The sign for FOOD

Once we started weaning, I would sign ‘food’ to Etta whenever offering food.

Signing food is how babies tell us that they are hungry (I've not seen a baby pick up the sign for hungry before the sign for food).

Food is a brilliant sign - it does what it says on the tin! It is the action of putting food in your mouth so it’s a movement babies will be doing already if they are feeding themselves - which makes it easy to link the action to asking for food from us when they are hungry.

Here is Etta’s first attempt at signing ‘food’.

INTRODUCING DIFFERENT FOOD SIGNS

At the same time as introducing the sign for food - I started signing some key food signs that we used most often such as broccoli, apple and banana. I wasn’t sure if she’d learn these but she loved watching the signs - it was fun for us both. And, as she was in her highchair, I really had her attention. I wish I’d filmed more of her reaction to the signs- but at the time I had no idea I’d go on to teach baby sign language!!! Hopefully you can see her excitement at the signs in the video here….

It’s important to remember that babies won’t always do the sign 100% correctly. It is just like with language - they don’t always say a word correctly when developing speech. For example, Etta would say ‘wa wa’ for water and she still says ‘cop cop’ for ‘helicopter’. I understand her and we’re communicating - it’s part of the process (and also, super cute!!!).

Babies will often know the placement of a sign (e.g. that mummy is signed on the head) but might not get the handshape (three fingers, for mummy) correct until they are a little older. They might just use their whole hand to tap on their head to sign ‘mummy’.

It’s down to us to praise and encourage them but to keep showing them the correct sign. It will eventually fall into place!

This clever signer demonstrates this well with the sign for broccoli - which you’ll have seen me sign to Etta in the previous video. So impressed with this signing from such a little one!!

BABIES ASKING FOR MORE

Parents tell me that their baby learning the sign for MORE was a gamechanger - and it was the same for me with etta! It is so much easier to know your baby wants more - without them getting upset and resorting to crying.

To teach her the sign, I’d say ‘would you like some MORE’ - emphasising the word and doing the sign and offering her more food. If she’d take it, I’d say ‘ahhh you’re having MORE’ - again emphasising the word and showing the sign. Again, she didn’t do the sign exactly as I was showing her but had her own version she’d use. It was SO useful at mealtimes - but, to my surprise, she started using it at other times! For example, she’d sign ‘more’ if she wanted me to sing a song again or story again or swing her up high again. She did eventually learn the sign for ‘again’ but it was so fascinating to see her using the sign in contexts I hadn’t imagined!

SIGNING ‘PLEASE’ & ‘THANK YOU’

Again, the results of this were unexpected for me when I started signing with Etta. It was funny when she started signing it to other people to say please or thank you - those who didn’t know sign language thought she was blowing them kisses and would blow kisses back! They were always embarrassed when I explained she was actually signing so I wasn’t sure if I should just let them think she was blowing kisses for having brought her food! I know this has happened to other parents too - it’s very cute!

USING THE SIGN FOR ‘HOT’

This is an important safety one. Once she’d learnt the sign, she’d use it to ask if the food I’d put in front of her was hot!

REMEMBER…

The most important thing to remember is to keep it fun and not worry about remembering too many signs or if they’re not signing back. Definitely introduce some signs but you don’t have to do all the above - I did because I was sort of experimenting with Etta!

There’s songs and stories on my YouTube channel to make it fun and help them learn away from the highchair too. Including The Very Hungry Caterpillar….

And Jelly on a Plate!

I’d say if you just take one sign away - introduce the sign for ‘more’ with them. After milk, it was the second most useful sign for me and Etta!

Let me know how you get on!