How to sign “eat”

Hand Shape: “O” shape with right hand, palm facing you
Location: at mouth
Tip: as if you’re about to eat something
Action: tap mouth once with fingertips; tap twice for noun FOOD

Video transcript: Hi, and welcome to Sign Baby Sign. This week’s word is “eat.”

This is done with your flatten “O” hand and you take it and touch your mouth one time, (signs) “eat.” Use this sign with your infant as early as you want. This is one of the first signs that I encourage you to start teaching. Because it meets the basic needs of your infant. So whenever it is time to eat, go ahead and use the sign “eat”. You would say, “Are you ready to eat?” Then while you are feeding the baby you can simply reinforce the vocabulary signing and saying, “eat” at the same time.

End of video

Bonus grammar: For some of you who are more detailed with your grammar as you teach your child, I want to explain the difference between “eat” and “food”. Either way you do this is fine; let me explain. Eat is a verb so it’s a one time movement. “Food” is a noun and is a two-time movement. However, if you are going to eat and pig out, then it’s a repetitive movement pretty much with both hands or you could do it repeatedly with one hand. So when you are teaching your child or working with them, really it’s not a big deal if you sign “eat” when you really mean “food”, it doesn’t really matter at this stage. As you know with English, you teach your child the difference between “eat” and “food”. So that can come later as you build sign vocabulary. Right now you can say, “Are you ready to eat? Do you want some food?” You can use one tap or two taps. Both of them are definitely acceptable.

6 tips to encourage your children to eat healthy

  1. Boost the nutrition value of milk by adding flavored protein powder.
  2. Skip the ice cream and eat frozen yogurt instead.
  3. Start using flavored water and ditch the soda.
  4. Make smoothies for snack time. Let your children choose the fruit.
  5. Grow a garden together. They’ll be more likely to eat healthy if they grew it.
  6. Remember, you pick your pantry and decide the menu.

Here’s a good hint: If the junk food is not in the house, it’ll never be eaten. Make good choices and set the example for your children to follow for years to come.

Head over to Facebook to like us.

Get your free WOW (Word of the Week) ASL coloring & activity sheet.


Download a Coloring Sheet to Reinforce Learning

Coloring sheets are offered for free during the first week after our video blogs are posted. Make sure to subscribe to take advantage of the free download period.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This