Guest poster Carrie and baby Samantha #1 ~ Guest

Posted on January 8, 2014 by chris

Carrie

Mother of 1 girl

Baby signing since 11 months

Number of signs = 3

Hi, my name is Carrie and I have a 1 year old baby girl named Samantha.  We started signing when Sam turned 11 months old using the Definitive Baby Signing Program.  It took us just 4 weeks for Sam to start signing back.  The Fast Track to Signing Program was awesome.  It was an easy to follow, step-by-step guide.

Sammy starting signing MILK, EAT and MORE after her 3rd week!  We’re now going to start some other signs like routine signs so we’re doing signs like DIAPER, SLEEP, including some foods like BANANA, APPLE and PEAS.  She really loves PEAS and other fruits so I think she’ll sign these back really quickly.  I don’t want to start too many signs at the same time since I’m new to signing and don’t want to overwhelm my baby even though I think she’d be able to handle them!

The course has a wonderful signing dictionary and I can see us learning to sign many, many words.  My husband is just watching us sign for now, but is amused that Sam can actually “talk” to us!

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What Happens To Signing After Language Development? ~ Chris

Posted on January 1, 2014 by chris

I would say the most common thought on the matter is that a baby will delay speaking as long as possible, then only when pushed from parents and family, will start to speak.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, singing will wither away gradually as your baby is able to express themselves clearly with language.  My son would use signs often even after speaking the words clearly, however.  But he’d almost always say the words along with the sign.  Some words, he’d sign and say, while others he would drop the sign and say it instead.  Still, other words he’d prefer to sign even after being able to say the words, but only if he couldn’t say them well.  In other words, he used signs to clarify and assist him in the most efficient way possible in light of his communication skills and abilities.

By in large, these are the variations your baby will experience too once they’ve been taught to sign.  This just goes to reinforce the thought that signing is a tool, and not in any way a means to delay speaking.  As soon as your baby is ready to replace a word for a sign, he will.  It’s not much more complicated than that!

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Signing Is Language! ~ Courtney

Posted on December 25, 2013 by chris

I was home with the baby for the holiday weekend after not seeing some of my family for several months.  His aunt and uncles were eager to play with him, which meant signing with him as well!  It was really the first time that I witnessed him using signs consistently with someone other than my husband or myself.  When he was having fun, he asked for MORE.  When he saw a teddy bear and wanted his uncle to retrieve it for him, he did the sign for BEAR.  When he noticed the pumpkin decorations or heard birds outside, he told whoever he was with all about it with his signs!  The best thing was that this little 16-month-old was communicating and the adults were all too happy to figure out what he was saying.  Numerous times my brother would come in the room and ask what a certain sign meant.  When I told him he would say, “I thought so,” or “That makes sense,” and go back to answer my son.  With others eager to grant requests and sign back, signing truly is a language!

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The Final Word On Why We Sign With Our Baby ~ Chris

Posted on December 18, 2013 by chris

There are many reasons why signing with your baby is a worthy pursuit.  The research is clear, baby’s who sign have advanced vocabulary and reading skills, have reduced tantrums because it gives a baby an early voice, and increases IQ.

However, this is NOT why we sign and I would advocate that you not sign for these reasons either.  I would recommend that you sign with your baby because it’s fun!  It’s fun to watch your baby learn about their world.  It’s fun to share in your baby’s learning experiences, to notice what they do, to have conversations about things that interest them, to be able to meet their needs and wants, to connect with them.

Baby sign language is about build a strong bond with your baby on a deeper level than that which can occur in silence and babble.  Signing gives your baby the power to speak specific words and request precise things.  Your baby doesn’t have to look, point and whine when they want a drink, they can simply ask for WATER or MILK.  You won’t have to guess by poring out two glasses, just ask your signing baby what he wants, and he’ll tell you!

So while we enjoy having a “smart” baby as a side benefit, we enjoy connecting with him even more.  We enjoy talking with him one-on-one and seeing the world through his fresh eyes.

We sign with our baby because it’s fun.

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Combining Signs For GRANDPA, SEEDS, MORE ~ Chris

Posted on December 11, 2013 by chris

I remember when Grandpa paid us a visit, naturally that meant it was time to show off baby signing skills.  It was just after Halloween so we had pumpkin seeds around and where munching on them.  We quickly looked up the sign for SEED after my son showed interest in what we fussing about.  We showed the family how we could teach our son signs even when he couldn’t say the words.  The sign for SEED is done by brushing the fingertips together tip to tip as if sowing seeds, with the palm facing downward.  We did the sign a few times, had Grandpa do the sign, then mom and dad did it too.  We gave my son a few seeds and repeated the sign.

After a few minutes my son was easily doing a sign approximation for SEEDS by itself to ask for more.  This is a pretty common thing – when a baby signs something it usually they want more of it.  For example, signing MILK isn’t an attempt to discuss how it comes from cows (or mom!), but rather in effort to get more of it.  However, to our astonishment, our boy began combining signs.  He signed MORE and SEEDS.  He had completed a signed sentence which is defined as two or more words signed in quick succession.  You might not find this all that amazing, but as far as a developmental milestone, it is.  It didn’t stop there though, as he followed his second word with GRANDPA!  This was the first time he combined three signs together into a sentence.

Without signs, my son would have been far off communicating his wants.  Instead he might have made rudimentary grunts or reached toward the seeds and made eye contact with the person he wanted to grab them for him.  Signing gave him the power to speak directly to a person and make a clear request.  This is why signing gives children the edge in language development.  As signing babies progress they use the foundation provided by sign language to construct the rules of communication.  Because signing babies have labels for the things around them, they can move onto more advanced things.  Non-signing babies are still working on labels and only when they have mastered enough of these, can they create sentences.  This means they play catch-up to the signers.

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