I don't think I've told y'all that, in addition to working on speaking words, we are also teaching Maggie sign language to help her communicate. No, I am not fluent in ASL. I did take it in college, though, and remember enough basic signs that we decided to teach Maggie a few of them in an effort to help her better make her wishes known.
Most of her wishes are related to food, by the way.
Let me tell you, though: my girl is smart.
Yep, that is totally bragging but I don't care ... it's true! Not only is Maggie saying new words all the time, she picks up the signs we have taught her so quickly. Of course, with special attention paid to the food-related signs :)
'Milk', 'eat' and 'apple' are her current favorites. We are working on 'melon' and 'more'.
I'm pretty sure Maggie has hit a growth spurt the past couple of weeks because (1) have you noticed how long her legs have gotten? and (2) she uses the "eat" sign all day long and basically snacks her way to bedtime. The girl is putting away some groceries. 'Eat' is definitely the sign we see the most, followed closely by 'milk'.
The ASL has not hampered her speaking. It has only given her another tool as she learns to convey her needs and wants. The side benefit of that is fewer frustrations and little tempers :)
