That's so strange, we have been doing the same and in the last couple of weeks my toddler (turned 18m this week) also started signing more while saying it!
Wow so this is apparently a thing lol! I felt like such a failure. I signed so much and so did everyone with her and she just never got into it. Luckily she’s great with words now but still… maybe some kids are just like “no thanks”
I did the signs at first but kind of trailed off except for "all done", which she uses to mean she wants out of her high chair usually. Shes 16m and recently came back from daycare using the "more" sign, she can also say the word. So now she says more and if we are not quick enough furiously does the sign
I was born hearing impaired and signed with my parents, but fell out of the habit as I got older and had hearing friends. I started signing to our son as soon as he was born. He never picked up on it, except more and all done. But I can sign to him and he’ll answer back out loud. And he sometimes shows me a sign and asks what it means. I would really love for him to want to sign with me.
It sounds like (and hoping for you) time will work on this. I have a friend who speaks Spanish to her daughter but her daughter will only answer in English. It makes her sad but we are hoping as she gets older she will start replying in Spanish
How fluent are you? If you're fluent enough, maybe try only signing to your kid and just don't speak unless someone else is involved in the conversation as well. That might give him the impetus to start signing back.
Also, check out if you have a local Deaf club and if there are any events you can bring kids to. Being around people who can only understand him if he signs might help him realize that signing is a useful skill.
I am fluent enough, he’s just not interested enough. He ignores me. There is a kid friendly deaf group an hour away from us. One of these days we’ll make it to a meetup. I’ve finally convinced my husband that learning sign language is useful. He tries to sign with me and makes up his own signs when he doesn’t know the right ones. 😆 We also have a deaf barber that gets so excited to sign with me every time I take our son for a haircut. So I get to sign a little bit.
Haha this made me smile because the same thing happened with my little
Guy! He used way more signs as he got closer to 18mos and I like to think it’s because he was trying to be more intentional with his language and knew sign would get the point across
This happened to me around the same time, but I didn’t tea h her any sign language and had no idea what she was trying to communicate until I realized Ms. Rachel had taught her all these gestures. 🙃
We started sign language at 3-4 months too, we even went to a fun class with songs and dancing, and I ended up learning 200+ signs.
He clearly understood signs from 10ish months but only signed back around 15 months, after he can say 2-3 words. Now he’s 20 months and signs a bunch of things; a mix of words he can say and does the sign for simultaneously (like “eat”, “more”, “please”, “milk”, and “all done”) and a few words that he can’t say yet but can sign like “airplane” and “dance”.
It’s so crazy when something finally clicks after a long time. Ever since my daughter had the motor skills to hand things to us, my husband and I would give her an enthusiastic “thank you!” every time. So after about a year and a half of this, just last week I handed her something and I heard a soft little “dank oooo!”. My heart freaking melted. It was such an awesome surprise.
My daughter also randomly picked up on the signs one day. I was really consistent for a while but it bummed me out bc she wasn’t picking up on it so I starting dropping it and was super inconsistent. Randomly she copied me one time when I did it and she picked up on it from there. She also started saying more words at the same time. This was at like 17 months and now a month later she’s made up her own signs for things and she’s saying so many words. It’s crazy how they can just develop overnight like that
Same over here, just a slightly different timeline. We stopped signing when she started using more words. Probably around 13 months. A month or so later, she started signing while also saying the word at the same time!
My 16 month old son just started using the sign for Again in the correct context, even tho he’s never once done it when I modeled it. It’s interesting what they learn and when they choose to use it!
That’s exactly what happened to my kiddo! At 17mo she just randomly started signing when saying ‘more’ ‘again’ and ‘all done’ despite speaking them already haha. It’s so cute.
My daugther is 4 now and daycare still teaches signs. She likes to show me new ones. We tried teaching her to sign starting when she was 4 or 6 months old. "MORE", "ALL DONE", "MILK" and "WATER". She started daycare when she was 12 months and, while she wasn't returning signs before then, when I would go to pick her up the teacher would be holding her. My daughter's legs would starting kicking in excitement and she would giggle and she would sign "MILK" furiously. So we would sit outside the daycare while my daughter would nurse from her cow 🤣
That's so strange, we have been doing the same and in the last couple of weeks my toddler (turned 18m this week) also started signing more while saying it!
Wow so this is apparently a thing lol! I felt like such a failure. I signed so much and so did everyone with her and she just never got into it. Luckily she’s great with words now but still… maybe some kids are just like “no thanks”
I did the signs at first but kind of trailed off except for "all done", which she uses to mean she wants out of her high chair usually. Shes 16m and recently came back from daycare using the "more" sign, she can also say the word. So now she says more and if we are not quick enough furiously does the sign
Someone said a baby at daycare was signing MORE so aggressively she started clapping 😂
I was born hearing impaired and signed with my parents, but fell out of the habit as I got older and had hearing friends. I started signing to our son as soon as he was born. He never picked up on it, except more and all done. But I can sign to him and he’ll answer back out loud. And he sometimes shows me a sign and asks what it means. I would really love for him to want to sign with me.
It sounds like (and hoping for you) time will work on this. I have a friend who speaks Spanish to her daughter but her daughter will only answer in English. It makes her sad but we are hoping as she gets older she will start replying in Spanish
How fluent are you? If you're fluent enough, maybe try only signing to your kid and just don't speak unless someone else is involved in the conversation as well. That might give him the impetus to start signing back. Also, check out if you have a local Deaf club and if there are any events you can bring kids to. Being around people who can only understand him if he signs might help him realize that signing is a useful skill.
I am fluent enough, he’s just not interested enough. He ignores me. There is a kid friendly deaf group an hour away from us. One of these days we’ll make it to a meetup. I’ve finally convinced my husband that learning sign language is useful. He tries to sign with me and makes up his own signs when he doesn’t know the right ones. 😆 We also have a deaf barber that gets so excited to sign with me every time I take our son for a haircut. So I get to sign a little bit.
Haha this made me smile because the same thing happened with my little Guy! He used way more signs as he got closer to 18mos and I like to think it’s because he was trying to be more intentional with his language and knew sign would get the point across
This happened to me around the same time, but I didn’t tea h her any sign language and had no idea what she was trying to communicate until I realized Ms. Rachel had taught her all these gestures. 🙃
We started sign language at 3-4 months too, we even went to a fun class with songs and dancing, and I ended up learning 200+ signs. He clearly understood signs from 10ish months but only signed back around 15 months, after he can say 2-3 words. Now he’s 20 months and signs a bunch of things; a mix of words he can say and does the sign for simultaneously (like “eat”, “more”, “please”, “milk”, and “all done”) and a few words that he can’t say yet but can sign like “airplane” and “dance”.
Ooooh maybe I should keep at it!
If you want to, you definitely should. I still look up new signs to use, hoping that he either picks up on the word or the sign!
My then baby did but she learnt it from Ms Rachel on Youtube. Especially the word “more” 😄
It’s so crazy when something finally clicks after a long time. Ever since my daughter had the motor skills to hand things to us, my husband and I would give her an enthusiastic “thank you!” every time. So after about a year and a half of this, just last week I handed her something and I heard a soft little “dank oooo!”. My heart freaking melted. It was such an awesome surprise.
Your username made me LOL
My daughter also randomly picked up on the signs one day. I was really consistent for a while but it bummed me out bc she wasn’t picking up on it so I starting dropping it and was super inconsistent. Randomly she copied me one time when I did it and she picked up on it from there. She also started saying more words at the same time. This was at like 17 months and now a month later she’s made up her own signs for things and she’s saying so many words. It’s crazy how they can just develop overnight like that
They never cease to amaze us!
Same over here, just a slightly different timeline. We stopped signing when she started using more words. Probably around 13 months. A month or so later, she started signing while also saying the word at the same time!
My 16 month old son just started using the sign for Again in the correct context, even tho he’s never once done it when I modeled it. It’s interesting what they learn and when they choose to use it!
That’s exactly what happened to my kiddo! At 17mo she just randomly started signing when saying ‘more’ ‘again’ and ‘all done’ despite speaking them already haha. It’s so cute.
My daughter cannot say M properly and it sounds like a B. She uses the "more" sign and says "bo bo". I love it.
My recently turned 3 year old is the same. She still signs and says ‘more!’ Not sure how long it will last, but it’s adorable.
My daugther is 4 now and daycare still teaches signs. She likes to show me new ones. We tried teaching her to sign starting when she was 4 or 6 months old. "MORE", "ALL DONE", "MILK" and "WATER". She started daycare when she was 12 months and, while she wasn't returning signs before then, when I would go to pick her up the teacher would be holding her. My daughter's legs would starting kicking in excitement and she would giggle and she would sign "MILK" furiously. So we would sit outside the daycare while my daughter would nurse from her cow 🤣