WARNING!

WARNING!

:: warning! warning! ::

If you teach your daughter sign language, she may wake you up at 3am and wildly insist that she wants to brush her teeth.

Thought you'd want to know.


:: questions answered ::
the move
I'm moving soon. Most of the archives have been sifted and reorganized. Mark is sick so the fancy-shmancy part has to wait until after TurkeyDay. I'm hoping to unveil soon :)

sign language
Short version - Rio was diagnosed with torticollis at 2 months. We've been in physical therapy ever since (14 months and counting) for all the things that go along with that particular affliction. Due to her hobbled start, she has a gross motor development delay of 2 - 3 months. That is why she is doing the physical stuff 'late'. She is just getting up and around walking, she didn't sit up unassisted until 8 months, crawling took a while....all those things. I'm eternally grateful that if something has to be 'wrong', that this is it. Part of a gross motor development delay is a delay in speech. No one knows why, but most kids don't really start talking until they are pretty good with the walking. Something to do with the processes of the brain....so, we decided to sign with her. I've been doing certain signs since she was 6 months old. I'd have to track back to see her progression, but she has quite a stable of 'words' to choose from. She rarely cries from frustration because she's pretty able to clearly 'say' what she wants!

Once in a while she'll spit out a sentence. For example, Boobah took a truck that Rio was playing with and Rio looked at me all shocked and said clear as a bell, "My truck!". Haven't heard it again since. I have the feeling that she'll just open her mouth one day and start quoting Shakespeare or rapping, yo, but for now, she's pretty quiet.

So, we sign. And it works for us. "Studies show" that there are no negatives associated with the signing. When kids are ready, they simply drop the signs for the words. Even if Rio was as advanced in her speech as she is in her comedic timing, she probably wouldn't be able to articulate, "I'd like to get up, have a drink and brush my teeth" yet. Especially at 3am. :)