Learn Sign Language With Your Baby
When my children were still at preverbal stage, I used words combining with some gestures to communicate with them. Waive my hands to say goodbye or shake my head indicating no, patting my hip to say a diaper change…something like that. My children easily understood me and imitated my gestures and words as well.
Recently more and more parents learn baby sign language. Why? Dr. Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn stated that babies wish to talk long before they can form words. According to some research, babies who are taught sign language:
- Will have an earlier understanding of the English language
- can learn to speak earlier
- may stimulate intellectual development and have a higher I.Q.
- could have a deeper bonding and effective communication with parents
- would reduce frustration because they can express their wants and needs
As parents, we are very lucky because there are a lot of resources offered on the internet, like:
- Born2Sign - Infant Sign Language – teaching babies to sign with online sign dictionary
- Sign2Me.com – provides with multimedia resources to help establish two-way communication between hearing parents and their hearing children through the use of American Sign Language signs.
- Michigan State University: an online American Sign Language (ASL) browser- offers video of thousands of ASL signs and other interesting things.
What you only need is to learn a few words, like milk, sleep, diaper change……that your baby needs at the moment and let more new words gradually come in along the way as your baby grows. That’s easy and fun!
March 17th, 2006 at 12:02 am
One resourse I think is really helpful, which includes music and sign language, is the Pick Me Up! Fun Songs for Learning Signs book and CD. It incorporates lots of signs that are important for babies to communicate to parents, such as: mommy, daddy, food, more, milk, change my diaper, and many more. I found it easy to learn and my son loves the songs. He is almost ten months old and he is already signing mommy, daddy, more and finished. I try to use the signs all day long to reinforce what we learn in the songs. I use it along with the Michigan State University online American Sign Language browser to make sure I am signing correctly. Good luck signing!
March 17th, 2006 at 7:49 am
Very resourceful and informative! Thanks a lot, Crissy.
May 4th, 2006 at 4:10 am
On PBS (in the US on TV, but also available on DVD), we have signing time. It’s a great show featuring kids learning ASL (American Sign Language).
With my son, he is showing great aptitude at 11 months for understanding signs we make but a lot of reluctance to make them back at us. In fact, he only does the sign for nursing *while* he’s already nursing. Oh well.
http://www.rookiemoms.com/give-your-baby-the-sign