My son Ben is now 5 and a half months old.  He has become a lot more aware of his mommy.  When I leave the room he’ll start to whimper until I pop my head back in and then he smiles.  He reaches for me when I walk past him and he’s constantly grabbing for everything.  I can tell when my 2 year old walks in the room because Ben will let out a screech even before the toddler comes near him.  He’s already learned that Brandon usually means trouble.  It’s amazing how early they recognize cause and effect patterns.

When you start to notice your baby reaching some of these developmental stages, it’s a good time for you to engage your infant in learning new things.  They are extremely curious and their minds are like little sponges, ready to absorb the world around them.  This is an ideal time to really start using sign language consistently.  Some of you may have already been using signs here and there with your baby already.  If you haven’t started yet, don’t wait any longer.  Your baby is just itching to learn new things and he trusts you to give him the information he needs to continue to develop.

Many parents have told me that after their child reaches this stage in development they can tell that he picks up on the meaning of the signs they are using very quickly.  I personally agree, I noticed my children have become intensely aware of the signs I use right around this point.  Up until now they had been in the first stage, Entertainment. It was very clear to me that they were moving on to the second developmental stage of baby sign language, Comprehending. After the child reaches this stage you can be sure it wont be long until they progress very quickly through the remaining stages and will be signing back to you very soon.

I’ve decided to post the developmental stages for you again so that you can easily track your child’s progression.

Developmental Stages of Baby Sign Language: helpful answers to questions

I know that sometimes it can be confusing when you first start to use sign language with your baby.  It’s hard to know if you’re doing it right, or if the baby is responding how they should.  One thing that I found was helpful was to look for the different stages of signing.  We like to call it the baby sign experience.

The stages to look for are:

1.  Entertainment- at first your baby will just watch you, he thinks it’s fun to see your hands moving, and your facial expressions.

2.  Comprehending- your baby will begin to understand your signs, even though he wont be able to imitate the sign himself.

3.  Sign Success- your baby will be able to produce a sign on his own.

4.  Sign Trials- your baby will experiment with signs, using them in different contexts.

5.  Signing Feast and Fun- your baby has gotten to the point that he fully understands that using signs represents other objects, emotions, actions, etc… He will then look to you for more signs so that he can continue to more fully express himself.

These are the basic 5 stages of baby sign language.  If you want more details and specific examples of the stages you can visit the signing 4 baby home page at www.signing4baby.com

Remember to be consistent… and I promise the results will be amazing!

Andrea Ploehn, Signing 4 Baby Founder

Ben has started to show so much personality.  He just turned 4 months old, time sure does fly.  It’s so great how much the family pulls together when a new baby is born.  Our older children can’t get enough of Ben.  I’ve started doing a few signs with Ben like “eat”, “more”, “all done” and “milk”.  It will be a while before he starts to sign back things to me, but I’m certain he’ll be understanding the signs very soon… who knows maybe he already understands.

Here is little Ben (really should be Big Ben as he is really packing it on) at 7 weeks. Although he isn’t quite ready to begin signing, he is developing well and is giving some of the key indicators that will let me know he is ready: he is starting to make and hold eye contact and he is starting to smile voluntarily.

Well, as you know I had a little boy named Ben on June 3rd 2008.  We are planning on filming a documentary of him learning baby sign language.  So far we haven’t started using any signs with him because he is still in that new born phase.  I’m waiting just a little longer until he is able to really focus and concentrate on people.  I think I’m going to be able to start soon though, he’s already smiling and starting to coo.  Oh, and you’re not going to believe this, even though he started out as a pretty big baby (9lb 1oz), he’s already sky rocketed up to 16lbs at 6 weeks!!!  I guess I give him the good stuff.

I would love for you all to keep checking in to see all the fun new developments, don’t miss out!

Andrea Burton Ploehn