How to Teach a Baby Sign Language
Do you know that babies take to sign language pretty quickly? It’s true. At the stage when babies aren’t ready to talk yet, teaching them sign language helps both parent and child to communicate sooner. It also helps with interaction and bonding. Sounds like fun? Here’s how to get started.
Pick up a sign language dictionary. It doesn’t have to be terribly comprehensive–a basic one will do. Make sure that all the other people in the family learn sign language, so that the baby can have more chances to learn from people other than yourself.
Choose easy and basic words that you will use more often than others. Start with signages like. “Hungry,” “Mom,” “Bottle,” “Help.” Having props to help you out, such as “Bottle” or “Toy” is much easier to teach at first because you have an actual material to help clue in your baby in what the signange means.
Teaching a baby sign language is nearly a 24/7 affair. Starting with your basic and most-used signs, make the teaching and doing a part of your everyday interaction with the baby. For example, if you are going to give the baby milk, make the sign for milk. When you are about the change the diaper, make the sign for “Change” and “Diaper”. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the baby will pick up the connections between the signs and the actual object and action.
Add new signs to teach your baby daily. Use both visual words that the baby sees daily, like “Crib” or “Cat”. You can also teach her some verbs like “Down” and “Sleep”. Picture books and taking the baby around the neighborhood will provide more visual stimulants and cues.
Help guide your baby’s hands into forming signage. For example, if she wants “Milk” or “Bottle”, gesture to the bottle and do the signage with your hands first. Then, you help the baby form the signage with his or her hands. If the baby wants “More”, teach the signage for that, too.
Use your whole body and be dynamic when teaching your baby sign language. Use this to express thoughts and feelings, like “Happy” or “Scared.” Incorporate teaching sign language during playtime, so that you don’t actually have to be feeling the emotion you’re teaching. It also helps that playtime is a relaxed setting, where your baby will be more open to new things to learn.
Have fun with teaching your baby sign language, and you’ll be surprised at the fast rate your baby is learning! You can keep up teaching the baby more words and perhaps even whole phrases as the baby grows.