It has been such a neat experience for my children to be around my cousin who is deaf.  They always thought sign language was just another fun thing to do during the day, but now that they’re getting a little older they’re realizing that people actually use it as their language.  I think they’re fascinated that even though my cousin can’t hear them, it doesn’t matter becasue they know how to sign.  My cousin loves it too, he thinks it’s so cute how my two year old asks for things in sign language and then signs thank you to him.  My cousin will also ask my son if he’s happy or sad or mad, which no matter what mood my he’s in, my son starts laughing and signs happy!  As a parent I love to know that I’ve given my children this gift of communication, not just for them in their “hearing world” but for them in life with anyone that uses sign language as a means of communication.

Andrea Burton Ploehn

Question:

This is Holly from Holly Tried It. I just started a new blog to put my posts on baby sign language in. I’m curious why you decided to stop signing with your son when you are obviously dedicated to baby signing. I’m not being critical…I’m just curious. I know that as my two-year-old grows and becomes incredibly verbal the use of sign language has changed and has taken some adjustment on my part.

Since you have started signing with your son again, do you plan to continue signing with the baby even he passes the toddler years?

Just curious!

Answer:

Hey Holly,

Great question.  The truth is, with both of my older children I had always planned on continuing to sign with them even after they began to verbalize.  In both cases I brought back sign language when another “non speaking” baby came into the house.  I especially want my children to be fluent in sign language as a second language.  I’ve been trying to pin point what the reason was for me not continuing, but maybe part of the reason is they start to venture into other new things like reading and writing.  I don’t find myself using sign language when I’m teaching them this I think mostly because I’m focusing on sounds and phonics.

I definitely want to keep up the signing during the every day stuff though, the kids and I absolutely love it.  You’ll have to stay on me and make sure I’m not slacking off.  I’m proud of you for staying so dedicated with your little girl.  Thanks for the question.

Andrea Ploehn

I just started using sign language with Ben my 10 week old.  I know that it’s going to be a long time before he signs back to me, but speaking from experience I know that he will start to understand very soon.  With my other children I started to sign to them early on.  Some parents get disapointed our frustrated when their child doesn’t sign to them right away, but you have to realize that your infants motor skills aren’t up to speed.  Most children can cognitively understand what you are saying long before they are physically able to respond back to you.  They typically have a harder time physically forming words verbally than using signs.

My philosophy on how many signs are when do you add them is that it depends mainly on the parent.  If you are certain that you can be consistant and use the sign language on a regular basis, then I think it’s fine to use as many signs as you want.  I believe that the child will be able to understand what you are communicating, even if they can’t respond to you yet.

As a hearing parent we don’t with hold some of the words we verbally speak to our children just because they can’t speak to us yet, so why would we be hesitant to avoid additional signs just becasue our baby can’t sign back?

Deaf parents of hearing children don’t with hold any signs with their children  in infancy, and what do you know, the children understand completely what their parents are saying.  So in summary, I feel that if the parent is willing and able to maintain using the signs consistantly, then by all means add on!

Using signs to teach colors is very useful. With my daughter we introduced colors very early. Your child can typically identify colors long before they can speak. Just like when you’re signing, you should always mention the color of the object you are describing or using.When my little girl could already use words and we would play color games, if she ever forgot I would simply sign the color and she would be able to figure it out. Having a visual symbol along with a verbal symbol to represent something will often help with memory and organization.

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Signing 4 Baby

American Sign Language is a foreign language. The signs you are teaching your baby are concepts used in this foreign language. Clayton Valli is a leading researcher and linguist and defines American Sign Language. “American Sign Language is an autonomous linguistic system whose elements are visual rather than aural. It is a fully formed language….” Teaching your child American Sign Language gives them the chance to become bilingual. Many Universities accept American Sign Language as a foreign language and have courses for it.

Deborah Parrish, M.S., Signing 4 Baby Founder

Research done by Joe Fagan from Case Western Reserve University and Susan Rose From Albert Einstein College of Medicine are finding that children who do better on memory tests when they are infants, tend to score higher on traditional measures of IQ at two, three, and even six years of age.Sign language has been proven to strengthen memory skills by combining multiple forms of learning, such as visual and auditory.

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Signing 4 Baby

I have seen it happen time and time again, those children that use baby sign language are light years ahead of those who do not.  There is a lot of research out there to back it up.

Research done by Burton L. White PhD cited that “Even some thirty years ago reports appeared that indicated that children taught sign language had acquired about seventy-five signs by the time they were nine months old. In contrast, the typical child of that age could understand fewer than ten words, regardless of how bright she was”.

For more benefits and research visit our site at www.signing4baby.com

Andrea Burton Ploehn

It’s amazing how quickly a child can pick up on something if they are interested in it.  Using baby sign language allows parents to open the doors of communication for their child, who otherwise would be limited in expressing things they enjoy at such an early age in life.

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Signing 4 Baby

“How Can I Give My Children

The Social Skills,

Intellectual Development,

And Self Confidence That

They Will Need To Be

Successful In Life?!”

I’m sure that as a parent you have felt the same way too, so I started to research ways that would not only work well, but also be a lot of fun for the kids.

That’s when I stumbled across something that changed my life.

Let me explain…

One day while researching online I found a site that talked about the benefits of baby sign language!

It was interesting to me because I had actually studied sign language in high school and college, but didn’t realize how beneficial it was to teach my kids!

After reading this I started to become obsessed with learning more.  I began brushing up on my sign language and learning how to teach it to my kids.  I ended up buying stacks of baby sign language books; I searched the internet for as much information, resources and research that I could to decide the best way to teach my kids!

An amazing part of the story is that my aunt has a master’s degree in deaf education.  I explained to her what I was learning about, and she told me that she actually had a lot of experience using sign language with newborn babies!

“That’s When I Decided To

Use Sign Language

With My First Child”

A few months later my little girl was born.  We named her Annie.

At first she would just stare at me, but soon I noticed she started to respond to the signs I would teach her.

The first sign she recognized was “eat.”  As soon as I signed “eat” she would instantly start looking for what food I was going to give her!

Right after that she started to make signs to communicate back to me!

• When she was hungry, she would sign “eat”
  

• When she was tired, she would sign “sleep”
  

• When she was thirsty, she would sign “milk”
  

• And the list goes on and on…

As she grew older, it got even better!  In fact, before she was even a year old, every time she would get frustrated and start to throw a tantrum, I would just ask her to sign what was wrong to me…

… and 9 times out of 10 she used the sign to get her point across and the conflict was resolved!!!

By the time Annie turned 18 months old, she knew over 150 signs and could speak in full sentences!  By 21 months she had memorized “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and was speaking almost like an adult when most of her friends could only say a few words!

After seeing the benefits from Annie, we did the same thing with our new baby Brandon, and have had very similar success.

I have loved using baby sign language and I hope that as many parents as possible will be able to experience the same benefits and joy as our family has.

Andrea Burton Ploehn