The Most Important Gift

What is the most important gift you have given your baby?

For me, it is sort of a tie between breastfeeding my little ones for between 2 and 3 years each AND signing with my babies. Every once in awhile we have a day where the kids are totally interested in re-visiting signs they have not used in awhile and then I'll see if I can verbally coach them to draw the sign from memory. It's pretty fun to see them come up with the sign even when they thought they couldn't remember it. Then usually what follows is a story I tell them about when they would use that sign or first learned it or words that sounded alike and their sign was the only way I could know for sure what they were expressing. Sometimes I'll have a conversation asking my youngest if he remembers that he used to have mommy's milk and I can see him thinking hard about a time that seems so long ago. Being that I tandem nursed twice, my older two saw me breastfeed plenty and it was quite normalized around our house. They don't necessarily see breastfeeding as being special as they know it is a common way for babies to be fed. However, they do know that most children have not been exposed to sign language and so they enjoy hearing these stories about their earliest learning experiences and how their own language developed. It is sort of fascinating to me that they are so curious about their early access to language.

We have such a short window to provide our baby with the best nourishment for optimum development. We have an equally short window to gain some insight to the inner thoughts of our babies. All too soon they will be talking, almost nonstop and the opportunity to truly see the world from their firsthand perspective disappears. I say firsthand perspective because as any signing parent will tell you, a baby signs what they are discovering and what connections they are making. So these parents are not left wondering what their baby is thinking. As a two year old does not have a filter to their thoughts and speaks what is on their mind, a baby does not have a filter to silently think, but rather they sign what they are thinking. Sometimes they sign to no one in particular, they're just thinking aloud.

I have gone on record to say that if I had been forced to choose ONLY ONE of these two incredibly important gifts, I would choose signing with my babies hands down. And that is a pretty strong statement coming from a recovering breastfeeding Nazi. A term I relinquished because it has negative connotations, I have plenty of friends who didn't breastfeed for various reasons and I myself was never breastfed. My younger sister was breastfed.  My mom learned from a relative the importance of breastmilk days after getting home from the hospital with me. When you learn what's best you can't change the past, but just do better with your newfound information. But, I did learn to sign as a baby, as did my sister. I wonder what would be different if I had been breastfed. The fact is, I will never know. All I could do is make the choice to give my babies the two BEST gifts I possibly could in the small window of opportunity available in order to reap all the benefits that each offer.

Tune back in for a comparison of the benefits of singing with your baby and the benfits of breastmilk.

 Amberly just shy of her 2nd birthday and Kyle about 5 months 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.

#Gratitude365 The Rattle Game

I'm currently blogging a series that I've entitled #Gratitude365 on my personal blog, Mommy's Slice of the Pie (where I truly am more sassy and you ought only to follow me there if you desire to know me on a personal level). Today I happened to be noticing a LOT of things that filled me with gratitude, and being that I've just had a long break from teaching (since Thanksgiving!), it was a good feeling to be back "in the classroom" again. Because this moment of gratitude pertains to what I do with Sign4Baby - I decided to share it here and give you a few little nuggets that can help you in your discovery of what your baby is thinking....

One of my returning families from the last session shared with during our introductions that they had hit a plateau with her twin boys picking up signs and she was trying to pinpoint what else would be of interest to them so they could keep building up their vocabulary. The topic of today's class happened to be "just what the doctor ordered" as it's the class where I demonstrate the signs for all the universal things that babies are intrigued by.   

When we were playing the rattle game, one of her boys was responding with great enthusiasm! We all were paying attention, mom, nanny, the other moms in class, and myself. It was clear that he was intentionally reciprocating the message of rattle in this rhythmic game that we played. We play it all throughout the first class because it demonstrates how much fun showing signs to your baby should be - and the mere repetition as a practice - and often by the end of 6 weeks together almost all of the babies and toddlers are basically "asking me to play rattle" with them. Later, after playing a song while his mom was holding him facing outward, he began shaking the rattle again with an incredible smile! We could all tell he was elated to be making this connection and to see the mom's face was pure joy. I have such gratitude for having these moments in class where I get to observe these kinds of breakthrough!

Did anything here help you? I'd love to hear back from you in the comments below.

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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.

My Plumber Analogy

Parents sometimes approach me with the question of why they need a baby sign language class, if the information is online and they can learn that way.

I'll be very honest, I do not market to the DIYers. Although I've had many DIYers in my classes and they love the results they get.

Let me explain it this way... 

We've discovered a leak underneath our sink. I cannot for the life of me fix a leak. I would have to hire a plumber who is trained and knows HOW to do the job effectively PLUS he has the right TOOLS. AND a plumber is NOT CHEAP, but I have a FINITE window of time to take care of this problem. 
Then I start to thinking, I'm a pretty smart woman. I could go online and google some articles/videos... but while I'm spending TIME doing this RESEARCH I'm missing out on valuable time playing with my baby, keeping the house in order and the process has taken a lot longer than I thought. Meanwhile I've wasted a lot of water, bought the wrong tool at the home improvement store and keep emptying the bucket of water as the sink continues to leak, creating more work for myself. Finally after a whole weekend lost to this plumbing issue, I call a plumber, he comes over and fixes the leak within just an hour. We celebrate by going out to dinner.... or rather because the dishes from the weekend are piled high in the sink!

I know HOW to sign and I know HOW to effectively teach babies.
PLUS I have all the right tools to make class educational and fun.
AND my classes are NOT CHEAP.
Your baby is little for a FINITE amount of time. 
I save parents TIME by having done the RESEARCH and packaging it up and delivering the nuggets they need to create hundreds, if not thousands, of conversations and moments of connectedness.

Yes, so in some ways, I'm sort of like the plumber. 

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.

Signing and a Lock Down Drill

A little glimpse into the walls of the Sign4Baby household: 

Owen was just telling me yesterday how they did a "walk through" at school... he kept saying it over and over and was getting mad that I wasn't getting his pronounciation... I had him take a breath and think of other words to describe to me something else to help me understand. I didn't even mention to use a sign, and that is immediately what he used. He signed KEY to demonstrate LOCK... which he knew intuitively is the same without ever having been taught this. Then I got it. They practiced a LOCK DOWN. My heart sank and leapt at the same time. He could effectively tell me what he meant, yet the idea of a LOCK DOWN for a 4 year old with all his classmates and teacher huddled in the bathroom with the door locked pretending there was a bad guy outside and being super quiet... how scary is that?

This scenario has got me thinking about how signing may be an effective tool for teachers to have with their students in these drills though. Imagine how police and military units have hand signals to complete a mission. Kids this age have trouble staying quiet for any length of time, so this could at least give them a vehicle to communicate in a situation where they are have to be quiet and keep their mind occupied at the same time. 

Our children are growing up in far different times than we did.

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.

Ever wonder if signing with your baby is doing much for their brain?

If using gestures while teaching improves learning in kids, I'm going to make the leap and say baby sign language improves learning in babies.

Clapping is a gesture and clearly communicates something
Photo credit: Stills by Hill Photography

A recent study on teaching kids with the use of gestures could make a strong argument for why baby sign language is growing in popularity so rapidly! Check out what they said about that study over at BabyCenter.
 
I watch the babies and toddlers all the time in class and can see the attention span increase when I'm signing, and their responses are different to my just saying something versus asking a question. Every new piece of information is being processed by those marvelous little brains of theirs, and the more senses we invoke in the learning the better it sticks. Much like what I share in Signing Story Time is Nourishing Baby's Brain.

When teaching, I tend to use my hands even when I'm not signing. It seems to help me outline my points when I'm delivering information. I can emphasize a point I'm making. There's something innate about gesturing when we communicate, probably because innate that tells us the other person can better receive our message when we do so. What the study reveals is really no surprise to me. Friends of mine who grew up signing because they were also CODAs (Child of Deaf Adult) tended to be in the advanced classes or perform at the top of their class.

The take away here is that YOU ARE YOUR BABY'S FIRST TEACHER, and they understand way more than we give them credit for, so if children learn better from teachers who use gestures, every parent should be making the investment in signing with their baby and toddler to give them an extra tool for optimized learning.

What do  you think about the study on gestures improving learning?

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.

Here monkey monkey monkey!

When Owen was about a year old we went to the San Diego Zoo with the Sign4Baby Playgroup and had so much fun checking out the Koalas and Kangaroos. Upon arrival there is a huge picture of a Gorilla that Owen immediately pointed out to me by signing and making the goofy gorilla sound (it sounds terribly close to his rendition of an owl). It was funny because he got more excited about the large picture of the Gorilla than seeing the other real animals on the tour we did. It occurred to me that he really enjoys this animal in particular and the only way I could know this is his telling me through sign! The one photographed here is a photo we saw when exiting, yes I know it is not HUGE but the other one was ; ) Our playgroup goes to the zoo once a month to participate in the San Diego Zoo's monthly meetup program.

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.

How I taught my daughter to sign MILK (Part 3)

It is one of my most exciting moments as a mom! The day Amberly signed for the first time. Like mama, her first sign was MILK. It is an easy sign to do for a baby as young as 2 months old (you should check out the story of Owen first signing MILK). After observing her great ability to watch and mimic with keen eyes I decided the day after Valentine's Day that I would have Amberly signing MILK by day's end. You'll want to check out the previous posts relating to this story to see exactly what I mean - Part 1 and Part 2.

We started off like most days, lounging in pjs and nursing on demand and at 4 1/2 months we made it sometimes 2 hours between feeds - she really enjoyed her milk! Each time Amberly showed the first signs of being hungry, I would talk to her about nursing and having MILK even more emphatically than before. This produced a smile, I knew even from this young age that her personality was budding and that she greatly valued being understood. I went to nurse her, after having signed MILK a decent number of times, 3-5.... but not making it take more than a minute to do so. You know how those hungry babies can get fiesty pretty quick if you don't provide the breast or bottle quickly enough!

What I did differently this day than previous days is I'd stop her a couple of times, you know, pop her off the boob and ask her while signing, "Are you having MILK?" If she was so hungry and disinterested in this game I didn't push it. Most times she thought this was fun. The proof? By mid day she came to expect me to pop her off the boob to have this conversation of sorts and she'd turn back to the breast but turn and steal a glance as if to say "go ahead, ask me if I'm having MILK" which was pretty cute. For those experienced mommies you know how that age comes where your baby is discovering the world around them and you cannot seem to get them to pay attention to nursing long enough to finish a feeding? Well, this game I created probably started Amberly on this track earlier because I was giving her a reason to stop, haha! New mommies, we donn't always know what we're doing, but so long as we're bonding and having fun with it, go with the flow! Side note: Later, with the boys I used the "not-a-new-mommy-knowledge" and signing to my advantage in those scenarios when the boys would stop nursing and look around, I signed MILK to get them focused back at the task at hand so we could finish up and continue to play after. 

Several of these feedings took place in my office sitting in front of the mirrored closet doors where I would sit Amberly up and point to my exposed breast, and ask her if she wanted MILK. Babies are social by nature, so I created a context of socializing with our favorite "baby in the mirror" to add to the experience. She would look at herself in the mirror, my reflection and then back at me. A few times when I interrupted her feeding, she'd turn to look for the baby in the mirror. Maybe to check if that baby also was having her feeding interrupted haha! 

At her 5 o' clock feeding, Amberly again pulled off the boob as I'd been doing intentionally all day, then before I could ask her if she was going to have more MILK she signed it! And with a huge smile to boot! The feeling of knowing how she could now identify this special activity was incredible. She continued to do this a few more times for emphasis. Babies LOVE to do that, being scientists and checking for understanding. Each time I confirmed for her "Yes, you're having MILK! Now you can show Mommy when you want MILK." Of course signing MILK each time I said it and she would repeat the sign. I was amazed. Seriously to know our babies are able to process and create associations and implement actions to communicate with full intention at just 4 months. I couldn't wait for Daddy to get home and share what we'd been up to all day.

As a new mom I thought this might be just the thing to make life a little easier because she could ask me for milk instead of grab at my boob or begin to fuss. The truth of the matter I don't think it was until Amberly was roughly 8 months old that she signed MILK in order to have it. Rather as their communication abilities develop, both verbal and non-verbal, the first thing babies will do is mimic, then they will sign in the context of the thing or activity, then when object permanance occurs, this is when they can ask for the item. Still it was fun to respond to her telling me "Mommy, I'm having MILK" essentially as she loved to do from that day forward 'til about 8 or 9 months. I could affirm her thoughts and have a conversation with her about her surroundings knowing that she was "getting it."

If you haven't checked out the previous posts in this series, please do. 


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.