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.
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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. 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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