to save you all the pain of listening, I'll just do the tips.
- kids with receptive delays tend to learn nouns first.
- the next thing to teach is the basic prepositions because they can be demonstrated very very physically and give the child an early opportunity to give commands ("shoes off!"). A jack-in-the-box is good for "in" and "out"
- if they mix up "up" and "down", consider not teaching opposite concepts at the same time. Be happy with "down" meaning both up and down for a while.
- Avoid using pictures at this stage especially for active "doing" children. Kids are likely to miss your point if you use pictures.
- It's very easy to teach mistakes. If you say "choo choo" every time the train goes, he may start to think that "choo choo" means "go". BUT that is actually good news because it means he is processing the concept "to go" and that is therefore the next thing you should teach. So sometimes their mistakes made imitating you give good clues as to what they are ready for [this was interesting for me because DS2 uses "all aboard" as a verb].
6 teachmetotalk.com under "sign language" has a list called "first 100 words" with suggested first verbs.
- verbs. start with eat. verbs starting with a vowel are sometimes easier to say. a child who found it easy to say "uh oh!" when he couldn't say anything else is likely to benefit from using lots of vowels.
- avoid flashcards with verbs. do the action.
- wash is a good early verb. also kiss, open, close, (use either close or shut -never combine them), push [always say it as if you are pushing something really heavy that is making you puffed out], pull,[ditto - convey the physical effort] fix (the sign for fix is too hard for this age), broke(n). It is good to accompany these with signs which can be home made. Also play, cuddle, hurt (a bit later), "gimme" "want", "allgone", "dance", "help", [always say it as if you are in trouble], "fall", "shake", "see", "look" (a good power word for the child) "sit down" "stand up" "catch", "blow" (pretend food is hot)"cry", "swing", "slide", "climb" "ride", "rock", "come", "draw/write/colour" (choose one - write is the easiest to say)
10. do not object to your child learning "I want" for fear of rudeness. do not try to teach "please can I have" instead
11. In conclusion, exaggerate your actions as you demonstrate the verbs - you should be very goofy - and keep your utterances short and sweet. "Dog up!" is better than "put the doggy up the slide, he wants to go up the slide" for, say a 2 1/2 year old with receptive language delay.
12. don't believe you have to use the adult models. they haven't worked yet have they?
Crikey this is long, will post this in case I delete.