It shows the power of a gesture to cross cultures and time.

That the gesture of showing someone your thumb has survived longer than the spoken Latin language is mightily impressive, says Gawne. Whether a thumbs up or down meant life or death, or whether any thumb at all was a good thing, is disputed. Some attribute it to the climax of gladiatorial battles, in which the fate of the losing fighter was decided. The origins of the thumbs up are contentious. Scuba divers, for example, use thumbs up to mean ' I'm going up to the surface'. But even in the West, a thumbs up does not universally mean the same thing. More recent diplomatic trips to the Middle East also suggest that the Western use is widespread. Perhaps they weren't being as rude as some thought. Were the locals offering their support to the foreign forces or being rude? According to the US Defense Language Institute, a body that provides foreign language training for US forces, Middle Easterners had adopted the Western use of the thumbs up after the first Gulf War as a symbol of their support. News stories from 2003 reported that US troops travelling through Iraq were greeted by Iraqis with their thumbs up. Just because a gesture is common, it is not necessarily universal, warns Lauren Gawne, a linguist at La Trobe University in Australia.Īnd its meaning can change over time. The 'thumbs up' might be a common way to show your appreciation on social media, but in some parts of Europe and the Middle East the gesture can be offensive. They might help us to recall words and shape our thoughts – they can even change the sounds our audience hears.Įven people who have been blind from birth gesture as they speak, so you might be led to believe that there is something universally understood about the gestures we make – but that is not the case. The problem is that I worry that “finished” looks a lot like “excited” or “happy” and might confuse our daughter.Our hands are a useful tool for adding meaning to our speech. With “finished” I wondered if we were improperly using “all done” when we should’ve used “finished”. I see “all done” is pretty simple to implement, and we had been using it for being all done with meals or all done with diaper changes. I’m confused about “finished” and “all done”. Can you please send me the link with the egg?ĪDMIN – Is this the link you’re looking for? Here you go: Reply I see a chinese boy finishing a plate of noodles. The sign for ‘finished’ is easy to guess for any parent who doesn’t even have an ASL background. I will teach this to my 9 month old baby Reply I have one child in pre-k, special education. Muy interesante el saber cómo enseñar a mi hijo.ĪDMIN – Si Rubi ❼ómo ha sido la experiencia hasta ahora? Por supuesto, puede usar los letreros para enseñar a su hijo en español o inglés. Y por enseñar a los niños cómo entenderte también. Muy buena manera para entender mejor a mi bebe ReplyĬonsider purchasing the teaching guide. Will teach this to my 6 month old baby Reply

All done hand sign