So, you have either heard of Baby Sign language and are trying to find out more about it or you just started using baby sign but you have had some doubts because once you told your friends/family/co-workers one of them told you it just doesn’t work and will delay your baby’s speech.
Naturally you want the best for you and your baby and you want to trust your friends advice but are they right?
There will always be skeptics with anything and even though baby sign is no longer new and certainly out of the “fad” stage there are still those people out there who through misinformation believe that baby sign is not a valuable skill to be teaching your baby.
How do you deal with the skeptics?
Firstly you should really find out what experience they have with baby sign. Most of the people who don’t believe baby sign will work have never tried it themselves.
Or, if they did it is very common to find out that all though they “tried using baby sign” what they actually did was copy a couple of signs they got told by a friend and after a few attempts at using them with their baby forgot about it and promptly claimed it didn’t work.
While baby sign is very simple to do the importance of repetition cannot be stated enough. Baby’s learn through constant exposure to new things and soak them up like a sponge, but it takes time for baby’s to learn and develop new skills as their body develops.
What are the real facts about baby sign?
If you really want to know whether baby sign is worth trying with your baby then you need to know the real facts about baby sign.
- Teaching a baby sign will take time. Through repetition around your daily tasks however any baby can learn these simple signs.
- You have to make it interesting for your baby by choosing signs they are interested in.
- Using baby sign helps your child to develop fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination.
- Baby sign language has been shown to help reduce frustration and toddler tantrums.
- Research has shown that babies who were taught sign may develop a higher IQ due to increased synapses (connections made) in the brain.
- Using baby sign language can help enhance your baby’s speech development as a very important step in using baby sign is saying the word as you perform the sign.
- By using Auslan (Australian Sign Language) you are teaching your child a second language and a useful skill that can be developed further.
- Baby sign language can be used to help introduce a range of things such as manners, toilet training, family values, reading books and developing your baby’s own ideas and skills.
These are just some of the main reasons why using baby sign can be so beneficial to parents and baby’s as it gives you an eye into your baby’s world before they are able to speak, helping you to bond even more with your child.
There will always be critics for anything but all the studies and research on baby sign have shown positive outcomes.
Beyond all the research the hundreds of stories we have received from some of our 20,000 parents to date around Australia who are using Baby Hands show the positive effect that baby sign has had on so many families around the country.
So get started with baby sign today and find out why using baby sign really is the best second language 🙂
