Blog: My baby is signing....

I maybe had never mentioned it in my previous posts, but I am working as a nanny as well as running Rescue Mum. I am currently taking care of a family where the mum was teaching to her daughter how to sign “food”, “water”, “more” and “no more”…. I have to say that I never heard about “baby signing” before that and I thought it was only use for children with hearing impairment.

This little girl I look after is now 1 ½ years old and she has been able to ask me what she wants since she was 8 months. She is now even able to say the word “more” when she signs it at the same time….incredible!

I was really interested in finding out more about this technique as I had so many questions and it is not something I saw before in the other countries I lived in.

As a caregiver, this technique appears to have many advantages :

-The child is not as frustrated as they can communicate their needs more
effectively

-The caregiver is not as frustrated either, as we can understand the child’s need
better

- I believe that it helps for the child’s self-esteem to be able to communicate clearly
their needs and gain rewards.

I couldn’t see many negatives to this method, except the fact that you have to be consistent in teaching your baby. This probably will involve teaching your care giver how to sign as well.

But this is just my opinion as a nanny, so I did some research to understand this technique a bit better.

For the mums who are not yet using this technique or who would be interested in it, here is what I found.

As you understand, baby signing is a technique that allows you and your child to communicate through sign. Once they learn the signs and are physically able to produce the hand movement, your baby will be able to express their needs easily, such as “drink”, “food”, “more”, “teddy bear” ect…

It is a handy technique, especially in the first year of life when your baby is not yet able to talk or show clearly what they want.

The huge advantage is there is no frustration, not from their side nor from yours!

How it works is actually quite simple: Every time you do an action or show something such as Do you want your “Teddy Bear” “some water” “some food” ect…, you will have to sign it and say the name of the object or action. Through repetition, your baby will make a link between the object-action, the sign and the word.

You can start teaching signs to your baby from birth even if their comprehension will really begin around 6 months. Usually, the hand movements and the reproduction of the signs would be possible around 10 months, but it is not rare to see kids starting to sign at 7 months. Basically, your baby will understand signs before they can reproduce them themselves.

Many studies (see the “Wikipedia” link in the references) have been made on this subject to see how the technique was helping children’s development.

Basically, these studies showed that children who are learning and using sign :

- will have an higher expression and reception of oral vocabularies

-will have an advanced mental development

-will not be as frustrated, being able to communicate their needs effectively

-will have a better comprehension in general

And as a parent, using “baby signing” you will tend to be more observant and will create a stronger bond with your little one.

Of course, like many other techniques and methods you can teach to your child, you will choose this one if it fits your lifestyle. I have to say that using it in my work has made things much easier, for me and for the child I am taking care of. I have this feeling that it is a gift to give to your baby to help them communicate. We don’t remember the time when we were not able to express what we wanted but I can easily imagine how frustrated it can be, especially when you know what you want. As a care giver, I saw both case : babies the same age, one signing, the other one not. The difference in the frustration and the communication was real.