Wesley and I have decided to use baby sign language with Baby DB. I am really, really excited about this after having seen it work with kids I took care of back in my daycare days.
Wesley had a healthy dose of skepticism at first but after a good conversation where he brought up some great questions we decided to go for it. We bought a book that has a very readable section of short chapters on how to learn baby sign, what it is and its benefits, and how to teach your baby in an effective and fun manner. The majority of the book is an alphabetically arranged selection of 300 basic signs with photographs and small descriptions of how to do them.
I'm hoping Wesley and I can start learning and using signs with each other immediately so when Baby DB gets here we will already be comfortable with the signs and not have to try and teach ourselves while taking care of a newborn.
I'm also hoping that friends and family will be willing to get in on the fun. It is recommended that you start with a base of 3 to 6 words and build from there. There are a plethora of websites and books about baby sign language that you can look into. Baby sign uses American Sign Language and books on ASL can be rented from the library. Video instructions on signing can also be found online. I will try to post pictures and videos of what Wesley and I are learning to sign so that you can learn along with us.
Wikipedia has an article on baby sign language that cites legitimate research on the subject. One of the research papers quoted states that some of the benefits of baby sign language are:
* larger expressive and receptive spoken language vocabularies;
* more advanced mental development;
* a reduction in problematic behaviours like tantrums resulting from frustration; and
* improved parent–child relationships.
(Acredolo et al., 1999, Goodwyn et al., 2000)
Sounds pretty cool, huh?
ooh teach me!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were talking about it I told Wesley "I bet Jessica would be willing to learn." :)
ReplyDeleteWe taught Maddy some sign language and it has been a LIFESAVER!!! We started with "more", which most often involved food, and she picked up on it in a couple of days. The next few signs came to her VERY quickly. She has just started to speak without the signs. Speaking WITH the signs was a huge help, too. It helped because as her speech was developing, we had the signs to help us understand what she was saying. I think it's GREAT that you guys are planning to teach the baby some signs. Let me know if I can be any help to you. We plan to teach baby #2 as well. He/She is due October 27. When are you due? Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to hear it has been helpful for you. Thank you for the encouragement. Do you have any tips based on your experiences?
We are do September 20th. We both have a hot summer ahead of us! Good luck to you too. :)