Baby Signs

Mama bought herself a set of tool to guide me on sign language. She has consulted a fren on the course. It was a day course .

She strongly believes that baby signing does benefits and creates a better bonding between us.

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Baby sign language is rapidly becoming very popular with many of today's new parents. This early method of communication has so much potential, both positive and negative, that I feel compelled to share some of what I've learned about hand signs for babies.

There are many different versions and styles of baby sign language, but they all have one thing in common - They provide a way for parent and child to communicate with each other long before the infant is capable of speaking. Babies hand signing works because the child can control some of their hand movements long before they can do much with their vocal cords.

Non-verbal communication is very important to a child's early development. It gives them practice in sharing their needs, and lets them exert some degree of control over their own environment. Simply put, non-verbal communication provides an alternative to the usual frustration and crying (which also means a LOT less stress for the parents).

Unfortunately, most words and letters in standard sign languages such as A.S.L. (American Sign Language) are far too difficult for a baby to use. The child is still learning the gross motor skills he or she needs, and is months or years away from having the finger dexterity required for a standard sign language. Further, unless as a parent, we continue to use it themselves, the infant almost certainly will not use the sign language anymore once they have adequately developed their verbal skills.

Non-verbal signing is also a great way to understand what's going on in your child's mind. Most children are able to start using a few different signs by the time they are 7 or 8 months old, and can have a vocabulary of more than 35-50 "words" by their first birthday.

Babies can start using hand signs as early as about 7 months, but what about for even younger infants? In the same way that an infant can communicate with their hands before their vocal cords, they can control the lips and tongue long before the hands. You can start with 1 or 2 "lip signs" almost from the time to time now!

It's fun when you see them progressing .Zoe has picked up a few - like eating, full, milk, ball, bath, bubbles, more, water, drink, apple , flower, cat and dog. I am delighted to see her results and i am sure she will be picking up more soon.

( Do not rush while practising with them; times needed for them to get use to signing. Do start with few common actions - maybe - Eat ( MUM MUM) , drink , water and more. You will be surprised to see how your child responses to you. )Be patient and do enjoy!