Pragmatics

Early on we taught Katie baby sign language. We started at about 5 months with signs like MORE, MILK, EAT, JUICE, BATH, etc. At 9 months of age she began to catch on. Her first sign was CEREAL. She signed it with the expectation that we would understand that she wanted a sandwich baggy of Cheerios... we did understand. As time went on and her vocabulary increased, we realized that MORE and EAT and BOOK (which meant she wanted us to read to her whatever book she approached us with) were no longer sweet, but a bit demanding and annoying. It was at that moment I decided that PLEASE needed to enter into her vocabulary. It took a while for her to understand that PLEASE needed to be replaced with the whining as opposed to being coupled with the whining... she has eventually begun to understand. So much so that she now uses PLEASE (palm flat on your chest, moving in a circle) as a universal sign for I WANT... sometimes followed by the appropriate sign, other times followed by diverting her eyes to some arbitrary spot on the wall in hopes that I would understand that she would like me to play 'flashlight on the wall' like we had been doing at dinner last night. Because I'm her Mom, I usually get it.

Now, where was I going with all of this? Pragmatics - social play. As you see in the picture above, both Katie (on left - 15 months) and Chloe (on right - 16 months) are positive that the doll is her's. Yet there is only one doll. I'm embarrassed to say that Chloe DID have the doll first and my lovely daughter stole it which began this great struggle.

Sharing - another abstract concept such as PLEASE. Any suggestions?

What? Oh yeah. That's Katie at it again. Kaeden Potts is a little perturbed, understandably. And what did I do?Laugh and take a picture.No better way to deal with things that need to be dealt with!