MORE Was His First Sign ~ Chris

Posted on February 1, 2017 by chris

I remember my son’s first sign – MORE.  It’s an obvious choice for many reasons.  It’s transferable from situation to situation giving you lots of learning opportunities, it’s easy for a baby to do, and it can be immediately rewarded.  To teach the sign, have lots of food handy, just model the sign for your baby, help them do the sign by guiding their tiny hands together, then give them food.  Every time food runs out, just ask them if they want more and model the sign.  Eventually, your baby will figure this whole deal out and do the sign on their own.  There are many teaching techniques more complicated that space and time permits here, so join up and read all about baby sign!

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You’re Your Baby’s Model ~ Courtney

Posted on January 25, 2017 by chris

Remembering that you are always a model for your signing child gets a little more difficult the more he begins to sign.  Most of my baby’s signs are approximations.  For example, his sign for COOKIE has never resembled the cookie cutter that it should.  Rather, he touches just his index finger against the palm of his other hand while saying “cookie.”  Likewise, he says “water” and puts his index finger to his lips instead of the W sign.  I know exactly what he wants and because I see these signs several times each day, I have caught myself signing back to him using his approximations!  Even though it seems as though these versions have stuck with baby, I feel it’s important to continue to sign the correct sign to him.  Some people will advocate for home signs, but we believe that it is more beneficial to teach our baby ASL.  He doesn’t say cookie or water correctly yet either, but that doesn’t mean we mispronounce it back to him.  We provide him with the proper model in both languages.

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Signing SLEEP And The Benefits ~ Chris

Posted on January 18, 2017 by chris

Will a toddler really ask to go to SLEEP?  You bet they will if you do it right.  Making a daily routine is a great way to keep a baby on track and comfortable, not to mention confident.  Consistency is everything to a baby, when things can get so out of their control anything that they can predict makes them sane.  After learning the schedule, my little guy would ask me to go to bed, even lead me to the crib.  He knew he needed sleep because the time of the day and his routine and his mood told him that it was so.  By the time he reached 16 months, I’d simply ask him if it was time for a nap and he’d say “night-night” and do the sign for SLEEP.  What a wonderful gift he game me.  I knew he’d go voluntarily, I could plop him in the crib, he’d talk to himself until he drifted off.  I love baby sign!

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The Signing Explosion ~ Chris

Posted on January 11, 2017 by chris

At 15 months my son reached his signing explosion (see actually data above).  In fact, there was a time when we literally ran out of signs-on-the-go.  We weren’t working on anything and yet it was clear that he was interested in signing even more because he’d “talk” about the things he didn’t know and try to say them verbally.  It was time to ramp up our efforts because he couldn’t say the words yet.  When did you know your baby was in the signing explosion and what did you do about it?

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Instantly Solving Problems With Baby Sign Language ~ Chris

Posted on January 4, 2017 by chris

I remember the day when my son figured out where the milk and water is stored!  He’d go over to the fridge naturally and point.  Obviously he wanted something from the fridge, or maybe on top of the fridge?  It was hard to say and non-signing parents might then start a 20 questions game, or maybe show and grunt as they worked over the outside of the fridge, the magnets, the bananas on top of the fridge or the radio!  You might then give up, not even bothering with the fridge contents.  How can a 15 month old baby really want something from inside the fridge?  This routine probably carries itself out hundreds of times throughout the week without signs all over the world.  But what if your baby could sign?  Well he’d just go to the fridge, point and then do the sign for what he wanted, and that’s exactly what my son did.  He brought me over by pointing and indicating, then when I asked him what he wanted and told him to do the sign, he simply did the sign for WATER.  Problem instantly solved!  I just poured him a glass and he chugged it down!  Melt down averted?  Gone to bed thirsty?  Who knows!

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