Go!

It is very interesting to me how Liberty has gotten the idea behind the sign "go" and it's various meanings and applications.

Imagine this: The sign for go is to roll your hands and arms around each other, like when you do the pattycake song.

When Lib really wants to go elsewhere badly, he does a BIG ROLL of the hands, like the robot in Lost in Space - "Danger, Danger Will Robinson!" The more he has to wait on me, like when I am talking to a teacher, the bigger the roll of the hands. It's so cute, we just all crack up.

When he wants the car to go after we stop, obviously, he signs "go." That's normal.

But, if I point to, say a bag of pretzels, and ask if he wants one, he signs, "Go!" In other words, in this case "go" means "Yes! Do that, keep going and unzip that bag and give one to me."

The funniest thing I've seen is when he's sitting on the potty waiting for his stream to start, and in the meantime, he signs "go" to himself! A little self-encouragement never hurt anybody.

Think about how we use the word go, even in slang, "And, then she goes...then he goes..." meaning "says" but it seems so natural to say "go."

Also, he has learned that when he wants me to leave the room he signs "go" and then waves me away, for "go away!"

I just wonder at the process of language and how Lib can use his hands and make one sign and realize it has many meanings that were not taught to him.

I really get now that he has language but not speech. Yet.

So much remains to be seen.