Enhance Language & Lessen Frustrations

Wouldn't you like to deal with fewer toddler tamtrums?

Miriam Devitt from SuperHands in Ireland answered,  "Yes! The toddler years are a lot easier with sign language. When a child expects he will be understood, he is calmer in any situation."  Julie Reid, TinyTalk Baby Sign teacher in Scotland also shared, "Absolutely, my son never had a tantrum because he could tell me what he wanted!"

I'm currently marking research papers for a class I teach within the Communicative Disorders Assistant program at Durham College. In class we discuss enhancing communication for individuals with autism, Down's syndrome and other special needs. It's inspiring!

I love that the idea of 'baby sign language' is becoming more and more common place and that parents of children of any ability are more comfortable with the idea of signing with their children. Whether someone uses speech, text, sign or pictures...that's symbolic communication!

I also love thinking back to when my own kids were learning to sign and talk (they don't stop talking now!).  Sabrina's first sign was "NO" at 11 months and at 18 months she had over 80 words (a comination of spoken words and signs). Typically, toddlers at 18 months have about 10-20 words.  That's not just a little difference...that's a BIG difference!

Signing allowed Sabrina to play with language, make mistakes and learn more words. If she hadn't been able to sign, something that's easier to do than clear speech for a toddler, she would not have had the huge vocabulary that she did.

Katrina Poole of Binksy & Bobo shared this tweet, "my son became frustrated not being able to be 'heard'. Learning the simple 'more' or 'milk' sign really alleviated that."

One of the things that we talk about a lot in my college class is behaviour. We don't talk about how to suppress challenging behaviours though, we talk about how to change them. There are four reason behind any behaviour: 1) to make a request; 2) to get attention; 3) to escape a situation and 4) for sensory reasons.  Three out of four of these are communication based!  If we can teach toddlers, and anyone, appropriate ways to request, e.g., "No, I want the BANANA", get attention, e.g., "My eye HURTS", and to communicate "I'm tired. I'm FINISHED"; just think of the temper tantrums that can be avoided! Using sign language with your baby, and toddler, definitely can reduce frustrations for everyone!

Sara Bingham is Sabrina's mom and also the founder of WeeHands and the author of The Baby Signing Book. WeeHands is the world's leading children's sign language and language development program for babies, toddlers and preschool children.

Meet Zoe!

This is Zoe! She's the face of WeeHands. Earlier this year we ask our WeeHands fan on Facebook to tell us more about her. Our fans help us very poetically to tell Zoe’s story!

She's four years old.  She likes apples, oranges, and bananas, she likes to play hide and seek. Her favourite toys are her trains, dolls, and bears!  Her most favourite toys though are those in her stuffed bunny collection. She loves unicorns and her favourite games are Candy Land and Chutes & Ladders.

Zoe is a loving little girl who is the apple of her daddy’s eye. She greets everyone with smiles but she is hesitant to go to kindergarten because she thinks that her mommy will get lonely. She loves to swing back and forth at the park and enjoys tickling the clouds with her toes as she goes higher and higher.

Thank you to our fantastic fans, Becka Marsch, Whitney Cochran and Mandy Patrick-Hickey for sharing!  

And a very special thank you to my daughter, Sabrina, for being the inspiration behind the WeeHands logo...and Zoe!

Sara Bingham is Sabrina's mom and also the founder of WeeHands and the author of The Baby Signing Book. WeeHands is the world's leading children's sign language and language development program for babies, toddlers and preschool children.

A Word is a Word

A word is a word, no matter how small...oh, wait, the line is actually "a person is a person, not matter how small" from Dr. Seuss!

When we discuss first signs, the concept of first words often come up which creates an opportunitity for me to explain that a word is a word, whether it's spoken or signed.

I think it's funny that we would never debate if a 11 month child who could used text to communicate their first word...imagine a baby picking up a pencil and writing M-I-L-K and caregivers saying "Oh, that's not a word, she didn't verball say it."

I watched "The Miracle Worker" yesterday afternoon...W-A-T-E-R is definitely a word!  Funny how that movie was made in 1962 and we're still explaining the concept of a word!

As baby sign language instructors we often get asked, ""Will signing with my baby delay his speech development?” I love how one of our Instructors, Shannon Thomas, who is also a a speech-language pathologist, answers this question:

"No, absolutely not. Signing not only does not delay your child's communication skills, it enhances it! Children have the ability to comprehend and express a manual language, like signing, at an earlier age than they can a verbal language. A child can develop the skills necessary to manually sign a word before they develop the more complex motor skills needed to produce a verbal response. In other words, a child can learn how to sign "more" or "milk" before they can learn how to say it.

I remind parents to always pair the sign with the spoken words. The goal is for the child to become verbal, however, using signs is a way in which to facilitate their verbal language skills. Having the child realize that they can affect the world around them by using a symbol (manual or verbal) is the basis of language and a beautiful revelation to watch unfold in a child.

In addition, research has shown that children who have been introduced to signs have a greater vocabulary and stronger verbal skills later on. We are simply providing them with a method of communication that they can understand and use at an early age. As a speech-language pathologist, I frequently use signs to help facilitate and develop early language skills! One of the philosophies of WeeHands is: a word is a word, whether spoken or signed."

Sara Bingham is the founder of WeeHands and the author of The Baby Signing Book. WeeHands is the world's leading children's sign language and language development program for babies, toddlers and preschool children.

When and How to Start Signing

I see this question a lot, "When should I start signing with my baby? She's 11 months old, is it too late?"

The best time to start signing with your son is today! I've had babies in my classes as young as three weeks old and as old as 22 months. Most babies are capable of signing back their first signs between 7 and 11 months of age.  Start now!

You want to start with signs for words that are really motivating for your son.  For my son that was toy and play signs; for my daughter that was food signs...and more food signs.  Sign at your comfortable level, e.g., start with 5-6 signs for things they really like and when you are comfortable with them add more!

Also use another 5-6 signs for frequently occuring activities, things that you do every day, a few times a day. For example, these may include the signs for "eat", "change", "play", "bath" and "sleep". Also, use these and add more signs for activities as you get more comfortable using more signs.
Also, always sign the word when you sign. That way they are both seeing and hearing the word. My son signed at 9 months and my daughter signed her first sign at 11 months so all babies are different as to when that first sign comes along. Both of my little ones had well over 80 words by the time they were 18 months old!

Sara Bingham is the founder of WeeHands and the author of The Baby Signing Book. WeeHands is the world's leading children's sign language and language development program for babies, toddlers and preschool children.