Asking For Gorilla Cereal ~ Chris

Posted on April 8, 2015 by chris

We had been looking more and more into eating gluten-free primarily because we’d had a hunch that my diet demanded it.  Therefore we had been getting more and more gluten free foods in our pantry.  My wife, thankfully, does the shopping.

A funny thing happened when she was at work.  My son and I were hanging out in the kitchen as I was preparing breakfast and he started doing the sign for RAISIN, but when I showed him that he had a container full next to him, he changed his tune and started signing APE.  I was confused!  Then he made the sign for CEREAL so I pointed out the container on the table and handed it to him.  Then he made the sign for APE again.  I took this to mean HELP which we had changed from the ASL version as patting the chest with both palms.  However, he was making small ape sounds, so I got really confused.  Then he started signing CEREAL.  Well, this really put me into a spell!  Finally, after running through these options, he got up and went to the pantry, opened the door and signed APE again.  I thought he wanted HELP so I picked him up and said “Show me” and he did.

First he reached up high for a box of cereal, then recognized what he wanted on a lower shelf.  It was a bag of cereal with an image of an APE printed on the outside.  Mystery solved, my baby wanted his APE cereal!  Because my wife went shopping a few days ago, I didn’t know about the new cereal, but my son did, and was able, with a bit of persistence, tell me exactly what he wanted!  The amazing thing, was that he’d done this just shy of his 17th month.

Signing is such an amazing tool for both you and your baby and opens up so many possibilities.

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Encouraging Others To Sign With Your Baby ~ Chris

Posted on April 1, 2015 by chris

Grandparents love to sign with their grandchildren.  They will be absolutely dumbfounded if they haven’t yet witnessed a signing baby!  Because a baby is of relation will make this new experience even more special.

Start off by taking the time to explain the basics of baby sign language.  Make sure you tell new signers that you always sign and say the word each time.  Be sure to make it clear that baby can hear too and that you’re not supposed to just do the sign by itself!  I have found this to be the most common mistake and probably has a lot to do with the fact that new signers aren’t accustomed to moving their hands in perfect unison with the words they are saying.

Next you will want to do a run down of your baby’s basic signs and the ones he most commonly uses.  Try having your baby show your new signer their version of the sign and then show them how the sign is done (correctly).  This should hopefully spur the new signer to practice the sign a few times themselves.  If you know the route of the sign, tell them an easy way to recall the sign.

Lastly, have your new signer observe your baby in action as they would normally and show them all the wonderful benefits that signing brings to your family.  Over the course of a just a few short hours you’ll hopefully get to demonstrate what a two way conversation appears like with a signing baby!

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Signing As You Read ~ Chris

Posted on March 25, 2015 by chris

If you are running out of ways to talk to your baby then just pick up a book and start signing as you read!  Young toddlers really enjoy identifying objects and animals in books and this gives you an excellent opportunity to introduce signs.

Reading to your baby is easy.  Just prop a book up with a pillow in front of you and put your baby on your lap.  Toddlers can be placed on top of a pillow.  After a while, my son started setting us all up as he’d bring the pillow over, show me where to sit by tapping his finger against the floor and would even choose which book we read!  I prefer to sit behind and have the book out front so we can both read along.  If you prefer, you can put the book between you and your baby and read from upside down so you can watch your baby’s reaction.

At first you can point things out or have your baby point things out for you, from there do the signs for their benefit and have them try to copy you.  Once baby is more advanced try playing games by doing the signs for various things and see if your baby can point them out.  With practice you should be able to do the signs for all or most things in any given baby book.  My son really enjoyed our big Sesame Street book that was passed down from his Aunt.  It was a very busy and very big book (as big as my son) so there was a lot of things to look at.  His favourite sign was the one for ICE CREAM since there was an ice cream vendor mixed into a city landscape.

To get your toddler ready for reading just follow the words along with your finger on the page so your baby knows which words you are reading and that they have meaning.  After just a short time, my son would tap the words with his finger if he wanted me to read them to him.  Book reading doesn’t have to be a cover to cover experience.  Let your baby jump around the book and read whichever pages they prefer.  Often a baby will flip forward and backwards and it takes some time before they can keep their attention on the story or plot.  This isn’t the goal though – you’re just introducing the book as a concept.  Use books to spark topic conversations and use it to produce a more interactive experience for both of you.

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How Old Does My Baby Need to Be to Learn To Sign? ~ Chris

Posted on March 18, 2015 by chris

There’s no reason parents can’t start to sign with newborn babies, and in fact, some do.  While a baby won’t respond until they are at least 4-6 months old, they will still receive some moderate benefit.  Some babies respond in a receptive way, that is, they understand what is being said, much earlier than most might think possible.  This is why many experts promote talking with and around your baby, no matter how young they are.  Talking around your baby habituates them to the sounds that typify language.  Signing around a newborn baby serves the same function.

Babies have been noted to sign back, called expressive language, as early as 4 months in cases when they have been signed to from birth.  Keep in mind that most babies will sign back at around 10 months and some even later and usually within just a few short weeks so long as signs are introduced following a regular program.

Therefore when you decide to start signing has more to do with your goals as a parent.  Do you want your baby to be signing back to you quickly, or are you willing to sign by yourself for a while first?  Most parents find that having some feedback is important to stay motivated and a parent simply wont get anything expressively back from their baby until they are at least 6 months old, with the usual more like 10-12 months.  What you decide to do is a purely personal choice.

My personal recommendation for the first 9-or-so-months of your baby’s life is to familiarize yourself with baby sign language and its rules, learn how to do some signs and practice them in anticipation of making a big push when your baby seems ready to fire on all cylinders.

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How Does My Baby Move From Using Baby Sign Language To Talking? ~ Chris

Posted on March 11, 2015 by chris

Well there’s really not much to it really.  Spoken language is just a natural thing that people do.  Even if you tried to keep signing going, your baby is still going to transition passively into speaking.  If you’ve been saying the words as you’ve been signing them, they’re already well on their way to swapping one for the other.

By 18 months your baby is probably saying a few words already and this will increase to about 50 words by their 2nd year.  Once they reach this milestone words will be added exponentially.  Their mechanical development in their vocal cords coupled with their motor coordination will permit them to speak words that were too complex previously.  Until a baby can say the words, they’ll just sign them.  That’s the beauty of baby sign language – it’s used just as long as it’s useful.

Baby sign language is a stepping stone to speaking.

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