sign language
By Andrea Ploehn
Patterns and repetition are part of a child’s learning process. When little ones can’t effectively
engage in either, it can lead to frustration and
lack of confidence.
Some consequences of this frustration for kids
include avoiding social interaction or throwing
tantrums. Parents tend to feel overwhelmed and
confused because they don’t know how to help.
I have dealt with these problems myself as a
mom, and worked with other parents who have
faced similar issues. I’ve found that parents can
help their babies build confidence and bypass
some major developmental issues by taking the
time to teach them baby sign language. Here are
some key steps:
• Start Early. Babies are extremely curious and
their minds are like little sponges, ready to
absorb the world around them. You don’t
have to wait until your child struggles with
words to begin teaching basic signs. Babies
can begin learning to sign as soon as they
recognize basic cause and effect patterns and
have the motor skills to form signs with their
fingers. When you start to notice your baby
reaching some of these developmental milestones, this is the crucial time to engage your
infant in learning.
• Teach signs one at a time. I learned this lesson with Ben, my third child. He would get
so frustrated when people could not understand. I decided that any time I found out
what he was trying to say I would teach him
the sign for that word. It worked like a miracle! He knew that I could understand him
if he used the sign for what he wanted. This
increased his confidence to learn more. Eventually this helped me teach him to pronounce
the words he was struggling with.
• Discover what your child wants. This takes
some patience, but it pays off. For instance,
Ben would make the sound “ga” for multiple things: water, the dog, books. One day
we wandered all around the house trying to
figure out what he wanted. Finally he saw
the book he wanted started saying: “ga, ga,
ga.” Immediately I signed book to him, then
I took his hands and had him make the sign
for book. We did it a few times until I could
tell he understood. Later that night he started
signing “book.” I grabbed a book and he
started jumping up and down yelling “yeah!”
What a relief and pure sense of joy and accomplishment we both felt!
Parents don’t typically think to use baby sign
language for building confidence in their children, but I have seen it work time and time
again. Helping your child to better communicate
will have a positive impact for the rest of his or
her life.
Andrea Ploehn http://www.Signing4Baby.com.
is an expert on nonverbal communication and
teaching babies sign language. She and her husband have four children, ages 16 months through
9 years old.
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