Cathy writes:
<< So it's not the sign language per se that I don't like, I guess it's the
use
 the tool is put to in this context. And I am totally convinced that denying
 children their opportunity to nurse because it's "not time yet", and
 imposing a parental idea of a sleep-eat-wake cycle on them, is not going to
 cut down on "whining" (kids that little can't whine yet anyway - they learn
 that later) or teach good manners! Even combined with sign language!  >>

And Cathy is absolutely right -- as is Denny, in teaching her kids to sign.
In the Ezzo's program, if the child doesn't sign the appropriate sign -- or,
for that matter, touch the parent's arm and say, "May I make an appeal" when
there is disagreement, or whatever, then the child is chastised.  I will
leave it to the lact-groups fervent imagination as to what "chastisement" is
if you don't sign the correct sign for "please" or "more".

Frankly, I think my Tim would have had a much happier 15 to 24 months if he
could have signed -- if I had had the smarts to teach him that.  I agree with
Denny that it might decrease frustration on the part of the pre-verbal child.
 However, I agree with Cathy that the whole concept of signing has been --
ummmm -- "sullied," shall we say, by the Ezzo insistence that if the child
doesn't sign correctly, or refuses to sign, or arches his back in the high
chair instead, that this signals deliberate rebellion and sin, and requires
"chastisement...."  (leaving, once again, the definition of 'chastisement' to
the lurid imaginations of the assorted 2000+ members of Lactnet-land.)

sigh.  Yet again a good concept taken to its miserable and horrid extreme.

Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC
Wheaton, IL.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good
with Vegemite."

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