and she "tells" me in her own way when she needs a nappy change.

She does also point at things, but it's more versatile than that, and more specific.

The one we use is from a kit we got at tinytalk.co.uk but there are several systems. We could have made one up ourselves but it would have meant deciding on signs and remembering them; it's easier to be able to look them up.

Re: Signing? ¿qué?

[krabbe.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. Thinking about it, it sounds sensible. I might suggest looking at that to my godson (do you say that? LJ's spellchecker isn't complaining...), who's nine months now - his elder brother did get rather frustrated at times when he realized he didn't have the vocabulary for some immensely important thing to be communicated ("look! a thing on wheels like daddy has, just different!")

Re: Signing? ¿qué?

[k425.livejournal.com]

Babies understand spoken language far sooner than they can produce it, which can lead to communication problems in toddlerhood. It's been noted that children of deaf parents, and deaf children who are taught sign language from an early age, develop productive language quicker than spoken language, so people have started using sign language with babies in an attempt to increase their productive language at an earlier age.

Many babies develop their own non-verbal forms of communication but there's no harm in adding to the repertoire if they'll let you. YoungBloke will pat me on the chest when he wants a breastfeed but can't say when he wants a drink or is hungry - and despite using signs for these things he doesn't use them back. He also points a lot, but we noticed quite early on that while he'll point enthusiastically, he doesn't necessarily point at either what he wants, or what he's looking at, which can make it tricky to decide how to continue!

There are books, videos, DVDs and courses available to teach parents and babies signing and some nurseries use signing too. It all aids communication and this is no bad thing - many toddler tantrums can be put down to frustration because the toddler can't explain what they want, or how they're feeling.

Hi, by the way. I remember you from afp.