The Quilts Zone Blog

You may wonder, if you’re going to start teaching your baby signs, how extensive and elaborate you can actually go with this language. Since these children are still so young, only a few months of age, there are going to be all sorts of ideas that they probably can’t grasp yet. So you may not be sure what words and concepts work best in sign languages for babies. You need to remind yourself that, in the same way they are learning motor skills and other things very slowly, they’ll need to start simply, and work their way up from those simple beginnings.

Not surprisingly, the first baby signs will pretty much inevitably have to do with eating. Since eating, sleeping and being comfortable are the main preoccupations of babies as they start their life journey, learning baby signing will occur most readily with signs that relate to those things. So you might start your instruction by using a sign for “eat,” placing your fingers together and moving them toward your mouth while simultaneously saying the word “eat” out loud. Remember that the signs are meant to transition into speech eventually, so it will be helpful to associate the signs with the vocalizations.

After “eat” is understood, the signs for actual foods could then be added. You would teach signs for things like “milk” for example. When you introduce solid foods, like mashed bananas or peas, you would add in the signs for those. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily have to use something like American Sign Language, that is, ASL baby sign language, but can develop your own signs to help the child understand what the symbols are referring to. Your baby might even start developing their own signs for some things, and once you understand them, you can use them.

When they begin making any of the baby signs back to you, requesting food by using the symbol for “eat,” for example, you will know they have grasped that particular level and are probably ready for you to build further on that foundation. Some suggest that after grasping things like “eat” and “food,” the baby can learn to sign words like “please” and “thank you.” But in every case, when you teach a new line of thought, you need to begin at the simplest level and work your way up. At the start, the ideas will always be very concrete and basic, and introducing more abstract concepts very slowly.

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You may think of trying to baby sign during short little conversations with your child, using signs for “sleep,” “hungry,” “food” and “toys.” Yet there are several different avenues that can be used for teaching baby signing. Besides actual toys to help facilitate learning, there are flash cards, DVDs and picture books as well. But you can’t ignore that music is another important aspect that is used in so many ways to help babies learn.

Much of the structure of the programs that help to teach sign language for babies is based on the social and medical understanding of early childhood development. So it’s not a surprise that the creators of these programs have included music, since it plays such a large role in baby learning in general. Even the Baby Einstein program, which started out trying to increase babies’ intellectual capacity with classical music and poetry, has entered the baby sign language realm. It offers a video called “My first Signs – See & Sign With Baby,” which teaches simple signs accompanied by speech and of course classical music.

Baby Signs, Inc. is more heavily and directly involved in baby sign work, and this company’s products include music, as well as books, toys and instructional videos. They have several different music bundles, including a Music CD called “If You’re Happy and You Know it.” Meanwhile, at the www.signbabies.com website you also find that in their “Signing Time” instructional packages, not only are there DVDs that teach the signs themselves, but each one has an accompanying music CD. You can also sometimes find local play groups that use music to teach signs as the children interact with each other.

Music has long been recognized as an avenue to help make learning easier, along with all its other functions. Learning to baby sign is no exception to this, as music provides an aural as well as a visual avenue through which the signing information enters the baby’s mind, helping the child to retain that information better. As you and your baby learn to sign, music may also be a stress reliever, because after all, melody is known to slow the heart rate and steady the breath. And music can help make the process just plain fun, as baby learns this wonderful new way of communicating.

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