Signs for Mealtime Favorites
There are some foods that babies and toddlers just love to eat. It usually takes almost no cajoling to get a child to eat these foods. Therefore, your baby may be highly motivated to learn and use these signs. For this reason, they may be good food signs to introduce to your baby early on. Signs like MACARONI are especially good for toddlers who are learning to speak but have not yet been able to master multisyllabic Italian words.
CEREALThere are actually a couple of accepted American Sign Language signs for CEREAL. The one that will probably be the easiest for your baby to form is shown in Figure 12–6.
FIGURE 12–6
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1. Hold your left hand in front of your body, palm up.
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2. Use your right first and middle fingers to “scoop” something out of your palm and bring it to your mouth.
The sign for CHEESE (
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1. Bring the heels of both hands together.
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2. Rotate them back and forth a few times as if mashing something between your hands.
The sign is actually intended to represent squeezing the excess liquid out of freshly made cheese.
EGGThe sign for EGG (
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1. Extend the first two fingers of both hands to form the letter U.
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2. Bring your extended fingers together to form an X in front of your body.
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3. Pull your hands away from each other and down toward the floor.
The sign should resemble cracking an egg into a bowl.
PEANUT BUTTERThe sign for PEANUT BUTTER (
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1. Put the pad of your thumb behind your top front teeth.
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2. Pull it outward a few inches from your body. This is the sign for PEANUT.
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3. Next, hold your left palm out in front of you.
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4. Run the tips of your first two fingers on your right hand over your left palm as if spreading something on your palm. This is the sign for BUTTER.
Let your child watch as you spread peanut butter on bread. If you feel particularly ambitious, offer him a plastic knife or even a spoon and allow him to spread the peanut butter on the bread. While he spreads, be sure to demonstrate the sign.
E-ALERT
Some children are highly allergic to peanuts. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending waiting until a child is at least one year old before offering him peanut butter. If he has a history of allergies or has family members with food allergies, the AAP suggests holding off on peanut butter until three years of age.
Once your baby gets the hang of the sign for MACARONI (see Figure 12–7), don’t be surprised if he signs it at every meal.
FIGURE 12–7
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1. Hold both hands in front of you with index fingers and thumbs extended.
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2. Narrow the space between the index finger and thumb of each hand to approximately the width of a noodle.
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3. Outline a macaroni noodle in front of your body.
Although a baby cannot live on macaroni alone, give it to him when he asks as often as possible, particularly when he first learns the sign.
