She talks now! Why do we Still Use Sign Language?

I know we talked about this before but I thought new year ... maybe we need a refresher. Miss Little Fingers is a couple months shy of two now ... and her language development is just exploding. We (my husband and me) thank sign language for that. She's been signing now for over a year and talking for many months. So that burning question some have, why do we still sign?

For the young ones and her younger months, we use sign language because it:

This is one of her first signs from
riding this car. sign: CAR and MORE.
This is several months ago! She
Still asking for CAR and RIDE!

- allowed us the ability to know what she wanted
- therefore, reduced our frustrations and her tantrums!
- increased vocabulary skills
- increased joint attention skills
- increased visual attention skills







Now, she's almost two and she has lots of 2-3 word phrases and tons of single words, why are we still signing!?
- increases her social skills
- increases her visual attention
- increases her vocabulary
- increases her reading abilities and desire to read (I have an avid reader on my hands!)
- reduces 'terrible two's' - ok I'm not going to say she doesn't tantrum but I can say that she is familiar with sign language in her life so what happens? She starts to get upset, I sign different things I think she may be upset about and it refocuses her and/or reminds her 'hey if mommy doesn't understand the words I'm trying to say, I can sign them!' 

And the best part, her pop pop knows some of the signs! It goes to show she truly uses them not just with me and daddy, but with the babysitter, mom mom, pop pop, and anyone else in her path if there's something she wants to comment on or ask for! Watch out - her fingers are moving!

I think the speechie in me is going to investigate further just how large her vocabulary is but she surprises us daily. So stay tuned for an update on that. Also, more sign language benefits coming soon!