I love this stage of baby signing. My son is in the signing burst stage of baby signing… he can’t get enough. He’s at the point now that when I introduce a sign he can almost immediately reproduce it. He understands that I am teaching him a gesture that will represent something, so when I start signing, he watches and waits to see what I’m saying. Watch this video of Ben signing, he just turned 13 months this week.

My 11 month old already signs back to me.  So far Ben can sign: mom, dad, eat, more, up, all done, dog, and bed.  When he starts to get a little fussy and I’m not sure if he’s hungry or tired I just ask him while signing, ” do you want to eat”, or ” are you tired, do you want to go to bed?”  And it’s amazing at 11 months old he’ll tell me.  Sometimes when I didn’t even know he was tired he’ll sign bed to me… and what do you know I put him in bed and he’s happy.  It always surprises me at how smart babies are, and most of the time the parents have no idea how much their child understands. 

I love baby sign language!!!  I hope parents with little ones don’t miss out on this, because it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done as a parent by far.

Andrea Ploehn

Here is a video of Ben my 9 month old signing up.  A lot of the time when babies start signing back the parents don’t recognize that the baby is trying to produce a sign.  If you pay attention and notice that they are attempting to copy you or tend to do the same thing over and over when you say or sign a word, then give them positive reinforcement by acknowledging their attempt and then help them by taking their hands and help them do the sign again.

Andrea Ploehn

I’m so excited about some new videos  we just finished filming… they’re being edited right now.  I’ve developed an amazing program that has 13 lessons in it.  I decided to put this program together so that parents don’t get overwhelmed and they know exactly what to do and when to do it.  I’ve been teaching baby sign language classes for years now and I tend to get the same questions from parents over and over.  So I took the most common questions and I’ve given you straight forward answers. 

Each lesson contains new signs to work on,  research about baby sign language, skill development tips, personal stories on how the signs worked for me, video clips of babies in the stages of signing, how to implement the new signs, and much more!

I haven’t seen anything else like this anywhere.  This is the ultimate parents guide!  I feel it’s so important for the parents to learn how to use sign language so that they are the primary influence on the babies learning experience.  If the parent isn’t giving their child added attention and interaction, then many of the benefits that are connected with baby signing don’t tend to happen.  The key is the added involvement and connection that the parent has with the child.

I know you guys are going to love this, I’ll let you know when we have everything together!

Andrea Ploehn, www.signing4baby.com

Ben started signing up at 8 months and more at 9 months old.  Here are some great video clips so that you can see some examples of the very first attempts of a baby using sign language.

A few weeks ago we were in Salt Lake City, UT and we visited a place called bouncing off the walls. It has huge inflatable toys. My kids had a blast, we were there for over two hours and they still didn’t want to leave. It was nice because I just had to watch them have a good time! Here are some fun video clips. This is just one of the rooms they have available.

Andrea Ploehn

Okay, I know I’m a little late getting this post together, well ridiculously late… but I forgot I had these videos… so here you go.  We had such a great time over Thanksgiving.  We spend time each year with my dads family and it’s pretty much turned into our family reunion.  This year we had over 90 people!  It was my parents turn to host… so we had to do something fun.  My brother came up with the idea to rent sumo suits, if you’ve never done it, you should.  I couldn’t stop laughing.  I know it’s not really a traditional Thanksgiving type thing to do, but I think people will at least remember this one.  Have fun watching some of my family members fumble around in fat suits!

This is my husband and brother-in-law.

This is me and my sister.

Andrea Burton Ploehn

Most infants starting as early as 5 months give their parents sure signs of communication.  Some of them grunt for things they want or hit the table to get attention.  They look at you like you should understand exactly what is going on in their head.  That’s why it’s such an awesome feeling to see your infant sign for the first time, because you know what is going on in their head.   My little Ben has become quite a mommas boy… probably because if he’s left on the ground he’ll get wrestled by his two year old brother.  Every time I pick him up I say up and sign up.

Just this last week when he’d crawl over to me I’d say “up” and he would raise one of his arms up, attempting to mimic my signing.  Of course he didn’t do the sign perfectly, but I knew what he was trying to say.  When your child begins signing, 9 out of 10 times they wont do it perfectly.  Many parents don’t even pick up on the fact that their child is attempting to signs.  You really have to watch for it.

My cousin for instance said she’d been signing to her son for a few months, but he didn’t seem interested.  I was spending the day with her so I tried to watch for any signs he might be trying and sure enough, he was definitely signing “more”.  He would sort of clap his hands together, so she didn’t really recognize that he was using this as his way of saying more.  We experimented with him a little and again and again, he used the same clapping motion to sign more.

It’s important that once you realize your baby is attempting to sign, you praise them and acknowledge their communication.  Also remember that each time they attempt a sign, it;s helpful to take their hands and put them in the correct positions so they can feel how to do the sign correctly.  It wont take long before they are little communicating machines!

I can tell Ben is starting to recognize and respond to some of the signs.  When ever I sign eat he starts reaching for food, it’s such a cool thing.  Even though he’s the third child I’ve done sign language with it still amazes me at how small these little kids are.  Just my personal opinion but I really feel like parents that don’t do sign language with their kids miss out on a lot.  If I hadn’t done sign language with my children I know I wouldn’t have picked up on a lot of the little things… and I wouldn’t have realized they were understanding me at such a young age.  Having Ben respond to my signing is so much fun to see.  I’ve recently added a few more signs and I’m looking forward to him progressing each day.

Andrea Burton Ploehn, www.signing4baby.com

Brandon is starting to get pretty good at doing things by himself, well that’s what he thinks.  Kids are the best!

Andrea Burton Ploehn