When Rennie was pregnant, she happened to put her hands on the famous book "Baby Signs" by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn. This provided her full knowledge about how baby sign language can fill the growing up days of your child with fun and make the child rearing process of the parents more exciting and stress free.
Overwhelmed by the impact of the book, Rennie introduced her son to the world of sign language at a rather early stage. She started when her boy reached six months. In the first phase it took her son almost two months to sign the first word back to her. But as the baby got familiar with the use of sign language, he started to use them more frequently, and Rennie could actually open up a conversation with her child even before her son actually started to talk.
Not only Rennie, millions of new moms all round the globe are resorting to baby signing language to bridge the communication gap between their pre-verbal babies. Lets check what they get from this extremely innovative communication tool!
With signs, words become meaningful rather than being a mere sound. While you are speaking out a word, that is nothing more than another sound for your baby. But every time you are making a particular gesture relating to the word, the baby gets to pick up the missing thread. It draws his attention to the real meaning of it. How can your baby know the meaning of the word HOT, if he does not feel it? The same way the word WIND will not mean anything to him, unless you act it out before him with blowing sound with your mouth. Thus, signs help the babies to understand the real meaning behind the words.
The brain gets stimulation due to the various activities on different levels. The learning of signing language at an early stage helps in the brain development. As a result, the signing babies develop a bigger bank of vocabulary by the time they step into pre kindergarten days.
Signs boost up the communicative abilities in the child. The signing language enables your child to communicate properly from an unbelievably young age. Communication is a two way process where both the parents and children are understood by each other. Thus, the child remains free of any frustrations. The child also learns the value of communication from an early age: that you will get the things you wish only if you can convey your message properly across the table. Everybody will acknowledge the value of communication in todays extremely competitive world. So if your child gets a taste of this lesson from an early childhood, he will definitely have an edge over the others in the latter course of his life.
Signs help to boost up the confidence in your child. Even the adults feel shaky and unconfident if they lack proper communication skills. This is because they cannot translate their thoughts into words properly. In case of babies, whose speech organs are not matured enough to allow them talk, the signing language help overcome this barrier. As he succeeds in putting his demands and wishes clearly and they are understood and responded to, he starts to have a greater control over his surroundings and over the persons who are part of this surrounding; this gives him immense confidence. This confidence in turn encourages him to communicate more.