Baby Sign Language

Melanie Raposo: Hi everybody! I'm Melanie Raposo and welcome to The Pregnancy Show. Before your baby can speak, it can be kind of difficult to figure out what they are thinking or what they want, but not anymore. Now your baby can communicate what they are feeling through sign language. Can you say thank you and what's milk? At Smart Hand sign language classes, instructor Laura Berg teaches parents and their babies how to communicate through sign language, which is actually proving to encourage and help develop language skills. Laura Berg: When you are signing with your baby, you are always talking to them. What signing does is just sort of give them a leg-up because if they can't say milk, but they can sign milk then they are using that language. Melanie Raposo: Parents are encouraged to sign with their baby as early as six-months-old. Signing with your baby at an early age is not only a wonderful way to bond with your child, but it also provides your baby with the great tool to communicate exactly what they want. Laura Berg: The number one benefit is reduce frustration for them, because they are able to communicate what they want at an earlier age. They have the ability to make the movement before they can actually make the verbal sound. Melanie Raposo: One of the best and easiest ways to start signing with your baby is remembering to make it fun. You can start by teaching your baby these simple signs. Laura Berg: Mummy is a good sign to start with or daddy and milk. Milk is a great sign to start with, and then sort of build that from there. If your child is showing interest in a ball, you can point to the ball and say that, it's a ball. If your child is looking at a ball and you are trying to teach them a sign for a light then it defeats the purpose because they are going to not understand that you are trying to teach them light. So those are sort of motivational signs to look for. When you are showing them the sign, you can say that's an apple. Apple, or do you know that Hungry Caterpillar book? Yeah, you can do the signs for that. So orange, like this, like you are squeezing an orange. Orange. I just personally thing it's a fun way to spend time with your baby and not to give it up, like my daughter is now two. She still loves to sign. Melanie Raposo: To learn some easy signs you can teach your baby at home, watch your baby signing lessons video on thepregnancyshow.com.