I’ve never heard of baby signing … what is it?

When your baby can’t get her point across she will often become frustrated. It may be that she is uncomfortable in her wet nappy but just doesn’t have the ability to tell you.

Baby signing is a system used by hearing parents and their babies consisting of hand signals assigned to specific tasks, for example “I’m hungry”, “I’m tired”, whilst using the appropriate word to back up the signal.

This is a fun way to give your baby more control over their own environment while encouraging them to communicate.

What would the benefit of using baby signing be?

As our lifestyles become more frantic studies have begun to show that communication skills in children are suffering. These skills are a vital part of a child’s development and play, they are essential in both their every day life and their education.

Baby signing offers you the exciting opportunity to communicate with your child before they have developed their speech.

I would like to start teaching my baby some signs … how old should she be?

Aim to start once your baby is six months old. Remember that babies development rates differ and you may have to wait until yours is ready to learn. As a general rule once your baby is aware of their hands (picking up small objects) and be able to respond to questions like “Where’s mummy?” (with an obvious attempt to look for mummy) then they are ready to begin the baby signing programme.

When you introduce a new sign first establish the link between the appropriate word and the activity, for example hand your baby a drinking cup and say “Thirsty”. After you have been doing this for a while you can begin to mould your baby’s hands in to the sign as you use the spoken word.

If you make the whole thing fun and relaxed your baby will soon realise that it’s useful to be able to communicate. Children relish the chance to be understood and are aware of their surroundings long before they can speak.

How many signs can my baby cope with?

Have fun with the first sign until you and your baby settle in to baby signing then add a second one. Slowly introduce new signs choosing things that you think would be the most useful for your baby, “thirsty” for example. The system includes signs for all of the essentials, like hungry and tired, but there are many you may consider too much, for example dog or flower. Gradually build up your collective sign base but don’t over load your baby with too much to learn … baby signing should be fun for you both. Every baby is different and the number of signs you choose to use should suit your situation.

I’m worried that my baby won’t bother learning to speak if I teach her signing.

Children are eager to chatter and love to hear the sound of their own voice. Your baby will naturally begin to make sounds to back up the signs as they progress and you can encourage them by using the appropriate word yourself.

We have included some books which you might find useful
Click on each book image for more information …