Why I Teach My Children Sign Language Starting At 6 Months Of Age! - Gifs Of My One Year Old Signing Inside! - Come See!
I have always been around sign language. Growing up I tried my best to communicate with our deaf cousin. I was so intrigued at how she communicated and I wanted to learn how to speak back to her. She taught me a few basic signs because I think she was irritated with me trying to come up with my own. Ever since I have had an interest in learning how to sign fluently.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to persue sign language while I was in college as I had planned. Yet the desire to learn still wouldn’t leave me. Then I got into childcare and started learning the benefits of early language development. I decided then when I had children I would teach each of them beginning sign language when they reached 6 months of age, I am so glad I did!
When you teach your baby to sign as early as 6 months of age:
• they can better communicate their needs and wants
• there will be less frustration and tantrums
• it will aid their speech development thus signers tend to speak earlier than non-signers
• it boosts their confidence knowing they are being understood
• parent-child bonding increases
• it encourages earlier reading
• they tend to get better grades in school
• it boosts their mental development and encourages their reasoning skills
Using ASL involves seeing, hearing and movement. This creates more pathways in the brain which results in having a stronger memory. This will really benefit your child in the long run.
ASL is classified as a world language just as any other foreign language. Therefore when your child learns how to sign, he/she is considered bilingual.
I first wrote down words that I deemed important for my babies to know. I thought of words that would help us both communicate in the earlier stages. The following are the words I wrote down:
- Mama
- Dada
- Milk
- More
- Eat
- Please
- Thank You
I started signing these words as I said them out loud to my babies every chance I got. Sooner than later they started mimicking me and learning the signs. Around 9 months of age they started to form the words more clearer and began saying the words verbally.
It really helps if everyone in your household learns these signs and uses them on a daily basis. The more the young one sees it the faster they catch on. It’s also helpful when everyone understands the wants and needs of a child. It takes the guess work out of things.
You can learn these basic signs from an ASL book or watching videos online that demonstrate them. Sometimes I even google a word and watch a gif that shows the movement.
As my children get older I add more signing words to their vocabulary. They are always excited to learn new words and it really boosts their confidence every time they are able to mimick me. Currently I am teaching my one year old one new word a week and he is really enjoying it.
One thing is for sure, a baby will sign the way he/she interprets what you’re doing. Each of my children signed the same words in different ways at the beginning. If I feel the sign is close enough I leave it alone because I don’t want to discourage them from wanting to learn more. However if their signing is way off, I take the time to correct them and form their hands for them until they have a feel for it. As they grow their signing improves.
Here is my one year old signing a few of the words he has learned. Notice that he not only signs them but speaks them verbally as well...
When he first started signing EAT he used to do it in front of his mouth which is the proper way. Somehow eventually he has adapted to signing it on the side of his face. Even when showing him the correct way he still insists on his way.
To sign JUICE you place only your pinky up on one hand and make the letter J in mid air. Since he cannot hold just his pinky up or form the letter J, his interpretation of the sign is turning his hand as he puts it up by his face.
PLEASE is signed over the chest. He has the right movement but tends to sign it over his belly instead.
To sign CUP you place your left palm out in front of you. Form a C with your right hand and then place it on top of your left palm. This is a bit much for him to form all at once. His interpretation is to bring both hands together in front of him as if he is holding his cup.
Notice he makes a sad face as he signs SORRY. He understands when he has to sign this word it is because he has done something wrong and needs to apologize. I didn’t teach him to make this face with the word, he automatically does it.
At this point he was getting restless. I have never had him sit down for a signing session of multiple words. I was quite proud and impressed at how well he did. He normally signs this with two hands going up and down which is the correct way. Both fists are balled up with only the thumbs sticking up.
I put this one in for fun because it was my queue that the session was over lol! He normally tilts his head to the side as if he is laying down to sleep. The correct way is putting both hands on one side of the face and tilting your head to lay on top of them. He likes putting one hand on each side of his face instead.
A lot of people can’t believe our son is only 20 months old! The way he interacts and communicates with others is unbelievable. He literally holds conversations with people. Of course you can’t understand everything he says but he knows what he’s saying lol!
He is also advanced because he has 3 older siblings that work with him and sign to him every day. He picks up on their words and gestures and soaks it all in. Even though he signs some of the words slightly different we know what he is saying and it is very helpful being able to address his wants and needs.
Thank you for reading! I hope I could encourage someone to give teaching their little ones sign language a try. It will benefit the whole family and you will have so much bonding time together. It’s amazing watching them blossom into these communicative little beings.
Huge shoutout to @rigaronib for creating my logo/banner!!! He was so awesome to work with and as you can see he produces great results!!!! Thank you!!!
Fabulous! Keep up the good work! It's a lot of dedication and persistence!
Thank you so much!!! 😊 It definitely takes both of those.
Cool, I'd love to learn sign language. And a great idea to teach it to kids!
You should! It’s really fun to do! Thanks so much for reading :)
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I am stunned by the ingenuity of this project. What a perfectly marvelous idea!!! I've always wanted to learn signing, but having no practical reason to do so -- no deaf people among my friends or family -- it never made it to the top of my priority list. To teach it to a baby ... the way they teach primates to sign ... that's amazing!!
This feels like a humane and compassionate thing every parent could do -- learn to communicate back and forth with your little one while his mind is clearly developing, but he's too young (and uncoordinated yet) to form words. Gosh, that's exciting!! No kidding!!
I am so glad you love the idea of teaching babies to sign!! It really is amazing seeing them communicate their needs and wants. It has made our lives so much easier and less stressful because we don’t have to guess what our babies need.
Thank you so much for reading and responding and for the positive feedback :D
We did baby sign language with our grandkids. It is so nice when they can tell you what they want instead of whining 😀
That’s awesome!! It really is much better than the whining!!! 😃
How cute! I read about the importance of sign language for babies before I had my oldest. We taught him a few signs, including more, milk, and please. My younger son picked up even more than we taught him in daycare when he was about 16 months old. He could do play, mom, dad, and a few others. It really makes communication easier when a little one hasn't learned to speak yet!
Thank you! That’s so great to hear that your sons did sign language! Yes it really makes a big difference, we love it!!
Lately he’s been trying to make up his own signs...I’m like hold on you have to tell mommy what those mean lol! It’s becoming a part of his everyday life and he enjoys it :)
wow, so good! Very smart boy :-). I tried that too with my kids, but they were not interested at all :-D. If they wanted something, they just took it/did it :-D.
Thank you!!!! 😁 Lol that’s so funny! They said forget the the signing we’ll just grab what we want!! 😄 Thanks for stopping by~
When my eldest was in school, age 6, she was having some hearing problems. Her then teacher had worked with special needs children, so she started using signs with my daughter to make sure she was grasping what was said. At the time I didn't have internet, so I had no idea how to carry this on at home short of getting a book which would have been way down the list on priorities. In a way I wish I'd made more effort and gone to the library.
However, on the positive side her interest continued in it off and on and both my girls know a few signs. I might suggest it to my girls if they ever have children now though. Do you know if sign language is very different in different languages?
Well that’s good she decided to still continue and still knows some signs. These days it’s so much easier getting info online and it did take a lot more time and effort to go out to search for it. It would be neat if they ended up teaching their children :)
That’s such a good question but I am unsure. Now I’m curious to know myself.
What a sweetie!! You are so right. I noticed with my grandsons there was so much less frustration for them to tell me what they needed/wanted. What don't you do? GRIN
Thank you very much! He’s our little chatting buddy. So cool that your grandsons sign!!! It really does help when they are able to communicate better. LOL!!! Oh there’s quite a bit I don’t do but wish I could!! 😄
This is such an amazing post and it deserves the biggest rewards on Steemit. I think it is awesome you teach your son sign language because that is a skill he can definitely use throughout his life. I think people are surprised by how much he interacts because he had amazing parents. :)
Thank you for sharing your amazing and intelligent son story with us. Have an amazing day. :)
You are so sweet and encouraging and I always enjoy your comments. Thank you so much! I’m really glad you enjoyed my post :) You have an amazing week!!