I’m handing over today to a real life friend Helen who is a TinyTalk Teacher and my go to source for Baby Signing.
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When Rainy Day Mummy asked me to write a piece for her blog I was stumped. I got writers block. How could I sum up the passion, the excitement, the joy and wonder of what I do, the pleasure I get from my work and why I think it is so important?. So here goes:
Hi I’m Helen and I am a TinyTalk Baby Signing teacher. I became a teacher after going to classes and seeing that it works, I knew that this was my ‘calling’ and I haven’t looked back.
TinyTalk classes have a winning formula, combining signs with songs and nursery rhymes that most of us know, we have puppets, musical instruments, we dance about go on ‘bear hunts’ and do the hokey cokey. We have a signed book every three weeks and ‘Charlie Chick’ is a big favourite.
We celebrate every child’s achievement with series of signing certificates as their confidence grows. It is a proud moment for each grown up when their little one is awarded their first sign certificate, accompanied with lots of cheers and clapping, usually to the amusement of the ‘new signer’.
Because we are all having fun, the first half hour flies past and before we know it we are into the ‘social’ part of the class. This is just as important, we feel, as the signing, the stories and the songs. Here the babies are given the space to play with the toys on the soft throws, the grown ups get a chance to chat, have a hot drink, a biscuit and relax in a baby safe and baby friendly environment.
All this for the equivalent price of a coffee and biscuit in many coffee shops or cafes but you and your baby are learning a life long skill too!
So how do I know it works?
My daughter’s first word was ‘milk’ at 6 months old, closely followed by ‘more’, ‘Daddy’, ‘food’, brother’ and countless others. When people hear this they look at me to see if my nose grows longer as I rattle off that she putting words together to make sentences and can have a full, although simple, conversations with people about the things she sees, the people she knows and how she is feeling. She is twenty months old. Her name is Samantha.
But does it work for others?
A wholehearted YES!! I was handing out banana as well as biscuits to my class and a little girl, who LOVES banana saw me about to take the plate away. She looked me in the eyes and signed ‘more’. Mum saw it. All the other grown ups saw it. All the babies who were watching saw it. I saw it. There was a moment’s silence. The whole class beamed and shone bright as that LIGHTBULB shone out like a beacon. In unison we all smiled and clapped and signed ‘more’ back to her. She smiled, signed ‘more’ again and was rewarded with two pieces of banana. Result. We all understood each other. All communicating with each other – loud and clear.
My job is a pleasure, a joy and an honour. A pleasure to teach, a joy to watch babies communicating, ‘talking’ with others and an honour to be part of their world
Thank you and keep signing!
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Helen can be found on her Tiny Talk Website, on facebook, twitter and also on her own blog.
Finding out more
Helen has kindly provided some articles about Baby Signing for more information.
25 must have words for 2 year olds
Why kids should learn sign language
Baby Sign Language, why kids who gesture learn language faster
Hearing Babies Babble with their hands
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Amen!!!!! We used baby signs with our first boy who by two years old knew over 40 signs. We are using them again with our 1 year old who just THIS week did his first sign, “All-done.” So its been a momentous occasion this week, he gets its! He’s made the connection of motions indicating something he can communicate. I expect signs to begin flowing from him quickly now! The older brother LOVES being involved and teaching his little brother signs! Oh, its so fun!
My advice is to do the food signs (more, all done) starting when they are eating solids (4-6 months). They are contained in their chair and are highly motivated to communicate! However it will be many more months before they do signs themselves. But they ARE learning! Keep modeling the signs even if you feel silly sometimes!
To see it in action, here’s a video of my son doing some signs!
http://www.stemmom.org/2008/09/calebs-baby-signs.html
Here is a link to a radio interview I did talking about baby signs:
http://www.stemmom.org/2008/08/more-baby-signs.html
Darci the STEM Mom recently posted..Make a Difference: H2O for Life
Yes, yes, yes. I can vouch for using baby signs. We used signs with my, now 5 year old, and by age 2 he had learned a total of 45 signs. Here is a video of him showing off some signs.
http://www.stemmom.org/2008/09/calebs-baby-signs.html
We are now doing signs with the 1 year old. We started modeling signs at the table when he was eating, starting at 5 months old. And this week he did his first sign, “All-done.” Now the signs are flowing from him. He’s doing “more,” and “food” too! So exciting!
Darci the STEM Mom recently posted..Make a Difference: H2O for Life
Just a quick note to say thank you to RDM. TinyTalk are celebrating our 10th birthday this month. Help us celebrate by trying your first class for free visit the main website for further details. Thanks again RDM X
Great post, I love baby sign. Goblin was a relatively late talker and baby sign helped him get his message across despite not having the words to communicate. He still uses signs as well as words for certain thinks (like the colour orange). Now I use signs if he is far away and I don’t want to shout. The other day I told him there were rabbits he could see at the zoo by signing to him while he was miles away. He came running over.
the monko recently posted..Goblin’s First Venn diagram
Oh, I love baby signs. My oldest boy learned over 50 signs before he started talking, and now my 1 year old knows 3. The older brothers loves using signs with the little one. Here is a video of my oldest using signs @ 14 months old.
Darci the STEM Mom recently posted..Art in Nature-Leaf Rubbings
My oldest signed 50 signs before learning to talk. My site link will take you to a video of him @ 14 months signing. My 1 year old now knows 3 signs; more, all done, and food. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Baby signs!
My son had delayed speech development and we used baby sign language at the beginning of his speech therapy. I will never forget our first “conversation” all done with baby signing. Signing was a breakthrough for our entire family and if I have any more kids I will use signing right from the start.
Ness recently posted..Spreading our love of books – Library Letters
We haven’t been able to do signing with T but she has invented her own signs based on what she sees J doing. It’s so funny seeing her sign her favourite songs for us to sing with her
[...] create with your child each day. Helen (who wrote a fabulous guest post for me in the Spring about Baby Signing) and her daughter (2 years old) are creating the pictures for us and will be popping on and can [...]