In the first part of our feature on baby signing guest blogger, Louise Gibbs from Baby Signing Mummy tells us of her experience of Baby Signing.
Hi! I am Louise and I run Baby Signing Mummy. I am mummy to a beautiful three and half year old called Isabella and she is the main reason I now teach baby sign language. You may or may not have heard of baby sign language and I hope I will cover your questions through this article. If you have heard of it, you will know that in the UK there has been a growing trend over the last few years, baby sign language is simple – it teaches you as parents simple hand gestures based on British Sign Language and Makaton to facilitate communication between you and your baby.
To some this idea does sound a little strange – why try to get your baby to talk to you before they are ready? My answer is always the same, just because a baby is not developmentally ready to talk to you, it does not mean that they don’t want to explore all the wonderful things they see and hear during the day. You are the most important thing in your baby’s life, they are looking to you to show them and explain to them the world around them. By talking to them while you make a sign they begin to learn the association between the sign and the word and before you know it they will be signing back to you!
Now rather than inundating you with research that proves the benefits of signing – or explaining some of the wild claims that have been made about baby sign language (almost a whole article in itself!) I thought I would provide you with examples of how baby sign language has made an impact on my life both as a mummy and an expert baby signer. I am, by background a paediatric nurse and I have over 10 years experience of working with children within a variety of backgrounds. I was first introduced to Makaton whilst working closely with a child with Autism, he had no speech and communicating with him was extremely difficult. I was taken a back when he one day stopped what he was doing, looked me in the face and signed 3 words. Drink, orange and please. He had been distressed but by being able to understand him and getting him a drink he was no longer upset, distressed or frustrated. This early introduction opened up a whole new world to me and I never realized just how important it was until I had my daughter.
My world was turned upside down at the arrival of this perfect little bundle – that just cried! My family and friends expected me as a paediatric nurse to be able to cope with a baby of my own, and I had my own expectations of myself. The steep learning curve that is parenthood is the most difficult thing I have done in my life – the first few months with Isabella were so very hard with lots of sleepless nights for her and me. With the so called baby brain in full swing it never occurred to me to use sign language with her until I was looking for an activity for us to do together. Suddenly it was like a fire had been lit inside me. Of course, why hadn’t I already thought about it? I did a little bit of research on the webnet and could see how related baby sign language was to Makaton and British Sign Language. I started signing with Isabella immediately, she was only five months old and I had failed up until this point to establish a regular routine with her, but I found that by talking to her and explaining what we were doing through signs and words that she became calmer and stopped crying quite so much. By signing lots of silly made up songs and putting in lots of animals signs (have you tried signing Cow in the Supermarket queue? – try it, see how many strange looks you get!) I had a happy giggling little girl that gazed at me and the world around us.
I had to persevere with the signs though, I easily could have lost heart as it was not until she was eight months old that she signed back to me. In the end it wasn’t so important that she signed to me as I knew that we understood each other, a very special bond had been created, she would look straight at me in new environments waiting for me to tell her where we were and what we were doing there. I chatted (or sung) non-stop to her and eventually when she started signing back it came pouring out of her!
One of my favourite signing stories with her is when she was sat in her high chair during tea, she had food everywhere trying to feed herself, she was smiling looked up at me and signed more please, I giggled and asked whether she wanted more to eat using the sign for eat, she shook her head but signed more please again. I asked whether she wanted more to make a mess with, with this she repeatedly signed more getting very excited. There was a small amount of the fruit in the bowl left so I gave it to her, she looked me in the eye and copied me when I said and signed ‘Thank you’ We had just enjoyed our first full conversation. I was over come with love and emotion for her (and she may have received a thousand cuddles and kisses for it too!)
Although this may seem a simple story I hope it begins to put some light on why I am an advocate for baby sign language, I have so many stories that I could share with you from my own experiences with Isabella to those of parents who I have taught that have come skipping back into class telling me excitedly of their little ones first sign. Every baby is different, Isabella took a while to sign back but I regularly hear and see younger babies signing back to their parents.
I now have a very active and chatty three and half year old. She still uses signs when she is somewhere different and feeling shy, but she also happens to have communication skills that are ahead of her peers. Her sentence structure and language development amazes me daily – it can sometimes feel like I am talking to a little old lady as she talks her way through her day “well first mummy, I did….”
The world of baby signing is addictive, fun and interactive. This is just a small taster of my knowledge and experience of baby sign language, I hope this short introduction has spurred you to find out more and to give it a try. If you still have questions, then I hope I can help. Baby Signing Mummy is me, predominantly a mummy, who understands those sleepless nights and inconsolable crying episodes! So why not let me, my health professional background, degree in paediatrics, mummy experience and love of baby signing help you join this amazing journey – I guarantee you will be hooked!
Visit me at www.babysigningmummy.com or come and say hi on Twitter www.twitter.com/babysigningmum or Facebook www.facebook.com/babysigningmummy
