Founding Principles of Sign4Baby

As I was driving in the car the other day it dawned on me that I haven't shared the REASON for the name "SIGN 4 BABY" as my company name. It is two parts really. One is that there are 4 guiding principles, and the other is a constant reminder that we don't sign for our own benefit, but rather for our child's benefit.

The reason I founded Sign4Baby was more than just to teach parents ASL vocabulary. I wanted to make a difference by helping your baby.... AND helping you. While most parents report that their goal in signing with their baby is better communication, the foundation of my work has 4 guiding principles:

1. Better communication between baby and parent. 

Sometimes that means being a better listener. Other times that means really figuring out what your baby is saying. Either way, my goal is to help you establish better communication early on that will help you for YEARS to come. Often this means helping shift focus to the best signs to teach first, how to engage your baby and remembering to stay child focused for measurable success. There's a reason why my tagline is "Discover what your baby is thinking!" as we work to focus on your baby's curiosities and have fun along the way.

2. Bonding with Baby.

It is an important tenet of the Attachment philosophy to bond well with your baby so they feel secure and do not develop trust issues. I don't know about you, but I'd say a pretty fantastic bond is created when you can understand another person fully and they can understand you. Communicating effectively lays a foundation for a solid bond in your relationship to your baby.

3. Brain development.

I've said it time and time again, ALL babies are smart, just most of them don't have this tool, if you will, to SHOW you how smart they really are. When you can see a child comprehend something, it is innate that you continue to engage and teach. Parents of signing babies are given the positive reinforcement to be motivated to prolong discussion and exploration, in turn your baby is learning even more. Signing is a fabulous thing to add into your story time. I talk about it on the Fox 5 Mommy and Daddy Handbook segment last week. I know from my own experience growing up that children who signed as babies have an aptitude for learning... demonstrating higher IQ, being in advanced classes and being able to think outside the box.

4. Boundary Setting.

As your baby becomes a toddler they will love to explore and for their safety (and your sanity) you need to establish boundaries. It is a challenging concept for toddlers as they strive to become more independent and are seemingly met with more rules just as the world is getting more interesting with their new found ability to walk. The visual aid that baby sign language provides helps those boundaries become more clear to your exploring toddler and even supports the emergence of self regulation. In the end, the time invested in using sign language paired with boundary setting reduces a lot of frustration for YOU and BABY.

Your baby deserves to be heard and understood. Parenting should be made a little easier. I help you accomplish both of those things PLUS all of the above.

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.

Elevator Pitch

You may think it is a little bit odd that I would just come right out and share with you my "elevator pitch" but I don't think it is odd at all because I've said hundreds of times, I'm rather transparent in my business and my practices when it comes to explaining how and why I do things a certain way in running my business. So, I figured, why not ask how this resonates with my audience!

You know how that first year of parenting is a little overwhelming and stressful? It's kind of like a roller coaster ride! Well, I make this parenting roller coaster ride more fun by allowing parents to connect with their baby through a technology called baby sign language.  After working with me, parents are amazed to discover what their baby is thinking.

I'm currently seeking partnering sponsors for the next endeavor of Sign4Baby. If this sounds like something your brand would like to be involved in, be sure to email me at info@sign4baby.com. 

Photo credit: Stills by Hill - always capturing the essence of my classes

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 to sign "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See?"

By far, the most popular video I have posted to YouTube. It just surpassed the 10,000 views mark!

*** UPDATE*** Now at 13,000+ views!

I'm still sharing it every chance I get because "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See?" is such a classic. It has a natural rythm both the storyteller and listener enjoy. If you don't have this book in your home library, I highly recommend making the addition. And if you can get this specific edition with the sliding windows, even better! Babies and toddlers become more engaged when there is a tactile element in a book. It will quickly become one of the books your baby will ask you to read again and again.

The bonus is that you learn both animal signs and color signs in one video:

                                                                                      

If you're local to San Diego, I hope to see you at an upcoming Signing Story Time - you can join our meetup
 
What favorite book would you like to see added to the Signing Story Time collection on our YouTube channel? I'd love to hear your recommendations.


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.

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.

Our Baby Sign Language 411 community is growing on Google+ so join us there for lots more!

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.