Baby Sign Language Works Wonders - guest post

Baby Sign Language Works Wonders

A guest post by Angela Quisumbing

Co-founder San Diego Mom’s Night Out 

My daughter just turned three years old and to this day people, strangers and family alike, always tell me how clearly she speaks. My mom always tells me that she talks like a mature little girl. My sister says she is a woman trapped in a little girl’s body! You get the idea. When people notice that Alana is very well spoken, I usually attribute it to three things, okay maybe four.

1        She has awesome parents ;)

2        The fact that we started reading to her when she was still in the womb

3        Subconsciously we did not talk baby talk to her

4        Baby sign language classes at six and 18 months with Sign4Baby

I always knew I wanted to teach my baby sign language. Personally, it was one language I wanted to know, but I also did some research and found that it is very helpful for babies to learn sign language to better communicate. I was surprised at how quickly Alana picked up. Her first signs were ‘dog’ and ‘milk’. It was so helpful, and not to mention amazing, to know that my little girl could communicate with me using her hands before she could even speak. Although she is talking non-stop now, she still occasionally uses her signs like ‘please’ when she really wants something. It literally blew my mind just learning how much children can retain when taught in a welcoming and loving environment.

My favorite is when she learned to sign ‘I love you,’ another sign she used often, especially when I would tell her “I love you” while nursing. Instead of getting off the boob, she would hold up her hand and sign to me that she loves me.

If anything, learning sign language is a great bonding experience for your entire family since as parents, we become our children’s first teachers.

Check out The Pinky Project to learn more about our adventures with baby sign language and Sign4Baby.

Joann Woolley is owner and instructor of Sign4Baby in San Diego teaching parents how to communicate with their pre-verbal baby using American Sign Language. With her in depth knowledge of ASL as her first language she takes you beyond just the basics in signing, also filling your parenting tool belt with parenting tips and tricks coupled with signing as a great boundary teaching tool for toddlers. Want to know which signs most parents start with but gets them stuck in the mud? I'll send you that hundred dollar tip for FREE.

When I thought it was SWEATER

One day recently driving Owen to school he asked me for what sounded to me like SWEATER. He doesn't have any sweaters so even though I knew the answer to this question I asked anyways, "You want your sweater?" I was driving so I couldn't even turn to look at him and see what he might be reaching for on the floor of the van. Owen persisted and said "I want my insert-unknown-item-here." I again asked if it was a sweater and knew my attempt to understand with the exact same follow up question was futile. When Owen started to get frustrated I explained to him that I was trying my best to hear his word but it was hard for me to understand, then asked him to say it again, believing I could strain my ears enough to make out his word.

Instead Owen surprised me and fell back to a tool that he extrapulated from our use of baby sign language. See, he had been effective at being his own interpreter in many situations before where I did not know his words and he instead fell back to the sign or went to point out the object or on occassion we went through a series of questions to determine what the item he desired was. He began to describe what the word was, "gold, pirates find it" and then I got it! He had been saying "I want my treasure." Not in a million years would I have guessed that treasure would sound like sweater coming out of his mouth, but it did, it sounded just like sweater from the mouth of a 3 year old. I had never shown Owen the sign for TREASURE, in fact, I don't know it myself. But we have used such a plethora of signs in our family that even when the kids don't know a sign for it, their brain has figured out that there is another way to get their poin across.

A preschool teacher once informed me that about 50% of what 3 year olds say is understood by the general population, and it varies with each child. Of course moms understand a great deal more of what their own child is saying, I call that the mommy ear. But, still there are plenty of times well past toddlerhood where a child is still expanding their vocabulary at a rapid pace and their ability to enunciate the word exactly is still just shy for us to understand them 100% of the time.

I had to laugh when I figured out that Owen wanted his treasure and again thanked my lucky stars for the fact that I was born a CODA, Child Of Deaf Adult, so that ASL was my first language and it was a no brainer that I would teach my children to sign as we are still experiencing the benefits of it even though Owen is 3 1/2 years old.

Joann Woolley is owner and instructor of Sign4Baby in San Diego teaching parents how to communicate with their pre-verbal baby using American Sign Language. With her in depth knowledge of ASL as her first language she takes you beyond just the basics in signing, also filling your parenting tool belt with parenting tips and tricks coupled with signing as a great boundary teaching tool for toddlers. Want to know which signs most parents start with but gets them stuck in the mud? I'll send you that hundred dollar tip for FREE.

These Words Sound Alike: Juice, Shoes, Zoo, Blue

Thank goodness for American Sign Language and the fact that it has given me the ability to give my children the ability to interpret their toddlerese into words I can comprehend.

Many parents of toddlers know that JUICE and SHOES are top of the list of favorite things. And it just so happens that the sound of J and the sound of S let alone SH are challenging for toddlers to make so those two words JUICE and SHOES sound an awful lot alike coming from the mouths of babes.

I'm not sure how many times over the course of parenting 3 little ones I thought my child had said juice and it was in fact shoes or vice versa, but it was a lot. Enough that I knew to share with parents in my classes that these are words to consider listening for and looking for and bother teaching their baby/toddler the signs for to avoid a common frustration in communication breakdown.

Sometimes it ends up being words that rhyme that sound alike (but not always), so as my toddlers vocabulary grew and ZOO and BLUE were added, those became words I would at times need to ask "Can you sign it?" Usually that was after they had said JUICE cup for example and I thought they were asking for the BLUE cup. Silly things like this result in tantrums in many households where they don't have a tool to navigate the words that are being misunderstood. Many times I could just pause and ask my children to "show me" what they wanted. In our household "show me" could either be 1) show me the sign OR 2) show me the item --- and then I'll show you the sign so we avoid future communication breakdowns.

Stay tuned for more stories of words that sounds alike coming from the mouths of babes ; )

Joann Woolley is owner and instructor of Sign4Baby in San Diego teaching parents how to communicate with their pre-verbal baby using American Sign Language. With her in depth knowledge of ASL as her first language she takes you beyond just the basics in signing, also filling your parenting tool belt with parenting tips and tricks coupled with signing as a great boundary teaching tool for toddlers. Want to know which signs most parents start with but gets them stuck in the mud? I'll send you that hundred dollar tip for FREE.

7 ways we communicate non-verbally

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In the event that any parents are wondering whether signing is worthy of their time and effort (since there's already so much to learn on the parenting rollercoaster) here are a few examples of ways we already communicate non-verbally.

1. Waving: we wave hi and bye whether you're trying to teach your baby to sign or not.

2. Playing peek-a-boo: a favorite amongst babies as they learn object permanence.

3. Clapping hands: a way to cheer on our littles when they master a new skill, do something cute, or demonstrate understanding.

4. Pointing: trying to get something we want to showing someone "look."

5. Blowing kisses and giving hugs: expressions of our love without saying a word.

6. Making faces: sometimes your look says it all!

7. Dancing: one of the best expressions of oneself, especially uninhibited children.

Babies want to express themselves as much as we do. Signing gives them the ability to help us help them. It feels great to be understood, to have validation that we are "heard" and it is no different for babies. The look on their face when they see you understand them or when they get to interject in a conversation is worth all the energy, time and money you may spend on creating this early communication bond through baby sign language.

Joann Woolley is owner and instructor of Sign4Baby in San Diego teaching parents how to communicate with their pre-verbal baby using American Sign Language. With her in depth knowledge of ASL as her first language she takes you beyond just the basics in signing, also filling your parenting tool belt with parenting tips and tricks coupled with signing as a great boundary teaching tool for toddlers. Want to know which signs most parents start with but gets them stuck in the mud? I'll send you that hundred dollar tip for FREE.