I teach English to students whose first language isn't English. It's a challenging career choice, but I've learned over the years how to get my point across as well as figure out what my students are saying. Drawing pictures and acting out scenarios are tactics that come in handy.
But...communicating with a child who doesn't have any language to begin with is slightly more interesting. We're teaching Weston sign language whenever we can. He can do "hot," "more," "dog," "bell" (we live near a church and the bells ring at 6pm every evening and he gets so excited when he hears them), and "duck." There might be a few more. Anyway, he has started to use the sign for "more" to mean "I'm-thinking-of-something-and-you-don't-know-what-that-thing-is-but-I-want-it-now-and-you-should-really-figure-out-what-I'm-thinking. DUH."
My favorite example of this is when I get him up in the morning. We go over to the window and look outside onto the backyard. We have the kiddie pool and Weston's bike out there, and lately, he will make the sign for "more" while babbling excitedly about something. "More" used to mean that he was hungry and wanted more food, but now I think it means "I want to swim / ride my bike / eat another banana." Only he knows what he wants, but it's getting a bit easier to figure it out.
We've had some 90-degree days here, and Weston LOVES his swimming pool. All day long: "Water? Water?"
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