Learning Colors Activity: Color Jump

We have been working on naming and correctly identifying colors in our house lately so I thought I would share some of the activities that we have come up. This seems to be an area that my daughter is having trouble with so we are trying a lot of different games and projects to keep her interested and learning.

This first activity is called the color jump (she is really into jumping). For those who are less mobile (or less obsessed with jumping), this activity can be touch the color, stand or sit on the color, etc. Anything that will work for your little one.

Here is a picture of the "game board." Please excuse the fast tape work on the ground. My little one saw what I was doing and quickly came over to "help" so I had to be fast.

I started with five colors however you could start with more or less depending on your child's level.

1. First I showed my daughter each square and told her what color it was. Than I had her stand to one side. As I called out a color I told her to go and jump on that color.
2. I started with yellow since she knows that color best. She was very happy to go over and jump on the square.
3. While playing I would first wait to see if she went to the right color and then help her if she needed it.
4. We've played several times and it keeps her interest longer than looking at a color book or sorting bears.

Make and Take: Basic Foam Puzzle

I just posted a tutorial on Entertaining Kids on the Go about making a Basic Foam Puzzle. For preemies who are learning about puzzles and shapes, a basic 2 or 4 piece puzzle is a great place to start.

Favorite Product: Teddy Bear Counters

We are currently working on sorting and naming colors right now so Teddy Bear Counters are a current favorite toy in our house.

I like these little bears because they offer a lot of color options and kids can enjoy the fun shapes and feel to them. Our daughter is much more interested in sorting the bears than she is flat shapes or paper. Here are some fun ways to use these bears (or similar products) to encourage your preemie to sort colors.

1) Start with only 2 or 3 colors. Too many colors is confusing and difficult for your preemie to master. I like to start with yellow, red and blue because each color is very distinct and easy to tell the difference (as opposed to orange and red since they are very similar).

2) Use cups or a divided tray to help your preemie realize that the bears are to be separated rather than piled together. For my daughter I have found that a divided tray works best because she can't move it. With cups she often gets distracted because they can be knocked over or moved.

3) Place one bear of each color into the cup or tray section. Start out by doing the activity yourself. Pick up a yellow bear and say "yellow." Then point to the bear on the tray and the bear in your hand and say "see- same, same." You want your preemie to start understanding that some things are the same and some are different. This will help him/her figure out how to sort. Do one or two of each color yourself and then encourage your preemie to put the next bear in. If he/she does it right than do a lot of praise. If he/she gets it wrong just say - "No. Those aren't the same." and then help him/her put the bear in the correct spot.

4) Add more colors over time. As your preemie starts to master the basic idea of sorting, add more colors so that he/she can continue to build on the skill.

5) Be patient. Like with anything else, if your preemie isn't interested in the activity than put it away and save it for another time.

Development: Learning Joint Attention

"Joint attention" means the active sharing of an experience with your preemie. When both of you are actively looking at an object or event - sharing in the moment. This can be a very difficult skill for some preemies to learn but it is really important for learning speech and social skills.

Here are some ways for you to help your preemie develop this skill:

"Look at me" - While your preemie is sitting near you, tell him/her to "look at me" and wait for him/her to look. If he/she doesn't than say it again but gently tap his/her face and then your own face. Again, wait for your preemie to look.

"Look" Part 1 - Hold up a toy and say "look." Wait for your preemie to look at the toy. When he/she looks, give him/her the toy as a reward. You can also point to a toy and say "look." Once your preemie has looked at the toy than give it to him/her to play with.

"Look" Part 2 - Blow bubbles and say "look." When your preemie looks at you, blow more bubbles and then say "look" again while you point at the bubbles.

"Look" Part 3 - Reading books is a great way to help encourage your preemie to grasp the "look" concept. As you read a book, point to the picture and say "look." You want your preemie to look at you and then look at the picture.

You can practice this concept anywhere or with anything that your preemie might be interested in. A balloon, family member, trees, anything that will attract your preemies attention and get him/her to share the experience with you.

Keep Talking: Part 2

This is part 2 of the Keep Talking series. This series provides suggestions for ways to talk to your preemie even though he/she isn't talking back. Today's post will give you more ideas to keep the conversation going. Keep Talking: Part 1 has some additional ideas for you.

1) Action - when you talk to your preemie and narrate what you or he/she is doing, use action words like jump, run, sit, sleep, etc. This is a great thing to do with a stuffed animal. Make the doggie jump high or lay down. Give a stuffed animal to your preemie so that he/she can do it with you. Try to repeat the word and action as many times as possible in a row so your preemie really starts to process the word and the meaning. If you go for a walk you can say "look we are walking. Let's walk. Look we are walking together. Wow. You are so fast. Maybe tomorrow we can walk again." This is also a great activity to do with siblings. Narrate what they are doing or get them to play Simon says so that you can repeat an action several times.

2) Description - Help your preemie understand more about what is going on around them by using descriptive words. Try it right now - grab the closest object to you. What words can you use to describe it? For example, I have a little rubber ducky next to me (courtesy of my daughter). I can say that the ducky is yellow. The duck has an orange beak. The duck has a purple crown on her head. The crown is very pretty. The duck has a purple star too. This duck is small. You can squish the duck to make a squeaky sound." And on and on you can go. To start, try picking a single descriptive word and use it as many times as you can. Put your creative hat on and just start talking. Make it a game. Get siblings involved. If you have trouble thinking of things - talk about the shape, size, color, weight, location, noise, size, etc.

3) Keep it simple - Sometimes preemies have a hard time processing all of the words that we say. Especially when we are trying to tell them to do something specific. I've found that if I keep the request down to 2-3 words my daughter has a much easier time understanding me. It may sound weird to a stranger but trust me - it works. Some examples are: if I want my daughter to put a toy in a bin, I simply point to the toy and then the bin while I say "put in." As she gets older and understands more I will expand that to "put car in" and then "put car in bin," etc. Start simple and see how your preemie reacts. Chances are he/she will have a much easier time following your direction.

It may seem hard to do these things but trust me, once you get started it will quickly become a regular part of your day/routine. Just like anything else, start small. Pick one time of a day where you will narrate everything you are doing. Or choose bath time to describe the toys your preemie is playing with. Choose one activity where you simplify your language.

Happy talking!

Drawing a line

As your preemie starts to develop his/her fine motor skills - encourage him/her to "color." At first just have your preemie hold the crayon and touch a piece of paper. Make sure you point out the color marks that appear on the paper. Take a crayon and color with your preemie.

Once your preemie gets the idea, he/she will start to dot the paper and then draw random lines across the page. There won't be any rhyme or reason to the drawing and that is fine. In fact - feel free to cheer your little one as if they have just completed a masterpiece on par with DiVinci or Van Gogh. Normally kids do horizontal lines first. As your preemie masters the art of a horizontal line, you can start to encourage him/her to draw a vertical line. This can be a difficult concept to understand so here are two ideas to try. The ideas come from my daughter's awesome developmental therapist.

1) Go/stop. Draw a circle at the top and bottom of the page (vertically). Connect the circles with a green dotted line. Color the top circle green and the bottom circle red. I would suggest starting out with about 5 of these lines. Put your crayon on the green circle and then draw a line to the red circle (you have now made a vertical line). As your draw the line say "go" and then say "stop" at the bottom. Do the first two lines yourself and then encourage your preemie to do the same. Continue saying go/stop as each line is drawn.

2) Vroom. This is basically the same concept as go/stop but instead of saying go/stop - you say vroom while the line is drawn. This is an especially good thing to use if you have a little boy who likes cars.

Having a sound associated with a specific movement or activity is very useful for getting kids to try and then remember it. I had tried to get Olivia to draw a vertical line with zero successes. Seriously. We talked about. I showed her how to do it. She was very excited - yes was heard several times when asked if she wanted to try it. And so the crayon was handed over. And then she promptly made horizontal lines over and over again. After our developmental therapist told me about the go/stop trick I tried it out and in one try Olivia was making vertical lines.

The funny part is that she continues to say go/stop when she draws the lines (even without the circles).

Happy coloring!

Songs to encourage communication #2

As I posted before, singing to and with your preemie is a great way to enhance his/her communication skills. Last time I posted about Wheels on the Bus. This post is dedicated to the classic song "Old McDonald Had a Farm."

Here are some ways to help your preemie participate in the song.

1) Animal sounds - This song is great for teaching and working on animal sounds. If your preemie is just learning animal sounds than make sure you really focus on the animal sound part of the song. As your preemie learns new animal sounds you can add more verses to the song.

2) Use pictures or toys - If you have a book with animals or actual animal toys than bring those out for singing the song. This will help your preemie make the connection between the animal and the sound. As you sing the song, hold up the animal or picture that you are singing about. You can let your preemie hold the animals and play with them during the song.

3) Pause - During the song, try to pause during each part (esp. the animal sounds part) in order to give your preemie a chance to "sing" along. Any sound or attempt at sound that your preemie makes should be celebrated and encouraged. It doesn't matter if he/she sings in tune with the song. Taking turns helps your preemie learn how to talk and communicate.

3) Add animals - Does your preemie know more jungle animals than farm animals? No problem. Your farm can have any animal on it that you want. Lions, elephants and pigs can all hang out and play on your farm. We have also added in a farmer (who says hello) and a tractor (who makes car sounds that only my son can do).

Focus: Single Activity Work

My daughter often has trouble sitting down and working on a single task. If she isn't interested than she wants almost nothing to do with it. Now that she is fully walking, working on specific developmental areas can be difficult. Recently I've started reading a number of blogs focused on the Montessori approach to teaching and learning. I like many things about the Montessori approach and I've been slowly trying to integrate that style of learning into what I do with my kids each day.

One blog that I love has some great activities that she does with her 15 month old. One of them was introducing the concept of pouring. Here is the post: The Wonder Years. She used a large container and put plastic Easter eggs inside that were poured onto a tray. My computer is broken (again) so please click on the link to see the pictures that she has. For Olivia I had her pour the eggs into a bowl.

This is a great task for working on several developmental areas:

1) Fine motor - after pouring the eggs into the bowl, I had her put the eggs back into the large can so she could pour again.

2) Waiting - Olivia had to make sure all the eggs were inside the can before pouring again. This is an important skill to work on with kids

3) Visual perception - by having Olivia pour the eggs into the bowl, she had to figure out where to place the can so that the eggs would end up inside the bowl.

The best part? Olivia loved it! She asked to do it at least 5-6 times for several days in a row. I'm planning on introducing more activities like these and I will post them here for you to try as well.

Favorite Products #32

Lately one of the favorite products in our house is the Fisher Price Little People: Animal Sounds Farm.


Olivia got this as a Christmas gift and she really enjoys it. She hasn't quite gotten to the point of doing any imaginary play but she does like to make animal sounds and move each animal around the farm.

Here are some ways that you can encourage your preemie's development with this toy:

1) Animal Sounds - encourage your preemie to imitate the animal sounds for each animal. The toy does make sounds however it's often easier to just make sounds yourself. Start with one animal and then add in more as he/she masters them.

2) Turn taking - help your preemie learn how to take turns. Drop one toy through the "silo" area and then let your preemie do the same. Turn taking is an important part of language and social development.

3) Fine motor - show your preemie how to open the little doors or operate other parts of the farm.

4) Imaginary play - have the animals talk to each other. Maybe they all want to go for a walk around the farm. Any type of role-playing/imaginary play is great.


Happy farming!

Fine Motor Skills in the Highchair

As kids get more mobile it becomes harder to work on fine motor skills. What preemie on the go wants to sit still? One of the best ways to help your preemie focus on fine motor skills is to do it while he/she is in the highchair. With some planning and enthusiasm you can really make some great progress. Here are some games and activities to try that I posted on a message board recently.

Cheerio Drop and Dump - Get about 10-15 cheerios and put them on the highchair tray (eating the cheerios is always okay and encouraged). Put a small bowl on the try next to the cheerios. Encourage your little one to drop the cheerios into the bowl one at a time. Try and get him/her to use a pincer grasp (thumb and first finger) to pick up the cheerios and drop them in. Once all of the cheerios are in the bowl - let him/her dump it out and do it again. Once he/she has dumped them out once he/she may only want to put a couple in before dumping but that's okay :)

Raisin Drop and Dump - same as above but with raisins - smaller and harder to do.

Stickers - Get a bunch of stickers - bigger ones to start. Start by taking a sticker and putting it on your little one's hand. Encourage him/her to take the sticker off and put it somewhere else. Use smaller stickers as he/she gets good at it. Once he/she gets the hang of it, let him/her peel off a sticker (will probably need you to start it) and then let him/her put it on a paper.

Coloring - tape a piece of paper to the highchair tray. Give your little one a crayon and encourage them to color on the paper. take a crayon yourself and draw some lines on the paper. At first they will probably just make dots and then tentative lines. Once they master a straight line, encourage them to draw a circle and make a cross. Some kids like to hold a crayon in their fist at first so you may want to break a crayon in half or buy the little beginnings crayons.

Popsicle Sticks - Get a travel coffee mug that has a slot at the top. Take some small popsicle sticks and have your little one drop them into the cup through the slot. Once they put them in, open the lid and let them dump them out. Repeat.

Playdough - this is a tough one because kids may try and eat the playdough. You have to be really careful. Take some playdough and just let your little one touch it, squish, roll it, etc. Encourage them to roll small pieces of the dough in between their thumb and first finger. Make snakes by rolling pieces with their whole hand.

Toy suggestion - Right now Target has a great little mini-barn and small plastic animals in the $1 section. They are great (slightly larger) items that can kids can play with and practice picking up, etc.

For drawing - you can get one of those portable drawing boards that erase (Doodle boards) or the Aqua Doodles - uses water to color and then dries so you can do it again.

Focus on sign language: Book

This sign language post is devoted to the sign for "book." Since most kids like having books read to them, this is a great sign to start teaching your preemie how to ask for specific items .Go here for an explanation and pictures on how to do the sign.

For beginning tips on introducing sign language to your preemie, click here.


How to incorporate the sign:

• Start introducing the sign each time you read a book to your preemie. Start by using the word and the sign together. After your preemie has watched you a few times, help him/her do the sign him/herself.
• Use the sign and word in a question. Do you want a book? What do you want? A book? Anything that helps your preemie realize that if he/she uses the sign, you will get him/her what they asked for.
• If your preemie brings you a book to read, use the sign or encourage him/her to use the sign before reading the book. You can take the book and say "do you want mommy to read the book?" and use the sign.
• Each time you read a book, use the sign as you talk about it. Look - we are reading a book (use the sign) about Bob the Builder.
• Remember to read a book if your preemie uses the sign (as appropriate).

Keep Talking: Part 1

When babies are small or have a delay in speaking it is often hard to keep up a conversation with them - who wants to talk to themselves? As hard as it may be - talking with your preemie is essential for language development.

Here are some tips to help get you talking:

1) Toys - talk about the toys or other things that your preemie is interested in. Name the toy and narrate what you and your preemie are doing with it. Look this is a farm. The sheep says "baaa." The sheep is going to go and eat. And look, here is the pig. He says oink, oink. And on and on.

2) Routines - narrate the routines in your preemie's life. As you get him/her dressed, change a diaper or play together talk about what is happening.

3) Repeat, repeat - studies have shown that when kids hear the same word over and over again, they are better able to learn and speak the words. So try saying a word as many times as possible over the course of a few minutes. For example: look at that red car. The car is going fast. Cars say vroom, vroom. Our car is blue. A car has a horn, etc."

4) Slow down - when you speak to your preemie try and slow down. Adults often talk very fast and that can be hard for a preemie to understand. I've been focusing on action words for my daughter (i.e. down, up, in, out, etc). When I ask Olivia something I say "Can we put that in?" with special emphasis on in. It's really helped her to understand and sometimes imitate those words

Dance Baby Dance

Babies love movement. Movement can be soothing, fun, and distracting. It can help your preemie learn how to use his/her body and it's a great way to connect with your preemie. You can dance with your preemie at any age. Don't worry - you need to be good at it. Your preemie will just enjoy the time spent with you. And dancing is fun and good exercise - a win, win.

Here are some suggestions to get you started:

1) For very young preemies - start with music that is soft and mellow. Even lullabies work. Hold your preemie in close and gently rock back and forth with the music. Your preemie will start to associate the movement with the music which is an important connection.

2) Once your preemie is strong enough to support his/her own head - make your movements bigger and more purposeful. You can start to choose music that has more of a beat. If your preemie likes it - spin around in circles. Jump up and down (lightly) and really get those hips moving. Anything that allows your little one to really feel the movement.

3) Encourage your preemie's own dancing. Help your preemie move his/her own body to the music. Our daughter started "rockin' out" as soon as she could sit up. Personally I think she was born in the wrong era as her head banging skills are quite good. As soon as she hears music her eyes light up and she starts swaying. I love watching her.

Some Dancing Tips (of the non-technique variety):
- When you introduce music to your little ones, be sure to pick songs that you can stand listening to over and over again. Over and Over. My daughter will only dance to certain songs. If I try and get her to dance to something new she wants nothing to do with it. Currently her favorites are songs from High School Musical. I have only myself to blame as I'm the one who let my son watch the movies with me (much to my husband's chagrin) and then put some of the songs on my iPod.
- Looking for some lullabies that don't make you cringe? Try RockABye Baby! Records They sell lullaby versions of songs from popular bands including the Beatles, Bob Marley, No Doubt, Green Day, etc. I really like them.
- Sing along. Singing with your preemie is also a great way to encourage language development. Sing with the songs and encourage your preemie to "sing" too.
- Feeling stressed? Tired? Cranky? Put on some music and dance (with or without your preemie). We have been stuck inside due to the rain and the late afternoon often brings the cabin fever blues so we have been dancing quite a bit this week.
- If your preemie loves music and/or dancing - use it as an opportunity to teach him/her the sign for music. I'll do a post on the sign later this week.

Happy Dancing!!

Favorite Product #31

This week's favorite product is the 100 First Words Bright Baby board book.

**For some reason I am having trouble with the pictures so I will try and post it later**

While parents may find the Bright Baby (or other similar books) mind numbingly boring, kids love these books. The simplicity, bright pictures and clearly defined items are easy for them to understand. And learn. These books are great for preemies who are working on language development and fine motor skills (including pointing and turning pages). There are many different versions of these books - right now this one is Olivia's favorite. I think she likes the larger size of the pages.

Here are some ways to use this book to encourage your preemie's development:

1) Read the book - this is a great book to read to a preemie who isn't yet ready to "follow" a story and/or has a short attention span. You can get through each page quickly and yet still give your preemie the beginning love of reading.
2) Fine motor - turning the page. Encourage your preemie to turn each page when you are done. At first you may need to lift the page a little bit to get your preemie started but overtime he/she will get the idea.
3) Fine motor - pointing. As you read the book, start pointing at some of the pictures. Choose 2-3 on each page and point directly at the picture as you say the word. Encourage your preemie to do the same. At first your preemie may just randomly point to the page - and that's okay. Over time encourage your preemie to point at specific pictures. This not only helps refine her pointing skills, he/she is also learning to identify objects.
4) Language - As you read the book, clearly say each word. For objects that your preemie might be familiar with - point to the picture and say the word. Draw his/her attention to it "see, here is the ball." This will get your preemie to start identifying the word and the object together. As your preemie becomes more interested and starts building more words, you can increase the pictures that you point too.

Like with anything else, follow your preemies lead. He/she may only be interested in looking at certain pictures or just turning the page. And that's okay. It's all a part of the process.

Focus on sign language: Sleep

This sign language post is devoted to the sign for "sleep/tired/bed." This can be a good sign to teach your preemie so that he/she can tell you when he/she is ready for bed or tired. Once they understand the sign, it is also a useful tool to help your preemie transition to bedtime.Go here for an explanation and pictures on how to do the sign.

For beginning tips on introducing sign language to your preemie, click here.

How to incorporate the sign:

• Start introducing the sleep sign before naps and bedtime. You can say “time to go to sleep” and then use the sign. Make sure that once you make the sign, you put your preemie into bed. If you use a different name for sleep or bed than use that word in order to help your preemie understand.
• When you see your preemie looking tired, ask him/her “do you want to go to sleep?” and then make the sign.
• If you see your preemie making the sign for sleep, honor his/her request and put your preemie to bed. If it’s during a non-nap or bedtime that is okay. Sometimes your little one may want to experiment with signs and the power it gives him/her to communicate. Even if he/she only goes down for a minute, the important lesson is that he/she learns what the sign means.

General signing tip: Create a chart of the signs that you have taught your preemie so that you (and everyone else) can easily tell what signs your preemie knows and/or is working on.

Clothes matter

Don't worry. This isn't a post about the best in children's fashion or a lecture about how to dress your kid more like Suri Cruise. Considering the fact that last week I took my daughter out in pants with fruit snack stains on them (mortified doesn't begin to describe it)- I don't think I'm qualified for that kind of post. Instead this post is about paying attention to clothes as it relates to helping your preemie with their fine/gross motor skills.

1) Shoes - as soon as your preemie starts to work on standing, cruising, etc. they should be in some sort of shoe. Preferably one with a tennis shoe like bottom for the best possible grip. These days you can find shoes with a good sole in almost any style. Socks are far too slippery - imagine trying to learn how to stand or walk on ice. Bare feet are good too because your preemie can use his/her toes to better grip the floor.

2) Pants length - No matter how cute those baby jeans may look on your little one, if they are too long than they will interfere with your preemies movement. I constantly roll up the bottom of my daughter's pants to ensure that she won't trip or slide on the bottom of her pants. Just remember to unroll them when you are going out.

3) Sleeve length - The same rules apply to shirts. If your preemie can't see his/her hands than he/she won't be using them correctly. Make sure your preemie's shirts don't have sleeves that are too long or loose. Also, when working on self feeding or any other messy activity - remember to roll up the sleeves. It will be easier on them and you will feel less stressed about possibly cleaning yet another shirt (and less stress makes for happier mealtimes).

Favorite Product #30

Today's favorite product is a wooden Pop Up Toy.

I absolutely love this toy for its simplicity. There are four cylinders that have hidden springs on the bottom so your preemie can push each one down and then watch it pop back up again. I was amazed at how much time my son spent playing with this toy. Beyond the concept of cause and effect, it is also a great toy for teaching colors.

Ways to encourage development with this toy:

1) Cause and Effect - show your preemie how to push the cylinder down and then have him/her watch as it pops back up again. Help your preemie the first few times and then let him/her do it on his/her own once the concept is understood.

2) Fine motor skills - Once your preemie has figured out how to push the cylinder down, encourage him/her to use just one finger to push the cylinder. This will help him/her learn how to point and to isolate one finger to do something.

3) Colors - As your preemie gets older and starts to notice colors, this can be a great first toy for teaching different colors. Point out and talk about each color. Say a color and then push down the matching cylinder. As your preemie starts to get the concept you can ask him/her to do the same.

Developmental Post #24

This week's developmental post is focused on the developmental milestones of preemies who are 12-15 months old. Previously I have done posts for 9-11 months, 6-8 months old, 3-5 months old and 0-2 months old.

Large/Gross Motor:

• Can walk alone
• Creeps up stairs
• Squats when playing and then resumes standing

Small/Fine Motor:

• Turns pages of a board book
• Stacks things
• Takes the lid off a container (box, tub)

Social/Play Skills

• Combines related objects in play (spoon in cup, man on truck, doll on bed)
• Initiates ball play or other social game
• Imitates adult in simple task (wipes table, dusts, sweeps, etc.)

Communication

• Child's babbling sounds like a sentence of real words intonation
• Uses two single words meaningfully
• Follows a simple direction
• Points to a body part or familiar toy on request

Ways to encourage development:

• When reading a book - encourage your preemie to turn the page
• Put items inside a clear container with a lid and encourage your preemie to take the lid off to get the toy
• Encourage pretend play with items that go together - when "feeding the doll" stir the food in the cup and then feed the baby, put a driver in the truck before it drives away, etc.
• Let your preemie "help" with household tasks like dusting, cleaning tables/cabinets, putting things away, etc.

Focus on sign language: All Done

This sign language post is devoted to the sign for "all done." This is a great sign to teach preemies because being able to indicate that you are done eating/playing/doing something is very important. It gives your preemie a sense of control over the situation which can help ease potential meltdowns.

Go here for an explanation and pictures on how to do the sign.

For beginning tips on introducing sign language to your preemie, click here.

How to incorporate the sign:

• Start by using the sign in specific situations where you know that your preemie is "all done" such as at the end of a bath, at the end of a meal/feeding time or when you are done with an activity that has a specific end to it (time at the park, playing a game, reading a book, etc). Tell your preemie "bath all done" and make the sign for all done as you say "all done." Repeat this over numerous occasions. The key is to let your preemie be all done when you do the sign. He/she needs to know exactly what all done (and the sign) means.
• Use meal time or playtime to ask your preemie if he/she is all done. Are you "all done?" and then point to whatever it is you are doing. Encourage your preemie to do the sign. Honor any small motion that indicates the all done sign.
• When your preemie makes the "all done" sign, encourage him/her to tell you what he/she is all done with. For example, if you are reading a book and your preemie makes the all done sign, ask him/her - Are you all done with the book and touch the book. This will encourage your preemie to start telling you (by touch or later verbally) what he/she is all done with. This is an important part of extending the communication process and understanding for your preemie.
• Word to the wise - your preemie may start using the all done sign during times when you don't want him/her to be all done. My daughter will say she is all done before we are done with a specific therapy activity or meal. Acknowledge that he/she has said all done but let him/her know that the activity isn't done quite yet. This may take some time to work out but as long as you honor him/her being all done as much as you can it should be just fine.
  

General signing tip: Make sure that you teach your spouse, other children and other caretakers the signs that you are teaching your preemie. This will help your preemie use the signs more often and they will be able to understand what your preemie is saying. It can also be a helpful part of the learning process - when your spouse or other children make the sign be sure to offer lots of praise just like you would if your preemie did the sign.

Focus on Sign Language: More

Recently I did a beginning post on sign language that you can find it here. I thought I would devote some posts to specific signs with some suggestions on learning and using the sign with your preemie.

Today's post is focused on the sign for "more." Asking for more can be used throughout the day - especially during meals or playtime. This site has a great photo of the sign to get you started.

Introducing the sign:

• Once your preemie has some hand eye coordination (doing things like waving, pointing, clapping, etc) and is starting to understand the concept of asking for something (or saying no to something), it is a good time to encourage him/her to sign.
• Start introducing the sign by saying the word as you make the sign. I've found it useful if I put emphasis on the word you are signing (i.e. Do you want MORE?) so that my preemie knows which word I'm signing.
• Spend a few days using the word and sign whenever possible. Put your hands where your preemie can see them so that he/she can really notice what you are doing. If you have older children, encourage them to do the sign as well (with lots of praising when they do).
• Once you have shown your preemie the sign a number of times, show him/her how to do it. The sign for "more" is a great one to start with because you can easily put your hands over his/hers and form his/her hands into the sign. As you help your preemie make the sign, say the word so that he/she again associates the sign with the word.
• After you have taught your preemie how to make the sign, encourage him/her to make the sign every time the word is used. Help him/her make the sign for the first few times as it will take time to remember how to do it. Once you feel like your preemie has the idea, start expecting him/her to make the sign. In the beginning, any small gesture that looks like a purposeful attempt to make the sign should be praised and treated as if he/she did the whole sign.

Good activities to use the sign "more"

Mealtime - give your preemie a small amount of food. Once he/she has finished, ask "Do you want more?" and sign "more." Wait for your preemie to sign (or at least try to) more before giving more of the food. If you are spoon feeding your preemie, ask if he/she wants more between bites.

Playtime - A great way to encourage using more is to play with a toy that has multiple parts or various things to do so that your preemie needs to sign more if he/she wants to continue playing. Good activities are blocks, mega blocks, parts to a toy (like Mr. Potato Head), toys with buttons that play songs or flash lights, etc. Another great activity is blowing bubbles. After you blow some bubbles, stop and ask your preemie if he/she wants more. Wait for the sign before blowing more bubbles. When your preemie is done playing with one toy and indicating that he/she wants something else, ask "Do you want "more" toys?. Wait for him/her to sign back before offering a new toy.

Over time you will notice your preemie doing the sign automatically. Remember in the beginning that any effort or indication to make the sign should be praised and rewarded (as if he/she had done the entire sign).

Don't forget to take it slow. Just like any other skill, your preemie will need time to figure out how to do it, when to do it and what is expected of him/her.

The next sign will be all done.