nine months until he signed SWING

SWING!

Through the efforts of some visitors, the little children’s swing set was restored (after being mauled in a bull fight last fall). My youngest preschooler, Edgar, saw it the next day. He put his hand to his mouth and looked extremely delighted. It still makes me smile to remember it.

Perhaps it was the next week, Edgar was swinging on the new swing set. Don’t ask me how many times since he started school last August I have pushed him on a swing and signed to him SWING. I could make him smile that way, exaggerating my sign and fitting it to his swinging pattern. “Edgar’s SWINGING. Yeah, you’re SWINGING.” And finally, in April, Edgar signed to me “SWING.”

So I pushed my luck. I not only wanted him to sign SWING; I wanted him to sign SWING and PLEASE, and then I would push his swing. What was I doing, trying to confuse him? But he succeeded in adding PLEASE.

Soon the newest Preschool boy Jan (pronounced like John) joined Edgar on the swing. Happy with Edgar’s success, I tried to get Jan to sign SWING, also. I compromised, using one of his hands and one of mine to form the sign. Then Jan surprised me. When he wanted pushed again, he signed SWING. I was excited. Jan was beginning to use sign language to communicate! He was understanding that sign language could communicate.