Baby Sign Language

Babies are born ready to communicate.  So why do they just eat, sleep and cry?  Because their motor control has not caught up with their desire to express themselves!  Most babies (thank goodness!) are born knowing how to breathe and swallow and cry.  They have control over very little else about their bodies.

To talk, babies must develop fine motor control of their vocal cords.  They begin to get intelligible, intentional words at some point between 9 and 15 months old on average.  Lots of things can affect that time line and push it later.  Temperament, genetics, illness, stress, older siblings, bilingual influences are just a few examples.  Getting enough language to be able to express ideas like “I’m hungry” or “my stomach hurts” or “it’s too cold in here” can take a child more than two years to express with spoken language.  So, most babies have a year or two of frustrations because of their lack of s fundamental expressive language.

Gross motor skills take much less time begin significant development.  The ability to push, pull, grab, and otherwise move hands and arms are well within the abilities of most 6-12 month olds.

Children who learn to use these gross motor skills to meet their own expressive language desires experience less frustration!  That’s right, Baby Sign Language is a great way for small children to express their needs and desires before they could possibly learn to talk.

Before medical school, I trained as an American Sign Language interpreter.  Seven or so years later, when our first son was born, my husband and I decided to see if he could learn some signs.  We started with “milk.”  When he was about four months old (though I now know you can start younger) we would wrap a huge hand around his little one and make the sign for milk with him and then immediately feed him.  It didn’t take long for him to approximate that sign when he was hungry.  Oh, he would still cry!  But as soon as he had our attention he would stop crying and start signing.

Since that time, we’ve had three more sons.  They each have different temperaments and personalities, but they have all learned signs in the first few months of life that have eased our communication.

Baby Sign Language won’t cure colic.  It won’t change a baby’s personality.  It will help you understand better what your baby wants.  It will teach your child they can count on you to figure out what she wants.  Even better, BSL can help your child learn, from a very young age, to ask for things respectfully!

Teach great habits.  Use BSL to model respect for your baby’s needs.  Use BSL to teach your baby to ask for things with a “please” and then respond with a “thank you!”

Dr. G (Deborah Gilboa, MD) is a board certified family physician, mother of four and professional parenting speaker and writer who works with parents to help them raise children they can respect and admire. She is also fluent in American Sign Language. To learn more about Dr. G visit http://www.AskDoctorG.com or on Twitter @AskDocG

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Babies are Sponges!

Many researchers are highlighting the impact of a search-based culture on our ability to retain information in our brain. We no longer know phone numbers but instead, we rely on our trusty smart phones; basic recipes are now stored in the cloud and no longer in our heart and mind.  Our little ones will grow surrounded by these technologies and as parents we are likely to minimize the importance of unsupported recollection. During infancy, toddlerhood and preschool years we have an outstanding window of opportunity to teach our little ones how to learn. The fact is, they cannot yet Google therefore they are dependent on more traditional tools of recollection such as association and raw memorization.

Music & Song

From birth we are musical and have a tendency to respond to rhythm and patterns. Take advantage of this by using valuable lyrics in the songs your child learns. From geography to science and civics songs have a way of staying with us for a lifetime.

Competitive Learning

Reward your child with praise and make learning a game. If you have a larger family allow for some healthy competition and play games of association.  As your toddler begins learning letters they will be able to recognize letters in street signs or in the supermarket.

Flash Cards

When we came up with our baby sign language flash cards we did it with the knowledge that we learn by visual association. Create sets of flash cards using things meaningful and relevant to your child and help them connect the dots. For example, you could use a set of cards showing maps of different countries and help your child learn the capital for each.

Hands-on

To date I am able to tie a number of nautical knots.  This is a skill I learned before my fourth birthday. Allowing a child to experience tactile three-dimensional feedback often results in effective recollection of the task learned.

Before your little one learns how to Google take time to encourage retention, learning and discovery. A good foundation in these three areas will make a significant difference in how you child processes information as an adult and it will help in transitioning from raw memorization into analytical and creative thinking.

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