Imagine that you are alone in a foreign country, with no understanding of the primary language. Without technology or books to guide you, you must navigate your way through this world. Hungry? Need a place to sleep? Where is the train? After many frustrating encounters, you might finally try using your hands to communicate.
Babies and toddlers live in this world every day – they have needs that they cannot verbally express. No wonder they have tantrums! Sign language can help ease this transition from non-verbal to verbal, and, some assert, even increase the speed of language acquisition and spatial reasoning development in toddlers. As long as signing is used in conjunction with speech, it can serve to enhance a baby’s understanding of language. Once the baby can sign back, two-way communication is possible. Parents can speak as they sign (“Yes, that IS a yellow car. Did you hear it?”), and the baby learns to associate signs with words and sounds.
Many parents choose to teach only the most basic signs – milk, sleepy, hungry, etc. – to more effectively meet the most immediate needs of their baby. Any sign can be used, as well, as long as the sign is used consistently. Other parents sign for nearly everything, from “Grandma” to books, toys, animals, and other common objects. In an interview with Signing With Your Baby (http://www.signingbaby.com), multi-lingual family Mariana and Mattis discuss their experience signing with baby Velma. Beginning when she was 6 months old, Mariana and Mattis began signing to Velma. Mariana admits to having doubts about the effectiveness of signing, especially since it took about 3 months for Velma to respond with signing. But, she adds, by her first birthday Velma knew about 10 signs, and within a week she was using 40 signs! By about 15 months, Velma was able to sign phrases, stringing together several signs to relate an idea. Velma’s parents enjoyed watching the different ways she arranged her signs, as well, depending on whether she was using English, Portuguese, or Swedish.
Babycenter.com offers a few helpful tips on how to begin signing with your baby.
http://www.babycenter.com/0_signing-with-your-baby-or-toddler-how-to-communicate…
- As with any new skill, it’s important to go at your baby’s pace and keep it fun. The best time to start is when your baby begins to develop a real desire to communicate. This is usually around 9 or 10 months — you’ll notice your baby is more sociable, starts to babble, and uses noises and facial expressions to get your attention.
- Start with a sign for something she’s interested in. Lots of babies quickly pick up the sign for “more” in relation to food!
- Every time you use the word, show your baby the sign, too. Always use the same sign, use lots of repetition, and emphasize the key word along with the sign, so your baby can clearly see and hear the connection: “Do you want some more? You’d like some more would you? Okay, let’s get you some more!”
- Your baby may try the sign herself after a few days, or it may take several weeks — be patient. Make it as fun as you can. Babies are much more likely to learn from something they enjoy doing.
- If you want to go to baby-signing classes, you’ll see resources listed at the end of this article. Many of the companies that offer classes produce books and DVDs that you might find helpful — look for details on their Web sites.
The site also offers a few signs to begin with:
- “food” — put your finger tips to your lips
- “all gone” — move your hand, palm up, backward and forward
- “scared” — tap your chest again and again
- “hot” — put your hand out and withdraw it quickly
- “where?” — shrug your shoulders, with your palms held out
- “rabbit” — wrinkle up your nose or hold up two fingers
- “car” — steer an imaginary wheel
- “book” — hold hands flat with palms up
Any number of signs can help parents and babies avoid the frustration caused by difficulty in communication. Whether a parent chooses to teach their baby a few signs to ease the transition from infancy to toddlerhood, or teaches a large vocabulary of signs to their baby, enhanced communication can only make things easier. Even without the potential long-term language benefits to babies, signing can provide a means of expression for babies, and can offer parents a window to understanding the thoughts of their baby.
Mariana, Velma’s mother, shared her thoughts on signing with her baby:
I want to say to all parents reading this that signing with Velma has been one of the absolute best parenting choices we have made to date. Really. It allows her to be incredibly specific about her wishes, her thoughts and ideas. It takes away a world of frustration and brings us so much joy… there’s nothing like seeing the happiness in her eyes every time she’s understood! She gets so happy with herself. And not only has signing empowered her, it has given us a wonderful window to her mind, to know how she makes connections, how she perceives the world around her and how she thinks about things. It’s been an incredibly wonderful experience that has far surpassed any of our expectations, I can’t tell you how happy I am that we didn’t give up when it got monotonous or hard in the beginning! (http://signingbaby.com/main/?p=151)
Link to:
Baby Sign Language poster:
http://www.cafepress.com/babies_and_sign.234794112#Signing Story Time is Nourishing Baby’s Brain
http://www.naturalbabypros.com/signing-story-time-nourishing-babys-brainJoann Woolley of Sign4Baby, Master Level Instructor. ASL is her first language (her mother is deaf) and her first sign was ‘milk.’ Her life long experience with signing provides great insight to the language and how babies who sign have lifelong advantages. http://www.naturalbabypros.com/featured/sign4baby
Free Signing Story Time & Nursery Rhymes!
http://www.naturalbabypros.com/free-signing-story-time-nursery-rhymes
