How do you teach certain baby signs?

[Karmamother]

My DD has learnt a few signs & I was wondering what was the best way to teach the signs for finished & pain. For finished, do you use the sign when you think they've finished their meal? For pain, if its not easily apparant that they're in pain to start with, how do you get them to associate the sign with pain? (IYSWIM)

Also, what is the sign for pain? I'd be grateful for your help.

bump

we use pain sign when he bumps his head and we say ouch for him. hes starting to use it himself.

the sign for pain is, i think, tips of index fingers pointing together over the area that hurts.

Use the signs when its appropraite ie when the meal is finished sign finished. With pain sign it when the are obviously in pain eg bumped head etc they soon get it

The sign for pain is to point to the pain/bump/whatever with your left hand and shake your right hand (with fingers loose) - a bit as if you were shaking it after rapping it sharply by mistake.

I think you need to be opportunistic to teach it - just sign it whenever your DD bumps herself/has obvious teething pain/pricks herself on a cactus/whatever.

Try acting - pretend to hurt yourself and then do the sign for pain - it might make your dd laugh even if she doesn't learn the actual sign for a while!

And for finished, use it at the end of a game, book or telly, maybe.

Thanks for your help. It's interesting that some words have slightly different signs. I think its great that, basically, you can use any sign you like if it feels appropriate. The first sign I tried to teach her was for drink. After 2 months (& no signs were forthcoming) I was on the verge of giving up when I realised she had been signing it for ages, but not as I was teaching her. Instead of signing a cup to mouth gesture, she was flicking her lower lip with her index finger.

Are there many variations of the sign for finished? I know of the sign for all gone, is it the same? I've been using the Linda Acredolo book, btw.

bumping for today's crowd

my youngest uses signs.as mentioned before,we just use them when the opportunityy arises,to teach new ones.i normally repeat the sign and the word a few times, and my SALT said its fine to move their hands like it too,but only once IYSWIM.

it works well for us.we do finished food,finished painting,book finished,etc etc.

HTH

oh and my ds doesnt have every sign perfect,we just interpret what hes 'saying' and repeat the correct version back

I'm still a bit confused about 'finished/all gone' being the same sign. Surely finishing whats on her place isn't necessarily the same as her being full & not wanting anymore? I really want her to be able to 'tell' me when she's had enough food as she often mucks about when I'm feeding her but will eat more if I persevere.

Has anyone else had any confusion like this before?

signs vary regionaly. so differnt parents will use differnt signs for teh same thing. makeing a fuss aout pain may be instincibve, but showing a parent WHERE you hurt doesn't seem to be. I'm still working on boy(12m) to get him to show me where he hurts, I'm having to guess between tummy and teeth and as hes growing so fast I guess that might be hurting him too.

Hve a good book for sale - Baby Signs - how to talk with your baby before your baby can talk- written by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn- if you're interested

Thanks nik66, but I've already got that one. It was a great start & definately gave me the impetus to start signing. I'm looking into getting the Tiny Talk DVD, I've read good reviews on here.