Our little E has started solids and we’re entering the jungle of baby emotions. As she starts squeeling and pulling faces the helpless parents wonder:
“Is she full?”
“Does she want some more?”
“Would she maybe like a drink?”
“How do I know?”
I remember that this was the time that we started to teach our first daughter sign language or baby sign.
Believing the common myth that bilingual children are late talkers, we thought that sign language might be a good way for her to communicate with us until she was able to speak (not realising that we were effectively introducing her to a third language, there we were raising a trilingual child without knowing it).
We had seen friends of our sign with their children and had also read about it in the Baby Wise book and it somehow made a lot of sense to us: Children are able to use their hands quite well long before they can make themselves understood verbally.
We started to teach M the sign for finished and would use it at the end of bath time, meal time or any other activity. From 6 months on we would show her as we said the word and then use her arms and make her sign the word. By about 8 months she started to try and sign as well and by about 9 months I could recognise well, when she tried to say ‘finished’.
And it sure saved us a lot of frustration. When other babies were starting to complain and cry at the end of a long shopping trip our little M would sit and frantically sign ‘FINISHED!!!!!!’ again and again until we got it. We had a base to communicate on with her, she could let us know what was bothering her (that she’d actually had enough of something) and we were able to deal with that.
Once she’d mastered that one sign we later introduced others, like “drink” and “more”. Though we never kept it up and once she was able to talk encouraged her to talk, as we wanted to focus on the already existent languages in our family, it has been a great help to us.
I will now have to brush up on my skills so that we can teach E as well.
We have raised our daughter as bi-lingual, and I have only just recently heard about the baby sign language. I wish I had known about it when she was a baby. It would have made life a lot easier!
Sign language? good idea!! I have finally got her to be able to point properally at exactly what she wants. this has helped out tantrums as lot!!! Will work on some more now. thanks for this.
haddock: it certainly did make life so much easier. Actually, did you see ‘Meet the parents’?? That included a very funny portrayel of baby sign and it sure works!!
andrea: yes, whatever works to minimise tantrums … giving them means of communicating and telling you what they mean is a wonderful way of limiting frustration on all sides
Actually the movie Meet the parents was where I first heard about baby signing. It was a pretty funny movie as well
Thinking about that movie, I’m starting to remember how I thought that baby sign had been taken to a whole new level (maybe slightly beyond the ‘normal’:) We only ever used it for a few very simple words.