Isabella's communication skills at 1 year old

Isabella is communicating SO much with us now and by spending some time teaching her and learning from her we manage to understand most of what she 'says'.

She uses a combination of sounds (animal sounds like moo for cow and sounds she hears in words we say like 'ca' for cat) and baby sign language. The sign language is a combination of signs from a book we got from her favourite and only aunt ;-) signs she makes up and signs I make up as we go along. So it's really a 'secret' language only we can understand! 

It's amazing how quickly she learns. Earlier this week I made up a sign for fish, I don't know what the real sign is, I didn't have the book with me at the time when we saw a fish in one of her books, so just made up a logical and easy one to show fish movement, and she got it right away. I asked her later when her dad came home what a fish does, not expecting her to have remembered, and she did. Clever girl! Of course we do repeat sounds and signs over and over and over- for her to learn but also for her to feel she's really clever by showing us what she knows.

Some signs, like the sign for 'more' I used to use a lot when she was eating, but it was when she was much younger. At that time she didn't use any signs yet and I kind of gave up on it and stopped using it and one day she just started signing 'more' correctly and using it at appropriate times when she wanted more food, or wanted me to read more of a book, or her program on tv finished and she wanted it again. So either she really did take in what I signed long ago when she was not yet able to use her hands that way or she read the book when I wasn't looking! 'More' is now her most used sign!

Isabelle says/ signs:	Meaning:
mama	mummy
papa	daddy
rubs nose/ mouth + sound	looking for muslin
hand to mouth	eat/ hungry
hand to mouth and sniffs	flower	should sign hand to nose
fingers of both hands together in front of her	more
hand on head	wants or sees a hat
fingers of one hand around opposite wrist	wants bracelet
opens and shuts hand	milk
sucks hand	water
t-t	tissue
tutu	tutu (pink tulle skirt)
thumb and forefinger together open/ shut	bird
wiggles hand	fish
Isabella can touch these body parts when asked in Afrikaans Not tested in English :-)	Working on:
head, hair, eyes (blinks), nose (sniffs), cheeks, tummy, feet, toes, clap hands	knees, bottom ;-) back, mouth/ lips
Animals
‘mmmm’ / ‘moo’	cow
‘qua-qua’ (quack)	duck
snorts	pig
blows raspberries	horse
ffff’ or ‘wwww’ (woof)	dog
ca	cat
a-a-a	monkey
claps hands together (snap-snap)	crocodile
opens mouth wide	hippo (yawning)
roars	lion/ tiger
raises one arm in air	elephant	should be arm to front as trunk
raises one arm in air	giraffe

We have since for fun tested her a little bit in English and she will touch her head, nose, toes and feet correctly when asked in English. We have't tested her English comprehension really with any other words, but I will try some more out of interest. We try not to speak any English to her so she learns to only speak Afrikaans to us. She will soon hear and speak English everywhere else in her life. Now that she spends time with her nanny (who is English) three mornings a week I'm sure she's picking up so much more. She even started saying 'moo' instead of 'mmm' for cow sometimes and it sounds much more 'English' than when we say 'moo'!!

I will try and catch her signing on camera.