Thursday, January 14, 2010

Baby Sign Language Class

I have always been interested in early childhood communication so today I took a baby sign language class. I took Potter too and that might have been a mistake. I learned a few basic baby words and the following...
1. Never learn sign language from a book, watch someone doing it in a video. 
2. Starting at birth, pick about 5 signs (for a pre-verbal kid) and do every-time you say the word. Like - Eat, Drink, Dog, Finished, More, Help and Potty.
3. Always sign with the hand you write with (when doing single signs). 
For some reason Potter is now signing to the dog, I think he missed the point of the class. 
The book/DVD - Baby Sign Language

3 comments:

Doc said...

We tried this without much success, but have some friends who did get very good results!
(of course our child slept great and theirs didn't so its a trade off)

Debbie said...

My son is 5 now but we did baby sign language and LOVED IT!!! He could sign enough words that we understood what he wanted before he could talk. He really didn't speak much before age 2 and then he was rambling in sentences. Gymboree play schools had a great program and I recommend it highly! We started to play with my son by tossing him on the bed into a bunch of pillows and then showed the "More" or again sign. He picked that one up fast!
Good luck!!!

Anonymous said...

My sister and I both did this with our children. It works!! It is great to understand what your child is saying but unable to speak. It works if you put in the work. Good luck!!