Baby Sign Language

Baby Sign Language
Sign Language is something you teach your baby in order to help them communicate and lessen their frustrations as they learn how to talk.  There is research showing that hearing babies who use sign have a larger vocabulary than those babies who do not. When you teach your child signs, it is important to teach signs that will be meaningful to you and them.  One of the first signs I taught Max was "more" and did it over a few meals when he began to love to eat.  He picked it up pretty quickly.  Here is how I did it.  
I started by signing more right before I would give him another bite and then feed it to him immediately after the sign.
Next, I did hand over hand to teach him 'more' and then he would do it with my help right before I fed him.  We spent a bit of time on this step.  
He then began to do it spontaneously and when he did, I would reward him with verbal praise and, of course, more food.  I would encourage him by signing along with him and saying "more" if I knew he wanted more food but got stuck.  

Max signing "please" when asking for more meatballs.

Once he was able to say "more", he no longer used the sign unless we were not listening to him and he really wanted something.  He also tended to generalize "more" for "again" when playing. This happened with "ball", "book", "please" , "shoes" and "cheese" as well.

Max signing "Thank you" and being a little silly at snack

As you could see, he doesn't quite have the whole sign process for "thank you" down, but he is putting his flat hand up to his face, with the intention of signing "Thank you".  When I have an extra free hand, I will help him pull his hand down from his face.  By the way, that day he ate a whole avocado for snack along with blueberries, meatballs, and cheese.  I think he must be growing!

Here are a few baby signs that you might want to start with, but there are many books and websites that have a lot of baby signs.  I might have to invest in a book to really teach Max and keep up with his interest in signing.  We got a little signing book from the library last week and he loves looking at it.  He is trying the signs "daddy" (which he can say) and "phone" (he now uses remotes and my cell phone to help him with this sign).  He even picked up the pretend phone while at the pool to call Daddy.  It was really sweet.

http://jungandlittleone.blogspot.com/2011/02/cute-signing-babybaby-sign-language.html

Falafel and feta yogurt sauce

Since most of Max's favorite foods are in the shape of balls, I decided to see if he would like falafel.  This is one of my favorite foods and I could eat this every week if Paul liked it a little more. You need to plan ahead for this meal since the chick peas need to soak overnight. You do not need to precook them or hull the shells for this recipe.

2 cups of dried chick peas, soaked overnight and drained

1 onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

3 T ground flax

juice of 1 lemon

1-2 t cumin

1 t cayenne pepper

2 t baking soda

handful of herbs of choice (I like parsley or cilantro the best)

salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in the food processor and pulse until everything is chopped and mixed up.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and for balls of falafel.  I used a small cookie scoop and that worked really well.  Bake at 375 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve with feta yogurt sauce (see below).  It can be eaten on pita, tortilla or on a salad.

Feta Yogurt Sauce

1 cup plain yogurt (drain if using regular yogurt to make thick like greek yogurt)

1/2 c crumbled feta

juice of 1 lemon

splash of red wine vinegar

1 t dried oregano

salt and pepper to taste

I don't usually measure the amounts of things I use, so add more feta or acid depending on how you like it.  You can also add cucumber if you want to make it more like a tzatziti sauce.

Now a final picture of Max reading with Daddy as well as Auntie Lo's kitty, Elbee.

Speech Sound Development

Sorry it has been a while since I posted something new.  Paul has been home after almost 10 days of traveling and Alicia and Louisa were in Wisconsin, not to mention the Olympics have started.  Hopefully, this has been worth the wait!  Here is one of my favorite pictures of Max and Lou during their Wisconsin visit.

Thanks to Alicia for this great photo!

Speech Sound Development
I get many questions from parents of 2, 3, and 4 year olds about their child's speech sounds (or lack thereof).  Often times the questions are:  "My kid can't say their 's', 'sh', 'v' sounds",  "Should I have them evaluated or get them speech therapy?".  The answer I typically give them is, "No, these sounds are difficult for children to say and don't expect these sounds to be mastered until ages 6, 7, or 8".  Boys and girls will develop speech sounds at different rates as well.  Boys tend to develop language and speech a little bit slower than girls, so don't compare the two groups.  Here is a speech sound development chart.

From http://smithspeechlanguage.wikispaces.com/articulation

By the age of 3 or 4, children should be marking all of the parts of a word (beginning, middle and end consonants).  They do not necessarily need to be saying each sound correctly, but we want them to have place holders for the sounds.  Here are a few examples.

Target Word                          What child says

cat                                          tat

step                                        tep

tree                                        tee

If words end in 'r', your child may not mark this sound.  Words like "chair", "fur", "bear" all end if a vocalic 'r', where the 'r' acts almost like a vowel.  As your child begins learning different speech sounds, they may just end these type of words with the vowel or with the 'w' sound, which is fine. If it bothers you, you can always move to the East Coast :)

Activity: Speech Sound Bag

Sound bag:  Each week choose a new sound to focus on.  Fill a bag (like a pillow case) or a box with things that have that sound in them.  It is usually easier to start with the initial sound, since that is what kids hear first, but you can also include item that have the target sound at the middle or end.  As your child pulls things out of the bag (or box), you name them, putting a little more emphasis on the target sound.  

Here is how an interaction with the target /b/ might work.

(Child pulls out a ball)

Parent: "Ball, You found a ball." 

Parent: "You have a blue ball.  The blue ball bounces.  It is a big, blue ball.  Let's bounce the ball. Bounce, bounce, bounce."

Then you can take a turn pulling out an object.  All you are looking for is for is your child to make to target sound, not necessarily the whole word.  Get really excited when he or she does say the sound and even more excited if he or she says the whole word.

I would start with sounds that your child already knows and then progress to early sounds that he or she does not have yet.

Recipe:
This creation can be used in a variety of ways.  For the Max, I just saute up zucchini and black beans with a little bit of cumin and lime juice.  He scoops it up and eats it by handfuls.
Here is a more adult version that can be used in enchiladas, tacos, or nacho toppings.  I sometimes add eggs and make breakfast burritos with the filling.

1 onion, red or white, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
1-2 cans of black beans, rinsed or 2-3 cups cooked black beans
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lime
1-2 t cumin
salt and pepper to taste


Heat a pan with olive oil and saute onions and garlic for about 2 minutes, or until translucent.  Add zucchini.  Cook until zucchini is tender.  Add salt, pepper, cumin during each step.  Add black beans and cook until hot.  Add lemon and lime juice.  You may need to add more lime juice depending on how many beans you use.
When we use the insides to make enchiladas, we use Frontera Grill Enchilada Sauce and top with cheddar cheese.  


Dessert:
This is a delicious cookie recipe that was originally created by one of Max's favorite people, Ariyl Doran.  She is one of the best bakers I know.  I modified the recipe to be gluten-free and they are still delicious!  We brought them over to a friend's house for dinner last week and her family raved about them.  She emailed me for the recipe the next day since they had eaten all of the cookies!

Almond and Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 c butter
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg
Blend all above ingredients together then add:
1 c Gluten-free flour 
1 t xanthum gum (helps keep it chewy)
1 c almond flour
1 c rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt


Finally add 1-2 cups of chocolate chips.  Scoop onto parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes at 325-350 degrees.

And now, a final picture of Mr. Max, eating a nectarine.