Baby Signing Time

A friend has asked me about a post I put on our Facebook group A day in the Peas Pod where I talked about baby signing. "CG has just learned to sign banana and more so once again we are going through bananas at an alarming rate. At least they're good for him because I can't seem to get him to eat anything else. Yesterday we bought a huge hand of bananas so I'm sure he'll decide he doesn't want them anymore. Lol."

So I thought in response to her, and to all you out there who are wondering about whether baby sign is a load of boohockey, I'd give you my insights.

Does Baby Sign language work; the answer is a resounding YES. If you feel like reading more background on it try the compendium of all internet knowledge (and of course if you trust it) says take a look at Wikipedia's post on the subject.  

I first became interested in Baby Sign long before Curious George was born. Friends of ours had used it with their little ones to great effect. I had always been sceptical and wondered whether it might actually delay speech rather than assist with it. After all if you can make yourself understood by signing why would you need to talk. 

My best friend started doing a sign for milk with her son when he was around 4 or 5 mnths old and that got me thinking about it again. We tried the sign for milk for a while and he actually used it when he was 6mnths old. But it felt like it was really high maintenance and I was not really seeing any results. So I forgot about it for a while. 

Then when CG got to 11mnths old he really was very frustrated (and so were we) that we could not work out what he was asking for. He would point and fuss and make sounds but we seldom got it right. Often I would end up carrying him around while he pointed until we got to what he wanted. It made for very difficult dinner times. 

During this time we realised that he is quite strong willed and he is quite prepared to descend into tears if you can't guess what he wants. He also will not have his mind changed for him. I was putting out a whole selection of tubs with different foods at snack time and he would decide what he wanted. He also doesn't forget when he's seen something he wants as you'll see from my What a Memory post.

So we decided that we are really going to need to be able to communicate with him in the next while before he is able to communicate verbally. So with this in mind and in true Peas Pod fashion, we have forged ahead full steam and are making the most astounding progress. I thought about buying a book, as I would usually do when I want to know something, but I had read about a dvd which I thought might be cool. That way someone else could do the repetition for CG which is what I'm so bad at. 

Baby Sign takes a huge amount of consistency and repetition. Basically the way it works is that every single time you say a word you want to teach your baby to sign you must make the sign as well. You can also help them make the sign. I am adverse to teaching CG a sign for everything, like random stuff like dog or cat; I just want him to be able to express his needs so he is not so frustrated. 

The dvd we bought is called Baby Signing Time and its awesome and terribly catchy, both my husband and I find ourselves singing the songs all day long. I decided on this one for a number of reasons:

• it’s really great because it’s simple
• it uses fun songs (play) to teach the signs rather than flash cards or some other form of grossly formal boring twaddle
• it uses images of toddlers doing the signs themselves
• the first dvd is based on everyday subjects and has very useful signs
• the dvd is broken into segments by themes which are very short from 3 - 5 min each so you can limit the viewing time.
• its affordable (the South African Baby Sign package is very expensive) whereas this dvd was like R135 on Loot. 

The only issue is that it’s American and so it uses some Americanisms. I was not bothered by this because as far as I'm concerned a sign is a sign, as long as you and your child understand each other that's all that matters. So I just always watch the dvd with him and say the South African word over the American one, like biscuit instead of cracker. I also found that there is an awesome Baby Signing Time blog.

Curious George loves the dvd so much he actually asks for it by making the signing sign. We only allow it once a day and never less than an hour before a bedtime. It’s super cute to see him totally engrossed, so much so that you are not allowed to help him make the signs because you are interrupting. We repeat the signs with him whenever they are called for throughout the day. So far he uses milk, banana, biscuit, more and a variation of eat. 

So I would definitely encourage you to use baby sign however it must be used in conjunction with saying the word. Every time you use the sign you must say the word. That way you are not delaying their ability to learn to speak but rather giving a physical association to the word.