Five Words that Will Save Your Life

Thank you and welcome to BabySignLanguage.com. Congratulations on taking a great first step to better understanding, better communicating and better bonding with your baby.

I’m sure you have some wonderful reasons for wanting to learn baby sign language with your child…

Maybe you read that Baby Sign Language can help your baby to speak earlier. Perhaps you heard that signing babies enjoy a closer bond with their parents. Or that they enjoy a higher IQ. You might have seen some of the cute videos done by our students.

Janina Signing

All perfectly valid reasons, for sure. But that isn’t why you NEED Baby Sign Language.

The Longest Flight Ever. A few years ago, I was on a plane from Charleston to New York. And almost as soon as the wheels went up, it started. If you spent much time on planes, you know where I’m going.

The heart-wrenching and ear splitting sound of a 6-month old baby crying, from somewhere in the back rows.

All around the plane, travelers reached for the headsets, turned up the volume and tried to shut the little guy out. A few kind souls offered the poor mother laser pointers, Tic Tac box rattles, and any toys they could think of to soothe the child. I even overheard a grandma suggest putting bourbon on his gums!

The mother was beside herself. Perspiring, apologizing to everyone around her. And when the seat belt sign dinged off she walked up and down the aisles, bouncing and shushing her inconsolable bundle. Nothing worked.

He’s not hungry!
He’s not teething!
He doesn’t’ have a fever!
He doesn’t want to play with any of the toys!

She looked so alone. My heart broke for her.

One of the most gut-twisting frustrations of being a parent is not knowing what your baby wants. They can’t tell you. You can’t read their little mind. So sometimes you just have to … endure.

Unless.

Unless you give them the ability to tell you exactly what they want.

A Day in the Life of a Signing Mom

A Day in the Life of a Signing Parent. When our daughter was 9 months, before she learned to speak, she had one of those … episodes. It was the kind of tantrum that happens every day. The kind that you just endure. Only hers was cut short.

After wailing inconsolably for a few minutes, she made the sign for cat.

Cat? We don’t have a cat! At first we had no idea what this meant, but then we remembered that her grandmother had given her a cat stuffed toy that she never really liked. She hadn’t even seen it in months!

But we dug it out of her toy hamper, handed it to her and…

And she calmed right down.

Cat! We would have NEVER GUESSED that’s what she wanted. Who knows how long she would have cried had she not been able to sign!

Maybe as long as a flight from Charleston to New York?

Five words will save your life. Imagine the difference that knowing just five words will make in your relationship with your baby. If you baby knows just a few basics, like hungry, more, and all-done, imagine the hundreds of averted tantrums, and the thousands of saved tears (not to mention all the Bourbon saved).

If you long for your baby to tell you what she needs … how to console her, how to delight her, how to comfort her, stay tuned. Tomorrow, at the official start of our course, I am going to send you the deluxe version of our Quickstart Guide. You will learn your first TEN SIGNS, and the FOUR STEPS to teaching Baby Sign Language.

Start communicating with your baby,

Lila

PS – Below in the comments, tell us how you learned about Baby Sign Language and what makes you want to do it.

22 Responses to “Five Words that Will Save Your Life”

  1. lynnette

    My best friend had a baby and I am their nanny. They sign to her now and I wanted to learn so I could do it as I work during the day. I’ve always wanted to learn ASL as well so this looked like an awesome reason to start!

    Reply
  2. Stephanie

    My son was diagnosed with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss, while he may only be 10 weeks old…it’s never too early to learn and sign to him.

    Reply
  3. Bhairavi

    One of my friend used sign language with her daughter and I found it very interesting that she was using words like please and thank you at 10 months old.

    My son is now 9 months and would love to teach him sign language as he loves to be outside and it would be great to communicate with him.

    Reply
  4. Melissa

    My LO is 5 1/2 months old and I’m so excited to use this method to teach her to sign her needs.

    Reply
  5. Archana

    I heard about baby sign language for the very first time at a family get-together where a mom of a 1 year old told me that she was teaching him to sign and that’s what they did at his daycare. I didn’t see the baby signing a whole lot or being responsive to his mom on that day but the idea sounded very interesting. I was curious to know how it worked but I wasn’t completely sold out because at that point I was still nursing a 3 month old on demand, so I didn’t really anticipate the need for it then. But boy, now I feel like I need to know this skill and teach it to my baby because there are times when he is extremely fussy and I am unable to pin-point the real cause (growth spurt, teething, hunger, sleep?). Hopefully, baby sign language will solve some of these problems.

    Reply
  6. janelle

    My son just turned 5 months and I’m always searching for new techniques to teaching him new thing and was referred to try sign language. I’m very interested and can not wait to see the results.

    Reply
  7. Stefanie

    I received a book with flash cards that were used to teach babies sign language. I was instantly intrigued at the thought of my baby being able to communicate basic needs. My son Gregory learned to sign for milk, water, dog, bath, sleep, more, finished, eat, book and ball by 9 months. We are excited to learn more.

    Reply
  8. Alexandra

    A friend uses it with her 11 month old son and told me about out.  We started last week with our daughter!

    Reply
  9. Ema

    I’m hoping to learn a little so that I can teach a soon to be ten year old little boy who is non-verbal and autistic. This is an amazing site and have already had to share it with friends.

    I sure hope to learn and pass what I learn on.. and on..

    Ema

    Reply
  10. Rainee

    Babysigns taught at Gymboree for a short while. I was fascinated & the children who learned it had no trouble communicating to their parents. Baby signs also taught at the preschool I used to work at.

    Reply
  11. Teresa

    I became interested when my youngest grandson was born and both he and his older brother came to live with us and want to communicate with them better.

    Reply
  12. María de los Ángeles

    En una sesión educativa de masaje infantil, la enfermera me recomendó meterme a la página de Internet. Nunca había escuchado del programa y fui leyendo e instruyendome cada vez más. Estoy muy contenta, porque Rafael, mi hijo, ya hace señas mirando a nuestro perro, y está intentando hacer otras señas. Quiero aprender mucho, para que después pueda compartir esta experiencia. Con otras familias.

    Reply
  13. Stephanie

    I have seen other people doing baby sign as well as heard about it from a facebook group I belong to and from our midwife. My daughter has a cleft palate and therefore will have trouble making most sounds so signing will likely be our main form of communication until after she has surgery and speech therapy.

    Reply
  14. Ashley H.

    My 23 month old has oral apraxia and has never spoken. I want to help him communicate anyway possible.

    Reply
  15. Samantha G

    I was curious about signing with my 4 month old after hearing multiple mothers talk about how successful they were with it and one sent me here.

    Reply
  16. Frances Aw

    Got to know about baby signing from Babycenter.com. I find it amazing and can’t wait to practice with my 9 month old son. I only wish I knew about this when my daughter was still a baby.

    Reply
  17. Sarah

    My sister did baby sign language with both her kids. I helped so much. After seeing them sign, I knew I would be doing it with my son.

    Reply
  18. Yun

    I saw some youtube videos of babies signing, and it was so amazing. Can’t wait till my little one starts signing.

    Reply
  19. Maggy M.

    I learned ASL in college, and our professor told us about using sign language with babies. It was pretty new then.

    Reply
  20. Kate

    So excited! We saw a little boy signing with his mother at the park. I asked what they were doing, and told us a little bit about it, and sent us here.

    Reply
  21. Matt Haggerty

    Our daughter does sign language at her daycare. She loves signing, and we wanted to learn more so we could help her out at home. She does eat, water, and more, and it makes such a difference.

    Can’t wait to get started. Thank you for making these resources available.

    Reply

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