Yes you should - Learn your ABCs!

People often ask me if they should learn the manual alphabet in order to teach their child and my answer is always 100% yes! There are several reasons why I encourage parents to learn the alphabet. One, many of the signs that you will learn will have letters of the manual alphabet as a reference, for example, the word water uses the ‘w’ hand shape. It will be much easier for you to remember the sign for water if you know what the ‘w’ hand shape looks like. Another reason it is good to learn your alphabet and teach your baby is because infants are generally more interested in songs that have movement. They love to watch your hands move as you sing. By signing and singing the alphabet at the same time you will see that they will be more focused on you and the song. There are many more benefits to using the alphabet with your child that can help promote their literacy skills later in life. I will touch upon these other benefits in my future posts. For now, here is a video of me and my daughter, Fireese, teaching you how to sign your American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet, enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTZ4GpSTLkM

Written by: Laura Berg, Founder of My Smart Hands http://www.mysmarthands.com