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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Guest Post – Make Your Life Easier : Sign with Your Baby

I hope you enjoy this guest post from Misty Weaver, Chief Editor from Baby Sign Language

When Misty contacted me about hosting a guest post, I was pretty excited! I used Baby Signs with Nicole. She never really wound up using it to communicate vital needs, but words cannot express how you feel when your six month old gets all excited in Sears and starts signing ‘hat’ at you as you past a hat rack. That was the first moment that I knew for sure she really ‘got’ it and wasn’t just imitating us, and it blew my mind that a six month old, whose time was mostly spent making lovey eyes at the ceiling fan, had that level of comprehension already. I have every intention of doing Baby Signs again with #2, it will be a fun thing for Nicole and I to do together with baby and a lovely way for them to bond! My husband loved baby signs too, by the way. He didn’t participate much until things got exciting, then he loved getting her amped up by signing things like ‘dog’ ‘cat’ and ‘hat’ with her. Even my mom got in on the action, making up signs for Nicole’s true love at the time, the ceiling fan, and of course ‘grandma’ as well.
Enjoy this guest post, Make Your Life Easier: Sign with your Baby, and then check out the website if it piques your interest! Baby Signs isn’t that hard to do, trust me. I’d take it over potty training any day of the week.


What is Baby Sign Language, really? What is all the fuss about? Is this just another gimmick to sell to helicopter parents who want their babies to be Einsteins?

Baby sign language is simply employing a handful of gestures from American Sign Language so that your baby can communicate with you before she learns to speak. The fuss is that baby sign language is fun, and it can be a lifesaver! And no, this is no gimmick, no helicopter, and no promise of A’s in science class.

This is just simple communication.

This is: your baby is teething and it hurts and you don’t know what’s wrong with him and he doesn’t know what’s wrong with you because you are not doing anything and you are supposed to be the parent and it is 2 a.m. and he is SCREAMING!

Wouldn’t you love it if your nonverbal baby could sign to you that his gums hurt, and you could get him the teething ring out of the freezer?

This is: your baby needs a new diaper and you are in line at Wal-Mart and she is embarrassed and uncomfortable so she starts hitting you and everybody in line is staring at you and wondering what you’ve done to your child.

Wouldn’t you love it if your nonverbal baby could sign to you that she needs a new diaper? Wouldn’t you love it if she could do this before everyone else in line at Wal-Mart used their good old olfactory senses to figure out what was going on?

This is: your baby is hungry and he doesn’t know how to tell you so he bites his sister so she hits him and now all three of you are screaming.

Wouldn’t you love it if he asked for something to eat before he used his teeth for evil?

All of this can be yours with Baby Sign Language. Babies and toddlers who sign get frustrated far less frequently than those who don’t. There is less screaming, less crying, and less biting. And you will probably pull your hair out less.

Babies who sign can ask for help when they need it, instead of wondering why mommies can’t read minds. They say, “Milk, not juice” before you pour it. They can tell you that they want to go to bed. (Yes, this does actually happen.) And when they fall down and hurt themselves, they can tell you that yes, it hurts, it hurts right here, and you won’t have to wonder. They can tell you when they are done eating and they can ask to get down from their highchairs. And all of this with just seven basic signs.

We all know that life will get easier when babies do learn to talk. Babies who learn to sign learn to speak at an earlier age than those who don’t sign. They have bigger vocabularies and they speak in longer sentences. So, the benefits just keep coming. Baby Sign Language will make your life easier now, tomorrow, and for years to come.


(comments on this post disabled due to a spambot latching onto it... blogger doesn't allow the spam to show but I'm still getting several emails a day about it and it's getting old.)

1 comment:

  1. Great post! I signed a bit with my first, not so much with my second because it seemed my hands were always full! I loved it and highly recommend it to all new moms. It's been a while, my boys are 7 and 5 now, but I remember how cool was to have them sign to me. Once, we were waiting to cross a street, Tyler was about 10 months old. The cross walk started chirping that it was time to cross. Tyler started signing bird. I didn't see a single bird around and then I realized it was the cross walk he was talking about! It's so neat to communicate when they are so little! Keep spreading the word!

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