Thank God for Sign Language
This poll is from Babycenter.com about how toddlers (specifically for those 15 months old) communicate with their parents. Yes, Sophia whines and cries like the best of them. But it was really surprising to realize that those are not her primary (or favorite, as the polls suggests) ways to get our attention, and that she is in the 7% minority. Most of the time, she would prefer to sign* what she wants. Despite only speaking about five words, she can probably sign about 50. And that has made all the difference with tantrum control. I assure you, she still knows how to throw a good fit, but luckily, when one starts we can usually diffuse it pretty quickly by asking her what she wants with signs (or by just distracting her by asking her what the signs for her favorite things are).
Again I say: thank God for sign language!
*For more info on teaching your child sign language (at any age!) , check out this great book/DVD set and the show Signing Time on PBS.
[…] I write one little post about my peaceful life filled with baby sign language and quiet communication with my toddler and the People for the Distribution of Fairness in Parenting (find a local chapter near you!) send me a big gift basket filled with humble pie. Of course there is no such group. But I assure you, if there were they would have been knocking at my door. “Excuse me, Ma’am? We hear your daughter is pretty mellow and generally doesn’t whine? Well now, we can’t be having too much of that. That’s just not fair for the rest of us, lady.” (These groups like to call people lady and ma’am. Don’t ask me. When people start organizing, they get all proper.) […]