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| After good morning hugs & tickles...signing time! |
BABY SIGN IS COOL!
Easy, Fun Communication With Your Infant
Using ASL
Several years ago I was friends with a deaf[*]
woman and was always intrigued when watching her sign with her baby.
When pregnant I heard about the trend of parents who weren’t
deaf teaching their babies ASL (American Sign Language) or a modified “baby
sign” as a way to create clear, two-way communication before a baby was able to
speak. I knew that parents and babies had many ways to communicate and express
without needing to use sign, but again I was intrigued.
I read several books and websites to learn more. Many
teachers and authors encouraged parents to begin signing with their children
between 6-8 months, and advised that though babies would be learning—they’d usually
remain unable to sign back until 9 months, 12 months, or older.
Encouraging parents to sign with their children at any age
seemed beneficial and fun, but the information I found was a little different
from what I’d observed with my friend and discovered in the deaf community (and
what with a little contemplation makes sense):
deaf parents use sign to communicate with their newborns from day one. Just
like newborns learning to speak from day one with their parents, babies can
learn sign from day one!
I concluded that there would be no harm in starting right
when my baby was born—and that at the very least it would indeed be fun. When
she was a few weeks old we started with a single set of flash cards. (Not
knowing any ASL myself, my baby and I were learning together.)
The first words we learned were: “mommy, daddy, milk, hungry,
bed,” and “blanket.” Then we moved on to
more family members, body parts, and animals. With the addition of more flash
cards, books, and an online ASL video dictionary, we averaged a few words per
day.
HOW TO TEACH A BABY
TO SIGN
Many websites and books offer in-depth, step-by-step
processes, tips, and timelines for teaching a baby to sign, including details
of time of day, where you should place your body in relation to the baby, and
so on. That information may be
beneficial, but it can also make the process seem complex or
overwhelming—especially for new parents who are working hard just to get
through their busy days (and sweet, sleepless nights!).
As before—taking cues from my deaf friend—I found the
“how-to” is far simpler than one would initially believe: Anytime you’re saying
the word or doing the action—sign it. And that’s it!
I would show my daughter the flash cards after nursing and
when we were hanging out in bed together (which I believe was helpful), but
this language is learned best just as any other. Again, while you’re doing it (whatever “it”
is), say it and sign it.
Your baby wakes up and you say, “Hello, my precious baby!”
and sign “baby.”
Say, “Mama loves you!” and sign “I” “Love” “You.”
Your baby looks ready for the breast/bottle and you say, “Time for
your milk,” put your baby to your breast/bottle, and sign “milk.”
Your cat walks in the room, your baby notices, and you say,
“There’s Muffin, our kitty-cat!” and sign “cat.”
Before you know, hands are flying and you’re having full signing
conversations—at least one-way. Our
babies likely understand far sooner than we’d believe, but when do they start
signing with us?
BABIES SIGNING
Keep signing away and have no worries—that beautiful baby is
soaking it in! Just as with spoken words,
they’re learning them. We don’t need to feel pressure or discouragement about
timelines for speaking or signing back...or most other things for that matter. (How many of us waste energy worrying because Lil' Billy is 1-pound under what the doc said is normal for his age or Suzy isn't crawling yet like that baby next door!) We come in all shapes, colors and speeds.
But do remain alert: their first signs may be subtle or partial movements, but soon you’ll recognize that they are signing.
But do remain alert: their first signs may be subtle or partial movements, but soon you’ll recognize that they are signing.
For example, when we’d wake up (and after the requisite 30
minutes of hugs and tickles) I’d say to my baby, “Should we open the window?” and sign “open
the window” (it’s one movement for this action). At five months—after just
seeing the sign—her eyes would go straight to the window in the bedroom; later
she began to point at the window; and several months later she started doing
the sign.
There are countless variables and all babies will sign at
different times. However, from my
experience and that of many parents who started with their babies immediately,
the amount of two-way communication (even if they’re not signing back yet) that
can occur before or by 12-months old is nothing short of amazing and delightful.
It was no surprise that my baby’s first sign was “milk.”
What was surprising was that she did it for the first time at 3 months and
regularly at 4-5 months old.
Because milk is such a vital part of their experience (if you’re
signing in the early days, they’re going to see the sign for milk about a dozen times every 24 hours!) and
because the sign is a movement for which they have the control to create early
(opening and closing the hand in a “milking” movement), I learned it’s a
natural first sign.
There were many other signs that were initially surprising
to see early on and then later seemed obvious.
For example, when my baby started teething at 5 months old, I would use
a homeopathic gel to soothe her gums. When applying it, I would use the sign
for pain/hurt and place it over my teeth and say “teeth hurt.” (The same sign placed
over the stomach would mean “stomach pain,” and so on with other body parts.) She
learned immediately to associate that sign with the relief she felt after I
applied the gel, and she would stop crying when seeing me sign it—clear
communication.
I would do the same thing for other situations when she
appeared uncomfortable or to want something. She didn’t sign these back until
about 9 months, but after the first few weeks of me showing her the sign, when
she would cry, I could sign: “change diaper,” “milk,” “blanket,” and “teeth
hurt,” and she would stop crying immediately when I’d hit on the correct topic
and could tend immediately to her need.
Of course we can
check a diaper, offer the breast/bottle, apply teething gel and attend to other needs and
activities without signing—but how fun and empowering for an infant to have a
form of clear communication and expression other than tears and cries!
What about words such as: please, thank you, morning, wind,
sunset, cold, share, happy, family, friend, home, and—best of all—love?
With objects and activities, I believed she would learn the
signs quickly and that proved correct.
However, I had no idea how to teach signs for concepts, time/season/weather,
courtesy, relationships and feelings, so I decided simply to proceed as I had
been, using them along with speech and hoping she would learn their meaning
with time and use in context.
To make a one-year story short, after her first sign "milk," her next few signs appeared at 5-7 months and
included: “mommy, daddy, book,” and “hat. By nine months she could understand a
few dozen, and at one year understood over 100 signs and would use at least
half of them, including such wonderful words as: sun, moon, rainbow, clouds,
music, art, dance, happy, and LOVE!
MODIFICATIONS and
“SLANG”
There are commonly used adjustments to certain signs from
ASL for use with babies. For example,
the ASL sign for “help” is a fist with the thumb up placed in the palm of the
opposite hand and raising the hands up together. That’s complex for a baby, so a commonly
accepted modified sign is to place the open palms of both hands on the chest and
pat.
I wasn’t concerned with strict adherence to the official
modifications. As with spoken language, you’ll find that you develop your own
slang, nuance, and “pronunciation”—or the way you do the sign. For example, “art” is the sign I used when
asking my baby if she wanted to color.
At first, that was the only understanding of the word and she would sign
“art” to ask for her crayons. By around
16 months, her understanding expanded and she would sign “art” when looking at
a painting or sculpture.
THE BENEFITS
There are numerous studies indicating the benefits of
learning sign for a child’s intellect (and rather than quoting reports and
papers, we’ll just work on the premise that all learning benefits intellect).
However, we pursued it primarily as a source of fun and to give our baby a tool
to express herself—which it did.
An unexpected benefit was its use in our multi-lingual
family. Whenever anyone used a word from another language, we could use the
sign and our daughter would then instantly have a connection to understand the
new word.
For parents who use sign as their primary language, the
information presented here would likely be old news, but for parents like
me—previously unfamiliar with using ASL or signing with babies—I hope this
serves as encouragement for how easy and fun it can be.
There was never a time that our baby signed in public and
someone (from grandmas to rocker-dudes) didn’t come up and say, “Oh, wow! Is that baby signing?
How cool!”
It is way cool!
RESOURCES
For parents interested in learning more, the tools I found
most helpful are listed below. If you’ve
used excellent tools not listed here, I’d love to hear about them.
• Monta Z. Briant's
Baby Flash Card Deck - the first thing we used and my daughter still enjoys
working with them.
• Barrons ASL 500
pack flash card deck (for you, not for baby). These cards are small and
have a hole punch (with ring included) so you can make “flip decks” of the
signs you’re currently learning. Very handy,
literally!
• Baby Einstein First Signs DVD – there is debate
over allowing infants to watch any TV. However, in time spans of ~15 minutes
from age 6 months on, we found our daughter definitely learned from this DVD
program. If mom and dad have decided that minimal viewing is OK and desperately
need help for a 15-minute break…here’s a productive way to take it.
• SigningSavvy.com is a website
with an excellent video dictionary. Type in any word and the video pops up to
demonstrate the sign.
• Signing Time –created
by a woman whose daughter, Leah, is deaf, this TV show (episodes can be
purchased on DVD) is precious and effective. They recommend it for children
ages 1-8, and have produced a special set of DVDs just for babies. They have also just launched an online dictionary with the most common signs used with babies.
Her articles have appeared in:
• The Well Being Journal
• The Holistic Networker
• The Birthing Site
• Natural Mother Magazine
• MidwiferyToday
Her published titles are: New Mother, Free Love & Go, Jane!
Website: www.alliechee.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/AllieChee
NEW MOTHER on Amazon
*No affiliation or compensation associated with the products mentioned in this post.*
[*]
She and other deaf people have told me they prefer the use of the term “deaf,”
so that’s the term I use.
1 comment:
My little one is 8 months old and he and I are learning sign language right now. It's very enjoyable. So far, he isn't signing back yet, but he stares intently at my hands when I am using the signs.
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