The problem with baby sign language, or in this case toddler sign language, is that a toddler's signs don't tend to be all that much clearer than her spoken words.
Eliane now has at least 11 signs:
Goodbye/good night
Hello (same as goodbye)
Thank you
Eat
Drink
Sleep/nap
Yes
No
Elephant
Fish
Duck/quack
Mummy-milk
Plus she blows kisses as part of her goodbye/goodnight routine.
But. Fish, for instance, is surprisingly similar to elephant, and remarkably dissimilar to my version of fish. I can't imagine anyone but me and *maybe* Chris would have a hope of recognising it.
Drink, thank you, and sleep are all quite similar, although sleep *can* be more to the side of her head than the other two and drink is starting to differentiate itself too.
Sometimes she does something a lot like quack that I'm sure means something else but I'm not sure what.
Anyway, she's picking them up about as quickly as we add them, which is a lot more quickly than she's picking up recognisable spoken words.
Actually I think all our kids have been a bit slow with spoken words, maybe because they were also so slow to take to eating solid foods. In Liam's case, once he really got going, from about 20 months, his speech was very clear and developed quickly. In Mikaela's case though, her speech was less clear and she's ended up with a slight delay with a lot if her consonants and blends. For instance, right up until almost the end of last year, at four and a half, she would say Mitaela for Mikaela, take for cake and poon for spoon. She has all those sounds down now, but I think there are still a few blends she struggles with. Anything with 'r' in it for instance.
Meanwhile Eliane barely says any consonants at all. She can say mamam, numnum, nay (as in a horse), and occasionally says dadad, but that's about it. For meow (probably her favourite word) she says eeow or ow; for woof she says oof, etc. She hasn't said 'b' yet at all I don't think, which is usually a very early sound.
I'm really not sure what Liam was saying at this age, except that I know one of his first regular words was flower and it came out more like booer or even oower. I think I'm much more conscious of it now because of Mikaela's delay. However, I am a bit concerned, so I am planning on taking both girls to have their hearing checked by the MACH nurses soon (once we're all over the nasty cold/chest infection we've been wrestling for the past two weeks!), and see what they say.
In the meantime, I'm very glad that we have been doing sign language with Elli, however incomprehensible her signs might be to others. At least she can communicate her basic needs to us.
