Signing hurt and help, part 2

Part 2: Help

All week I've been focusing hard on not just saying "do you need help?" and making the 'HELP' sign to Otter whenever he fussed to get assistance with some toy, but also waiting for him to respond to my question. He would say "Uehp" (hard to render in actual English phonemes; it's a cross between an "eh" and an "uh" sound), and then I would show him how to make the 'HELP' sign with his hands, placing one fist on his other palm and using the palm hand to raise the fist hand.

Over the course of the week, he began to do this sign on his own, although he hasn't mastered the flat palm part, and just grips both hands together and raises them. This is neat, and once he gets it and starts doing it instead of the fussing noises, our house and his temper will both be much improved.

This Sunday morning, I slept in, and G took Otter into the living room to play (and hooray for partners who do this; we alternate weekend days so that we each get to sleep in one day a week). While they were playing, Otter pulled out a fabulous board book by Mary Murphy called "I Like It When". On one page, the text reads "I like it when you let me help" and shows a little penguin with a rake trotting beside a big penguin with a dustpan. When G and Otter got to that page, before G read any of it, Otter said "uehp" and made the 'HELP' sign. This is pretty neat, as he's responding not to the pictures (we've never used 'HELP' in any sort of raking situation; I suspect Otter's never seen a real-life rake) but to the text. He remembered that this page was about "help" and connected that to the sign.

It's fascinating seeing a child acquire language. This month's been a big one for that: he said "dog" today for the first time, and signed 'CAT' for the first time. That one is especially interesting to me as he's been able to say both "cat" and "kitty" for a couple of months. Stories we'd heard fomr other parents doing signs with their kids had suggested that kids dropped the sign for something virtually as soon as they could make the word, out of efficiency: it's (acocording to this theory) easier or quicker to say than to sign something. I had been saddened to think Otter would give up his signs as soon as he could say more words; now it looks as if that may not be the case.

I read in "Einstein Never Used Flash Cards" that kids, once they have about fifty words, hit a veritable explosion of language acquisition, asking perpetually "what zat?" and averaging about nine new words a day learned... I can feel that tsunami coming, and hope we can respond with patience to the perpetual requests for labelling, and can keep up with his recent requests not just for the words for things but also for the signs. We may be the ones signalling 'HELP.'