Little Miss Chatterbox

Now of course, our daughter is a genius. She might have taken longer than most of her peers to crawl and walk, but she is a walking My First Dictionary.

OK so I am bias and stretching the truth a little, but I'll show off her communication skills anyway ;-) For those of you who don't see Lucy often and only get glimpses of her on Skype, here is a list of the words she is saying -

Daddy

Mama

Baby

Bye bye
Please - 'peese'
Thank you - 'peese'

Bubble - 'bubboo'
No - 'noooo' (in a true Yorkshire accent!)
Yes - 'Yeh'
Elmo (Joe, since you left she has mastered a coherent 'Elmo')
Television - 'tee' (while bouncing)
Cheese - 'tcheese'
Juice - 'ju'
Poo - 'poo poo'
Man - 'ma'

Boy - 'buh'

Granpa - 'pa' (said a couple of times on Jan 15th)

Cow - 'moooo'

Sheep - 'baa'

Bird - 'bah'

Thanks to some wonderful baby sign language books given to me by Laurie at my shower (a series of board books 'My First Baby Signs' by Acredolo and Goodwyn), Lucy has also mastered baby signing. The books are themed (animal, mealtime, home, first signs...) and each page has a photo of an object and a baby doing the sign to match. So Lucy looks at the baby, relates to him, sees the object and mimics the sign. We have been amazed at how quickly she has picked it up and have added to the initial collection of three books that Laurie gave us. So far Lucy can sign -

Eat - Drink/Cup - All gone - More (also used for 'I would like xx') - Hot - Cold - Happy - Dog -Cat - Fish - Frog - Butterfly - Mouse - Horse - Bird - Toothbrush - Hat - Ball - Flower - Baby

I started teaching Lucy to sign because I really buy into the idea that it reduces the frustration that a baby must feel when trying to communicate. Being able to sign enables them to communicate effectively sooner than they can talk, which can increase their self-esteem and confidence. I thought at first it might hinder her talking skills, but it seems to have only helped in that department too.

At the moment we're looking at a book of 'feeling' signs to help teach her emotions like happy, sad, scared, hurt and sick, amongst others. It's a bit more challenging but she has picked up 'happy', so we're getting there. It would be great if she could have told me last weekend...'I have gastroenteritis and I feel really sick Mummy'. Her bodily actions spoke louder than her signs and words...