Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Signing with Baby A

My 8 month old and I recently began attending the new session of Sign4Baby taught by Joann Wooley.

Each week, Joann picks a theme to focus on such as family, colors, etc. She begins the class with a “Welcome” song which really gets the babies excited! There are toys for the babies to play with that coordinate with that week’s theme. Joann goes over signs using books, music, and the babies.

The one thing I really liked about the first class was how Joann told us not to focus so much on learning every sign she showed us, but to focus more on our communication with our baby and which signs would best suit them individually. For example, many of the babies are signing “dog” in our class, however, we don’t have a dog so I am not teaching that sign to Baby A right now.

Joann told us to start by picking 3-5 signs at first and then to gradually introduce more as fitting. So far, WE sign bird, water, milk, all done, book, clapping, and bye bye to Baby A. She can sign milk and wave bye bye. She also has been “air” clapping for quite some time. I wave both my hands at her when she does a good job or we are excited about something and now she can do the same when we say “YAY!”. We have only been signing new words to her for about two weeks so I know she will start picking up on more soon!

I am so glad we are attending this session of Sign4Baby. We have a signing book that Baby A received for Christmas and I have searched for signs online before, but it is very helpful to learn how to correctly sign with my baby. Joann is so sweet and animated with all of the babies in the class. I love how she brings her touches of attachment parenting to the class as well. It is eye opening to realize how babies really want to communicate with you at such an early age and how signing is the perfect way to help them do that. I know that signing is going to help us a lot when Baby A is a toddler and cannot find the right words to describe her frustration. If you were thinking about attending a class, do it. You won’t regret it. J ~Ali

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