Teaching
Baby Sign Language
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Sign
language can be a fun and effective way to communicate
with your baby before s/he starts to talk. While being
able to talk would be the best for a baby, but that
is impossible.
However, if you can
teach your baby sufficient amount of sign language,
then s/he would be able to carry out some of the necessary
essential communication.
Benefits of
teaching sign language to your baby
Teaching sign language
to your baby has both immediate and long term benefits.
Sign language opens a whole new world of communications
to your baby.
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S/he now has an option to communicate
with you using the sign language s/he has learnt. S/he can
let you know about his/her state of being tired, wet or hungry
using this language.
As a result the quality and
quantity of parent-child relationship gets a boost.
In
summary, following are the key benefits of teaching your baby
sign language.
- Babies get to
send early warning to parents about their states of discomfort,
which may include hunger, wetting and tiredness.
- Babies who have
learnt sign language tend to show a lot of reduction in problematic
behavior such as tantrums and irritations.
- Babies who learn
sign language have been found by researchers to learn spoken
languages faster and have a better vocabulary.
- The mental development of
these babies advance faster compared to those who do not learn
sign language.
- As babies learn
to speak, they tend to show a better capability to focus on
the rights topics and contexts of conversations and situations.
- In general,
the health of parent-child relationship gets a boost early
on in the life of the baby and that stands a better chance
to hold in the longer run.
How to start
teaching your baby sign language
You must start
to teach sign language to your baby at the right age. The
right age is six to seven months in case of most of the babies,
although a little latter is also acceptable. If you start
teaching your baby sign language at an age of six months,
then you may expect your baby to start using sign language
at an age of seven-and-a-half to eight months or so. And as
your baby grows older, s/he will use more and more of such
sign language. As the baby learns to speak, s/he will gradually
replace the sign language symbols by spoken words. And interestingly,
these babies would usually start learning to speak earlier
compared to other babies without equivalent knowledge of sign
language.
Babies learn fast.
So if you plan to teach him/her sign language then always
try to stay a couple of steps ahead of him/her. In case you
do not know sign language at all, then make it a point to
start learning it from a few fundamental symbols that are
essential for babies. Hunger, wetness, tiredness, mother and
bottle may be some good starting points. Remember not to overwhelm
your baby with too many symbols at a time. Give him/her a
bit of time to learn instead of cramming it on. S/he would
be best off if you start with three or four elementary symbols
that are essential for your baby, and then gradually expand
the base.
Note that it may
be easier for the baby if you start with physical objects.
This is because once you start showing the symbols to the
baby s/he will be able to relate to such objects if you show
the same to the baby. Make sure that the baby realizes that
you are trying to communicate with him/her. If you show too
many symbols too rapidly then s/he may not even realize that
you are trying to communicate and may end up ignoring your
messages completely. That would be a complete waste of your
efforts. Make it a point to establish eye contact while starting
to teach since that will tell your baby that you are trying
to teach him/her something essential.
How to continue
once you have started the process of teaching successfully
Once your baby
has started picking up sign language, s/he knows what to expect
when you make all those symbols. Now is your time to build
upon the great foundation building job that you have already
carried out. Make sure that you use the sign language consistently
with your baby for communication. Remember that your little
one is a fast learner, so once s/he starts learning, simply
do not hold back. Keep adding new symbols frequently for your
baby to pick up. Make sure that s/he does not forget the older
symbols too quickly.
You shall be pleasantly
surprised that within a month or month-and-half your baby
will start communicating back with you using the same sign
language. This will in turn make your conversations with your
baby interactive. Now is the best time to move faster forward.
Expand your base and start using picture books designed for
babies and children. The bigger and colorful pictures are
normally more attractive to younger babies, so use them by
all means. Using those picture books, start teaching more
advanced symbols to your baby such as "dog", "cat", "garden"
and so on. As you proceed, your little one will keep pace
with you and keep enjoying the lessons. Gradually, you shall
find your baby learning to speak and very quickly learn the
vocabulary desired to express all the objects that s/he had
learned as symbols.
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