Share, My Turn, and Your Turn

by Megan M
(Norfolk, NE, USA)

I have two daughters. A is 3 years old and D is 21 months old. I have been amazed by D's ability to share her thoughts and feelings through American Sign Language. To date she has at least 110 signs she really understands and can use in appropriate ways to communicate to her sister, her dad, and to me. The most amazing thing to me right now is her use of the signs (and the words which she says while signing) SHARE, YOUR TURN, and MY TURN. She has quickly picked up all three of these concepts and frequently, calmly tells her 3 year old sister to "Please Share" or "My Turn." Really??? A 1 year old patiently telling her older sister "My Turn." It is truly amazing to witness. I also love when she signs "Your Turn" as she reaches out far enough to nicely touch her sister on the chest. Definitely gotta get a picture of that soon. It is just a very sweet gesture, in my opinion, on her part to actually nicely touch her sister to indicate she is ready to give up her turn for A to take a turn.

A has also had exposure to ASL since a very young age (about 6 months old). She didn't have as much as D since I was learning along with her and we hadn't found Signing Time DVDs yet, but regardless of the slow learning process she is currently excelling at her literacy skills. She is beginning to recognize common words and words that are important to her. She also knows all of the sounds of all of the letters (besides some of the multiple sounds vowels can make). The coolest thing about her early literacy skills to date was when I was trying to get a DVD into the machine and she said, "Mom the TV says N O that spells no." We had not been working on any reading at that point in time, just signing away, watching Signing Time, and doing some signing flashcards. I was in awe of how she could pick up on the word NO without anyone ever directly teaching her the word or how to read.

I also loved when D was 8 months old and signed and said BOOK all day long!! :)