Nick is learning to sign

For the last several months, I have been teaching Nicholas sign language.  His speech therapist uses sign durning his sessions, so I decided I better take a crack at using it with him.  At first, he wasn't really interested.  A couple of months ago, something finally clicked and he is learing about 2 new signs each week.  He knows signs for several animals. He also knows ball, eat, hungry, several colors, and a few others that I can't think of right now.  I did make sure to teach him "please" and "thank you" before Christmas so that he could thank everyone for his gifts.  He is slowly beginning to attempt to say words, but very few words have the ending sound attached.  For example, "map" is "maaaa."  At least with the signs, he is able to tell us what he wants.  Sometimes, he even combines a word with a sign to let us know what it is that he wants.  It's interesting to watch him watch you to learn a sign.  Many times, the sign he comes up with is either a variation of what you signed, or not even close.  It's fine if he makes up his own, we just have to make sure all of us understand what he is communicating.  It exciting to see him so intersted in learning.  He is going to love preschool next year.