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Signing With Babies And Children: Increased Awareness and Sign Language

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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Increased Awareness and Sign Language

When asked what she liked learning from sign language class, one of the moms responded that she now has a greater appreciation for ‘observing’ . She felt that had she not learned sign language, there are a lot of subtle cues that she would would have missed in her baby’s efforts to communicate. Now she is hyper aware of how much information gets expressed from her baby’s eyes - whether they are big and round, or small and closed, whether the eye brows are raised or wrinkled - these are parts of signs that would typically be missed in a baby’s early efforts to communicate meaning. Likewise, a baby who learns to sign will also be more in tune with the subtle cues the parents are including in their nonverbal communication. For example, you will often see a baby who is learning to sign, raise his eyebrows and shoulders, and tilt his head in an effort to express "I don't know". This awareness on the part of both baby and parent contributes to increased bonding and understanding in a special relationship.

4 comments:

Tzivia said...

I concur. Even now, with my little kids 5 and 2.5, having been signing with them almost since birth, they know to look at me, to make eye contact, to check my hands in case I'm signing something that will provide more information. Esp for my ds (2.5), who's just learning language (and doing great!), it still helps him learn and concretize new words and concepts.

My Baby Details said...

Sense of awareness of body language and communicating is so important with all our relationships in life... it's really thinking outside of yourself and taking a moment to understand some one's cues of communicating.

Yeah for the gift of sign!

baby fingers said...

my children are especially aware of other people's subtle body language and facial experessions, and can read them fairly well. being exposed to sign from birth and signing early on was key, i'm sure.

andrea@signshine.com said...

Nonverbal communication is a Powerful tool to learn. It not only helps one to better express themselves but also it helps the child focus in on the other person. When young children learn how to hone in on facial expressions and details of the body they are more apt to understand what's happening in their world, how someone else may be feeling (happy, sad, upset), as well as express themselves. I agree that being exposed to Sign language at an early age is a key factor to being more intune of body and facial cues. What a wonderful multi-senory way to learn.