Tap into Childrens Emotions using Baby Sign Language

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”.

Sometimes it’s hard for children to share the emotions they are feeling. When they are able to actually observe other people experiencing an emotion and then name it, they can then begin to identify how they are personally feeling.For instance, one day my son did something to make his older sister sad. She started to cry, then he immediately turned to me and signed sad. I nodded yes, that she was sad and then he quickly ran over to her and gave her a hug.

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

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