Communication Skills

these are the exact words that nate has been signing to me

I found out something truly amazing today.

Ok. I don't mean to compare my son to gorillas and chimpanzees and Orang Utans again but you know how that famous lady researcher Dr. Jane Goodall, who studied Gorillas spent years teaching them sign language? Yes. Those gorillas were able to communicate with her through those simple hand signals because they didn't speak any language. Nate has been signing to communicate with me. Ever since i put him at his infant care when he was all of 3 months, the care givers would tell me that they would teach him and his classmates sign language as a form of communication. I always thought learning how to use sign language was a very useful life skill to have but left it at that. I tried learning the alphabet with classmate Lesley long ago while in primary school and it's stuck with me ever since. I think it's way cool and have a lot of respect for people who have to use it in real life.

Recently, I've been trying to get nate to say a couple of words because he's showing signs of babbling and he's always trying to talk to me and get my attention to his needs. The one word which i'm very particular about is the word "Please" of which is very advanced and he can't say it even if he tried at 19th months old. So... for some reason, everytime i asked him to say please, he would put his right hand on his heart. My folks and I were puzzled but i left it. As long as he knew he needed to submit before getting what he wanted, he got the concept.

Next instance came when i was about to finish feeding him and i was asking him if he wanted some more. He would then close up all the fingers on each hand, and make the fingertips touch each other (see diagram) and then make a fuss if i didn't give him more food. The third instance came when he started putting his hand to his chin when he was hungry, looking desperately at my dad.

I had the chance to meet up with Siti, one of my friends and a care giver at the day care and she confirmed with me what nate was trying to say. And he was spot on. Those were the very words they've been teaching him. And he remembers. He understands. A MILESTONE! YAY.

My son uses sign language to communicate with me. I'm so proud of him and i'm quite blown away that 16months later, he remembers these things and suddenly the phase lag ends. It's interesting and i'm still trying to reconcile this whole idea that I can communicate with him for real as opposed to just assuming what he wants.