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.

Just to name a few ways that signing has helped my children: Clarifying what they are trying to verbally say. I remember when Annie was little for instance, she was listening to the adults talk and we were saying something about how to catch something. She kept looking at me funny and then she signed “Cat”. The whole time she thought we were saying Cat. If she hadn’t have signed it we both would have gone on confused and frustrated that the other person wasn’t making any sense.

Signing has helped my kids with leaning their colors and animals. When I’ve taught my kids colors and animals I teach them the sign for them as well. When they get stuck on what the color is for instance, I simply sign it and it’s a quick reminder of what the color is. Even though they may just be repeating the “name of the sign” I showed them, I feel that I’m giving them another symbol for what they are looking at. In the same way we have verbal symbols that represent the color or object. The verbal symbols are so abstract that it can be hard for a child to connect the meanings. Sign language for a lot of people is easier to connect with its meaning. Incorporating many ways of learning something only adds to the number of resources they have to pull from. Kids all learn in different ways, so the more options you give them in learning the more likely they are to learn the concepts more thoroughly and quickly.

Another way signing has helped my children is adding to their self confidence. I mentioned in an earlier blog that sign language makes my daughter feel “cool”. Annie loves showing other kids and family signs. It has connected her with us and others that sign. It’s made her unique and smart in the eyes of others. It’s allowed her to communicate with my deaf cousin. It’s opened up a whole new way of exploring and learning things. All of this has helped to boost her self confidence. And now I see it happening with my son as well. Not to mention, the bond that my kids have with each other because of sign language. Annie helps to teach her younger brothers sign language and they all benefit because of the positive interaction.

Signing has also helped my children verbally. Both my daughter and son have been well ahead of the average as far as speaking and verbally communicating. My daughter was saying full sentences at 15 months old. And my son was speaking months ahead of the other boys his age. Every child is different, but I feel that my children benefited tremendously from using sign language.

The list goes on, and I’ll comment more on it later when I have more time… but those are just a few of the benefits I’ve seen personally in my own children.

Andrea Ploehn, co-founder www.signing4baby.com

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

When I first heard about using sign language with babies, I was pretty skeptical.  I already knew sign language, but it had never crossed my mind to use it with a baby.  After a lot of research, I decided that when I had my first child, I would try it out.  Now after having three children and using sign language with my oldest two, I can honestly say it’s one of the best things I’ve done for them.  My third child is only 1 month old, but I am definitely going to continue using baby sign language with him.

One article I found was done by Linda Acredolo and Dr. Susan Goodwyn, which showed in a long term study that “children using standardized language measures, children at 24 months using simple signs to communicate, were on average talking more like 27 or 28 month old.”

The study alsoshowed a “three-month advantage over the children who were not signing. Also the infants using signs were putting together significantly longer sentences. Then at 36 months the children using signs on average were talking more like 47 month old which translates to almost a full year ahead of non-signing children”.

It almost sounds too good to be true, but from personal experience I know that it really does work.  Both my son and daughter have been months ahead of the average.  I had people coming up to me in the grocery store and they’d ask how old my daughter was.  When I’d tell them 15 months, they’d stare at me in shock… because at that point she was saying full clear sentences.  I can’t tell you how secretly pleased I was!

If anyone is trying to decide if they should use sign language with their child, do the research and find all the resources you can.  That’s what I did, and the evidence was overwhelming that the benefits are amazing.

If you have any questions about my experience with my family using baby sign language, feel free to email me. signing4baby@hotmail.com .

Andrea Burton Ploehn, Co-Founder Signing 4 Baby

The other day I was in the store and Brandon was signing, “Sad baby”. I looked around and there was a baby in the other line crying. I hadn’t even noticed him crying, but Brandon was really concerned. I thought it was amazing that at his young age he connected a baby crying with the baby being sad. Insights like this have let me know that I can teach even more advanced things and give him a jump-start.

Researchers Acredola and Goodwyn show in a study that “signing babies scored higher in intelligence tests, understood more words, had larger vocabularies and engaged in more sophisticated play. Signing Babies were followed until they were eight years old and on average scored 12 points higher on intelligence tests”.

Using baby sign language is such a great tool for parents, it really does help you tap into your children’s emotions.

Andrea Burton Ploehn

To receive the entire series of Signing Time at discount it costs over $600.00.  For the same amount of signs you can purchase the “Signing 4 Baby” collection for only $29.97!  Signing 4 Baby is a unique product that focuses on parent child interaction.  Research shows that to receive the amazing benefits of using sign language with your child, there are specific things that need to be done during the learning process as a parent.  Don’t just let your children sit alone in front of a T.V. for their education. Find out now how to take an active roll in giving them a jump start in life.  Visit www.signing4baby.com today!”

I’ll be seeing you soon,

Andrea Ploehn