Struggling to teach DS 10 anything as he won't sit still long enough! Any tips?

[Hellisotherpeopleandhorlicks]

My DS is ten and a half months and lovely - smiley, sociable (a miracle considering how few people he's seen this year), chatty in a baby babble way.
He's been very focused on moving in the last couple of months, first crawling and pulling up and now constantly cruising and trying to walk, using me and anything else as a climbing frame.

His communication isn't as good - no real words yet and although he understands a few things (arms up, all gone, come to mummy, where's daddy etc) he's not really trying to gesture himself much.

I wanted to teach him baby sign so I've started that, and also try to teach him to bring me a toy etc but he doesn't sit still long enough! Even in the high chair, if there's no food he's trying to work out how to climb out 🙈 I sign for more and please and thank you etc during mealtimes but he's so eager for his food I'm not sure he even really clocks what I'm doing.

All our baby groups were cancelled in lockdown and haven't reopened so I don't have anything I can take him to for a change in environment.

Does anyone have any tips on things I can do or try?

Let him climb, explore, investigate. You can talk to him as he's moving. Keep signing, but fit it in when he is receptive rather than planning it in as an activity. Get a pop up tunnel for him to crawl through.
The only thing you will achieve if you try to force him to sit still is frustration on both sides.

Nothing to do with him being a ‘boy’. He is a ten month old human. He needs to explore, physically find out about his world, listen to language and see faces.
Baby signing is brilliant but doesn’t need sitting down and teaching. Just sign when you speak to him e.g ‘you want your milk!’ (Sign milk as you say it). Don’t try to get him to watch and copy you repeatedly.

I thought ten years old told 😂

Op babies don't sit and learn, they learn through movement.. Doing.. Tasting.. Putting.. Trying, exploring.. Anything but sitting still really.

I thought you meant 10 years old! Your 10 month old is a baby, you really should not expect him to be sitting still to learn stuff at that age.

Babies learn by doing, touching, feeling, playing, moving - let him do as much of that as he wants. Pick him up and dance with him, take him out for long walks, tickle him play with him.

You can encourage language skills by taking to him all the time, tell him what your are doing, seeing, why you are doing something. When you give him things tell him what they are and if you know the sign, use it as you are talking to him. Singing nursery rhymes is a fantastic way for children to hear and feel the rhythm of words and language and if you know signs, use them whilst you are singing.

Children assimilate absolutely everything going on around them, so give him lots to hear, play and see you don't need to do anything formal he will naturally just pick things up. 10 months is very young to be speaking at all what he should be doing is making lots and lots of sounds that will eventually lead to speech, on average babies can say 1 to 3 words by the time they are 12 months old, although they may understand more than that.

Lastly, relax and enjoy your baby!

My nearly 10 year old doesn't sit still which is interesting when home learning is required...

At 10 months old they learn by doing. They do not sit and learn. That gets phased in gradually through the nursery years to y1. Babies just learn by being in stimulating surroundings and pick things up gradually at different rates according to what intersts them.

By 2 it starts balancing up. Developmentally normal children will be walking (whether they crawled or not) and they will be aquiring and using speech and joining words.

9-18m has a vast spread with many being "walkers" or "talkers" or any combination between the two, but most babies tend to focus on a set of skills at a time rather than trying to do everything.

Would you attempt to teach him English by sitting still?

Keep using the signs, he'll pick it up as he explores.

I didn't mean I try to make him sit still, I just mean because he is so busy and active he didn't watch me make the signs

He'll just do what his brain is ready to develop at the time. If he's prioritising moving over sitting and watching and developing communication, that's fine and normal.

He's a baby. Don't be a pushy parent. Allow him to develop in his own time.