Ainsley's First Real Sign

During our many many months of speech therapy and watching Ainsley's every move for signs that she was understanding language I've never been 100% sure I've seen her do a sign in sign language. Ainsley started receiving therapy services when she was 4 months old. We started working on sign right away. At one time there was this all purpose sign she did that looked like hi, all done (with one hand) or milk. I was never sure. Or maybe she was doing three different signs but they all looked the same. She did learned to wave hi and bye but somehow that doesn't seem exactly the same. I'd kind of started to give up. Sometimes I would still sit down and do a Signing Time DVD with her. I still use some signs at home and they use them at school. But I wasn't sure if she was ever going to "get it".

For the past couple months our routine has been that we say goodnight to Evie and Adrian then I put her Ainsley on our bed and we read books. It's actually therapy in a way. But she loves books so she puts up with me bugging her for the most part. I'm trying to teach her body parts and we identify mommy's nose, Ainsley's nose, baby's nose, mommy's arm, Ainsley's arm, baby's arm etc etc. Word recognition of basic words like clothing, furniture, animals, cars, etc. How to nod yes or no using the fantastic book No No Yes Yes and we nod her head with every page. How to point by holding her hand into the right position to point at all the birds in Count the Birdies. She is good about her routines and picks up on them quickly and doesn't like changes too much. She LOVES her reading time.

We've been trying to teach her the sign for book over the last couple nights. Tonight I stood next to the books across the room and looked at her.

Mommy: "What do you want Ainsley?"
Ainsley: Smile.
Mommy: "Is there something over here that you want?"
Ainsley: Smiles and ducks her head like she's being coy.
Mommy: "What is it tell me." I stand around a minute or two.
Mommy: "If there's something you want show me the sign."
Ainsley: Puts her hands together in her lap like a clap clearly trying to immitate the sign for book as best she could with her motor skills.

I was SO excited and made a super big deal about it. Yay!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of my baby girl! You should have seen her grinning ear to ear. She knew she'd done something really special.