Signing, not Speaking?

[charmedbyekkie]

Hi guys! Despite my verbosity when typing, I do forget to talk aloud sometimes (blame it on the few years of homeschooling). Cairo himself doesn't always talk - sure, he'll practice a couple of times a day, and he'll talk to you if he wants a treat - but overall, he explores and plays quietly. And the little bugger won't even contact call back if he sees you (but you can't find him!) (he's a good boy, though, he'll contact call back if you call and he can't see you).

For recall training, I do call him from one room to another. But if he's within eyesight, all I need to do is gesture and he'll fly over. And for sending him to specific locations ("perch" and "bed"), he doesn't always respond if I just say the word, he needs to hear the word AND see me point (pointing by itself sometimes works). I do have specific gestures for his other tricks ('shake' is one finger to the side of him, 'wave' is a wave at him, 'flip' is two fingers at his belly).

I'm just wondering if this is... healthy for him? As in, am I stunting his growth by not attaching verbal cues? Should I be encouraging him to use his words more? He doesn't use his words for specific things yet. Yes, he does a quiet ekkie call at me when I get home after work, but apart from that, 'hello' is for attention/treats/contact call, 'Cairo' commands us (typically to let him out), 'peekaboo' seems to be a filler, whistling is to contact call/summon us, and laughing is to join in flock behaviour. And he practices 'step up' and 'good boy' but has never used them with us. He hasn't picked up, let alone practiced, 'makan' for eating meals (I try to say this every time I feed him) or 'night night' for sleep time (whenever I cover up his cage or he calls from underneath the cover, we say this) or his magic potty phrase (he does make a sound now as an FYI, though).

Don't get me wrong, I'm ok with Cairo not having a wide vocabulary. If he just said 'hello' all day long, I'd be cool with that. I'm just concerned that I'm inhibiting his learning. I know other people won't know the gestures (and the gestures only seem to work when I do them), and I want him to be able to express when he's hungry or needs water or wants something because even my partner sometimes misses Cairo's subtle body cues.

Should I be pushing him to 'use his words' more? If so, how? Or should I just let him be?

 

[chris-md]

No no no no.

Simple

You’re not stunting his growth and development by using hand signals, that’s a perfectly valid training method. If you want to increase any talking, that’s easily accomplished by giving treats whenever he talks. But it’s not necessary to do so.

You’re perfectly fine

 

[ChristaNL]

Hahahahaha, no way ... (you doing something wrong)
99% of communication between parrots is non-verbal anyway, so it is natural to them


If you want Cairo to be able to communicate (with words) what he needs -- you can always train that of course.

 

[noodles123]

This is smart of you to use hand signals. My thought is that you should pair words so that he knows them though (just in case he ever has to be watched by someone who doesn't know sign). Do you know what I mean? I don't think you would have to say it every time, but enough for him to know the word if he heard it.

 

[wrench13]

Dunno about Ekkies, but I use both verbal and hand signals when trick training Salty. I feel he understands what I want him to do better than if I just use one or the other. But we don't ask him to sing or talk on command, just tricks. Singing and talking are up to him - I think it's more authentic that way. He bursts out into song or starts talking because he wants to.