Holding up 2/3/4 fingers

[Beth04]

Hi everyone. Just a quick question. DS is three, and he can't seem quite to get how to hold up 2 fingers, three fingers, or four fingers. He uses a proper pencil grip when colouring, and seems to be on track developmentally with his fine motor skills. I'd love to hear others experiences and advice for activities I could do to increase his dexterity. We are currently teaching him sign language (he has a speech delay), and some of the signs do require some hand positioning that he seems to find tricky. Thank you.

 

[SarahBear]

How far into 3 is he? Violet couldn't hold up 3 fingers when she just turned 3, but she can do it now at 4. When it comes to sign, model the correct sign and then accept his approximation. Just like with spoken speech, signs don't have to be perfect at first. Kids make approximations which get refined over time. For example, here is the sign for cookie:

https://www.babysignlanguage.com/dictionary/c/cookie/

My son who is 19 months old, has picked up on this sign, but he doesn't do it "right." He points to his palm. Because we have seen this in context and because it's "close enough," we can tell what he's talking about and reinforce the sign by acknowledging it and signing it back correctly.

 

[Beth04]

Thank you for the response! He just turned 3. So it sounds like something that he will pick up in the next few months.
I appreciate the advice regarding signing. We are doing what you have suggested (accepting the approximation and modelling the correct sign). It's still a bit overwhelming since we are learning too, and he is picking up signs very quickly due to his age.
Thanks again

 

[BunnyN]

Maybe concentrate on learning how to hold up a certain number of fingers 1st like 3 and stick with just that for a while before introducing another one.

 

[minties]

Sophie has just started doing it right in the last 8 weeks, she has just turned 4.