Using signs to talk to your baby
Written by mactier@bigfoot.com
(Can be found at http://www.geocities.com/mactiers/babysigns.html)

Using signs to talk to your baby

When my son, Matthew, was nine months old I read a book called "Baby Signs" by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn. The idea of using signs made a lot of sense to me and it sounded like fun. I thought Matthew might be a slow talker, since he's learning three languages at once.

I started using it with Matthew when he was nine months old. A month later he used his first sign for light. By fifteen months he was using about 30 signs. Using signs did not replace or slowed down talking, but rather encouraged it. At fifteen months he also used about 50 words.

I've decided to make this page about signing with babies, when I realised how little people know about it and how few are using it. Let me give you some reasons why I think it is a great idea to use sign language to communicate with your baby:

Relating different words to the same sign

Matthew is learning English, Afrikaans and Sotho at the same time and the signs help him to relate the three words in the different languages to the same sign. Words that sound totally different like bird, inyoni and voël now all have the same sign!!

Signs give meaning to words

Signing draws your baby's attention to a particular word. Making him aware that there's actually some useful meaning to it instead of being just yet another sound. Matthew definitely pays more attention to what I say when I use signs together with it. Signs give meaning to abstract words like wind, hot and cold. Tell your baby that the wind is blowing and he has no idea what you're on about, but use a sign, mimicking a blowing wind, and suddenly it makes so much more sense!!

Communicating from a young age

Signs helped Matthew to communicate from a very young age. Because we understood him, he felt less frustrated. One evening he was having his dinner, when he suddenly looked into the bedroom and gave the sign for a dog. He insisted that his Daddy take him out to go look for that dog. I think (hope) that it might have been the pillow on the bed that reminded him of a dog.

Encouraging Communication

Because he's understood he's encouraged to communicate more. Being able to communicate builds his confidence level. I also found that I'm more tuned in to his gestures - so that I understand all other kinds of "signs" as well. I "listen" better.

Stimulating the grey matter

Through the use of signs your baby is stimulated on a different level. According to research toddlers that used infant signs had a bigger vocabulary at the age of two than those kids who didn't.

The Baby Signs book

Signing with your baby is quite basic and I don't think reading the Baby Signs book is essential, but I found it interesting. I will try to capture some of the basics of it for you. You invent a sign for a word. For example a dog would be tongue out and panting. I know, it's quite a circus. The book does give you signs, but we also invented quite a bit of our own. Some of the things the book say:

1. Ten to eleven months is a good age to start and some kids catch on quicker than others. I would suggest to start as soon as your baby shows an interest in communicating with you.

2. Begin by appreciating the signs you're already teaching. For eg waving good bye and shaking your head for no.

3. The authors suggested starting with signs for "hat, bird, flower, fish and more". I didn't. We started with "fish, flower, bird, more, dog and light". I picked light because he was fascinated with lights at that stage and that was the first sign he used. I would suggest starting with signs that is important in your child's life - it might be useful to use signs for words like hungry, thirsty, tired.

4. As soon as he picked up the first five introduce another five. Once he's got this five going you can introduce as many as you want.

5. Always use the sign and the word together - with animals I use a sign, word and a sound.

6. Find as many as possible situations to use the sign - every day situations, toys, books, nursery rhymes, songs, etc.

7. Get the whole family to "sign" - older kids are especially helpful.

8. If your child invent his own signs go with those signs - Matthew invented his own signs for ball, phone and music.

Something else about signing with your baby

We used some of the signs for quite some time before he started using it. Like the sign for "more" we used since the very beginning and it took him about three or four months before he used it. He has never used it for more food or more drink, but only when he wants more rides in a cardboard box. One other thing is that once he started using the word he dropped the sign. I was a bit sad to see the signs go.

I've read somewhere that interesting people use a lot of gestures when they talk… so if the signs did nothing else, at least it turned him into an interesting toddler!!

Have fun teaching your baby sign language and if you have any questions, stories or suggestions email me and tell me!!