Learning to Communicate Through Baby Sign Language

What is baby sign language? Babies often use gestures to communicate. A baby's muscles in their hands are developed long before they can speak. By the time they are one most children will wave bye-bye when someone says "Bye-bye." My niece blows kisses when her mom says, "Blow kisses." Baby sign language takes advantage of this developmental ability and helps babies give meaning to gestures. Many parents start the use to teach baby sign language with children as young as six months. As soon as an infant's fine motor skills are developed enough to make gestures they are old enough to start signing.

Any parent and their child can use baby sign language. You can use signs that have already been developed or make up your own signs. As a parent you teach your child signs that represent common objects, desires, and needs that your baby has. Then your baby can communicate what they want with you.

What are the benefits of baby signing? There are many benefits to teach baby sign language both to the parent and the infant. Babies who know baby sign language can communicate their needs and desires. This eliminates much crying and frustration. A 2000 study published by BabySigns.com showed that infants who learn baby sign language are often more advanced in their speech and language skills. Infants who use sign language learn to associate words with objects and needs at an earlier age. So once they are develop mentally able to say words they already have a large vocabulary established. Just like a child stops crawling after they can walk a child usually stop signing when they can talk, although occasionally they may use a sign along with speech.

Parents who use baby sign language find that they experience less frustration because they know what their baby wants. Many parents also feel that they have a stronger bond with their child because they can better understand and meet their infant's needs.

Baby sign language provides a sense of satisfaction for both the parent and child, as they are able to communicate effectively with each other. When my second daughter was about one year old I began teaching her a few signs. It was so nice to be able to communicate with her, especially since she ended up having speech issues, as she got older.

How do you teach baby sign language? If you are interested to teaching baby sign language to your baby, the process is simple but requires dedication. First pick one-three signs that you want to teach your child. Usually parents' start with need based signs like milk, eat, bottle, or nap. Choose a sign from an on-line dictionary at a site like www.signingbaby.com or make up your own. Then every time you offer your child food you would make the sign for eat and also say, "Eat." It usually takes two-three weeks for a child to respond with the given sign. But most children understand the sign long before they use it themselves.

After your child has learned a sign introduce a new one as well as continuing to use previous signs. You can start adding signs like ball, book, and family names. This way your child will have a wide variety of signs that they can choose from to communicate their needs. For more information about teaching baby sign language visit www.signingbaby.com or other baby sign language sites.

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