This is one of those cheerful and proud moments in the life of often helpless parents, who try to make sense of the way their children (and in particular babys) behave. Often these little people that can’t express themselves and yet have so much that they want to tell you can only resort to crying and squeeling when it all gets too much for them.
Our little E has gained another way of letting us know what’s bothering her: she started signing. In a previous post on this I wrote how we taught our first daughter to sign and that it’s been an incredibly worthwhile thing to do (there are some links to more information in the post too, if you’re interested). But that it actually ‘works’ is something that I can never quite get my head around until they’re doing it. So when I started realising that E was using her hand consistenly in exactly the same way to signal when she wants a drink I was just blown away.
Now we can start to teach her a new word and expand her signing vocabulary a little, to make our life with a baby dying to express herselve a little easier still.
Whoever came up with the idea of teaching babys to sign must have been an incredibly smart person, who I’m forever thankful to.
Hi there,
I’m originally from Belgium but moved to the USA when I was 6. I started speaking English to my parents at home after a while instead of Dutch. My parents didnt want me to forget how to speak it so they simply told me they couldnt understand me. This worked for a few months (until I became smart enough to know that both my parents spoked English all day at work) but by that time I knew to speak Dutch at home. I still speak it fluently now (I’m 16)eventhough I do have trouble with certain words occasionally. I think it’s great that you’re trying to keep your kids bilingual. =-) It’s easiest to learn a new language when you’re younger. I’m not sure of any strategies to get them speaking both languages though. Hopefully with enough nagging they will do it on their own (depending of course on how old they are). I’m really glad my parents made me keep speaking Dutch at home, otherwise I would have very little contact with family in Belgium as none of them speak much English. Anyway, enough rambling. =-) Just wanted to let you know you’re doing a great thing. =-)
Hi Caroline,
thanks for visiting and thanks for the encouragement.
It’s always great to hear of success stories when it comes to bilingual child-rearing as it can be pretty disappointing at times.
Though having said this our kids are (still) very proficient in both languages.
Fran