How do you actually introduce words when baby signing?
Do the sign and say the word at the same time. She’ll pick it up and start using them in the next few months. Bored is WAY too abstract a concept to be using with a baby, though, so ditch that. She needs signs for simple nouns or verbs – milk, food, light, mommy, help (like if she needs you to get something for her), that kind of thing. You don’t need a sign for “in pain.” You’ll know. Do the sign as you’re performing the action. Say, “Do you want your milk?” and do the sign for milk. Do it a few times each time you give her a bottle. For food, do the sign, say the word, give her the food. It’s the association that she will make all on her own.
I teach adults sign language at work and we teach them to use the sign and speak at the same time. Teaching a baby or child sign language is the same process. When you are teaching a baby to sign “tired,” use the sign during the functional activity. Ask her “are you tired (sign “tired”)?” when it is time for her nap or she is going to bed for the night. To teach “eat” and “drink” (they are better signs than “thirsty” or “hungry”), give her a cheerio, show her the sign for “eat” and prompt her to sign “eat.” Do this several times a day for about a week and see if she’ll do it on her own. You want to use milk, food, thirsty, tired, bored, and pain? Great words, but you might want to change the words up a little bit … instead you can use, “milk”, “eat”, “drink”, “bed” (instead of “tired”), and “sick.” They are easier words and signs to use – they are also visual signs. “Bored” is a complex feeling/word that she may or may not get. I personally wouldn’t teach that. Maybe “walk”, “play”,
