a baker's dozen ... um, plus one

In addition to Benjamin's first 6 signs, and his 7th (and his 8th, which I forgot in my original version of this post!), he now has a half-dozen more:

9. bath
10. cat
11. phone
12. hat
13. peas/ball*
14. finished (all done)
    

Bath, cat, peas, and finished are all actual ASL signs we've taught him. Hat and phone he made up. His made-up sign for hat (which he does while also speaking the word aloud) turns out to be the real ASL sign. For phone he just holds his hand to his ear. His mother thought he had an ear ache yesterday, but I pointed out that he does the sign whenever he sees or wants the mobile phone in my shirt pocket.

- papa

---

*

Benjamin first learned the sign for peas, one of his favorite foods. Nathalie would demonstrate the sign for him: holding out her left index finger to represent a pea pod, then touching it in 3 places to represent 3 peas in the pod. Benjamin's version was poking his index finger into the palm of his hand. Then he started using the sign for peas to indicate balls — and round objects in general. So we taught him the sign for ball, which involves touching your fingertips together, as if around a small ball. Now he balls up his fist and touches it repeatedly to the palm of his other hand hand. This still indicates peas, other round finger foods, balls, and helium balloons — anything (somewhat) spherical.