Emotions

Happy, Sad, Scared, Bored, Surprise, Tired, Mad

One time when Annie was just little a friend of ours was offering her some candy.  Annie looked at me to see if it was okay.  Without my friend seeing me I signed “no, no”, to Annie.  She looked at my friend and shook her head no.  My friend looked at me in amazement and said, “wow you hardly ever see a kid turn down candy”.  I acted like I was surprised too… little did she know I was just using sign language to let Annie know exactly what I wanted to.

I’ve also used sign language when we’re out playing at a park or other public places when it’s too loud for my kids to hear me or I just don’t feel like yelling at the top of my lungs.  The other parents watch as we sign back and forth.  They’re always so impressed when my kids follow whatever instructions I “secretly” gave to the kids.  I love using sign language!  I wish more people knew it, because it really is a lot of fun.

Andrea Ploehn

I can’t believe she is already 5!  It’s so fun to watch your kids grow and reach new stages in their lives.

Blue, Brown, Red, Pink, Purple, White, Orange, Yellow, Green, Black

My daughter Annie is 4 years old, (but she acts like she’s 16, I think it’s a girl thing).  Anyway, since I’ve been recording her a little bit teaching some signs, she feels so cool.  We visited my parents this weekend and one day I walked in the room where Annie was teaching my mom some sign language.  My mom was praising her on how smart she was and that she couldn’t believe how many signs Annie knew.  Later that day Annie said, “when we get home I think maybe I’ll do a little class and teach the kids in the neighborhood some signs”.  I absolutely love the confidence signing has given my daughter.  It’s something special that people give her admiration for… Annie didn’t say it in these words, but you can see it in her eyes, she’s thinking… Sign Language makes me cool!

I’m so glad that I’ve given her extra confidence in life… sign language has been an absolute gift.

Andrea Ploehn, www.signing4baby.com

Here’s Annie and Brandon with the van ghost.

Here are my beautiful older children teaching my 11 week old sign language. It’s so fun to get the whole family involved.

Andrea Burton Ploehn

As a family we like to play games. We were playing hide and seek one night and Brandon started signing “where, I don’t know”. He kept looking for Annie but he just couldn’t figure it out. He did this when he was about 13 months old. Not many children can say full sentences like, “Where is Annie, I don’t know where she’s hiding”. With sign language though, he was able to communicate this exact thought.

When we can give our hearing babies the advantage of both ASL and English the benefits are fantastic. In her book Dancing with Words, Marylin Daniels explains that “Sign language has the unique capacity to tap into the natural exchange between hand and brain, optimizing the emergence of language in the child because of the physiological advantage of American Sign Language (ASL) over English.”

Games are a great time to reinforce signing. Your child is already doing something that they enjoy and when you add a sign to that environment then they automatically associate enjoyment with the signs.

I started signing with Annie at 6 months, but she didn’t start signing back to me until 11 months. Even though your baby might not be signing yet, don’t forget that there’s a lot still going on.  For instance, One stage that I thought was fascinating was when she started to comprehend the signs. The first one I noticed her recognizing was eat. When she’d start to fuss I’d sign eat and she would instantly stop crying and start reaching for her food.

It was amazing… it made me pay attention to how much she probably understood and I just hadn’t noticed. This stage of her signing happened in the first month I signed with her. So remember to pay attention and look closely so you don’t miss out.

Andrea