A Few More Sweet Signs

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween.

Always find a way to be creative with your children. For instance, on the way home from school, we had a few errands to run. I had five children in the car, so to help them interact and keep their attention off the fact we were not home yet, I said "let's count how many houses have Halloween decorations."

Within a two mile distance, we counted 54 houses with decorations right to the front door of the friend we were dropping off at home.

I realize that with signing, there are MANY games to create too. Wouldn't it have been fun to add these Halloween signs, and say, "if you see a ghost decoration, sign ghost" and so forth.

Please feel free to share with us those fun games you have created at home or on the road and continue to enjoy the details of signing with your children!

Funny, Scary & Happy Signs

Halloween is peeking around the corner! What a great opportunity to review a few signs before the big day! Personally, I find that holidays are perfect for introducing novel signs to your child.


For example, “SCARED” or “CANDY” or “HAPPY”! Helping them to better express themselves around holidays will make the changes less threatening, more exciting, and best of all, MORE FUN!


Take a few minutes today and review a few of our suggested Halloween signs and have a WONDERFUL Trick or Treat Day!

Click here and for advanced signs here or on the picture to view MORE Halloween Signs!

Let the Sign Shine,

etel

Etel Leit, M.S.
Founder & Owner http://www.signshine.com/
Publisher http://www.babysignshine.com/

dancing with your hands...

so often, i've heard (and said) that signing is so much more than saying words with your hands.  it's not just about using your hands to label something, whether it be an object, an emotion, or an action.  it's obvious, when you see people signing, that it's not just their hands moving, but their faces, and their bodies.  so much is said beyond the hands. 

for babies, signing is a key to unlocking a world of communication that might not otherwise be opened until many months later.  babies learn the importance of non-verbal communication by cuing into facial expression, body language, and even the feelings that come along with communicating. 

i recently was told an amazing comment after teaching a baby signing class.  this mother explained that learning and using sign language is more than what she expected... that she can actually feel what she is saying... essentially, that signing is emotional.  she compared it to dancing.  she is a dance teacher, and related the movements of dancing to communicating with signs.  it's not just about the movements... it's so much more than that.

(and thank you to that wonderful mommy... you know who you are :)  )

Zoë signs over 200 signs in 5 minutes

Look what we found in our old home videos!

If you ever wondered about whether YOUR family can still sign, this is a MUST-SEE! It's a video of our little girl Zoe signing more than 200 signs at only 3 years old! But not only that, she's signing on command, in both Hebrew and English!

After watching this video,  How many signs have YOU counted?
Post your count on Facebook or YouTube.

Let the Sign Shine,
etel


Etel Leit, M.S.
Founder & Owner www.SignShine.com
Publisher www.BabySignShine.com
Respond here or on YouTube....

an Experience that will Leave you Speechless

Baby Sign Language is not only about a few signs that you can learn and then teach your child. That is what I learned on my recent trip
overseas, to my homeland, Israel. During my visit, I visited a fascinating children museum exhibit! The walls were monochromatic. The rooms were bare and sparsely furnished. Our museum guide was completely silent.
Sign Language and a museum?! What do they have to do with each other?!

Sign Language is easy to learn. Well, would you believe it was one of the most integrative and amazing museum visits I and my kids have ever experienced? The exhibit is called 'Dialogue in Silence.' Can you guess what was the theme? As you guessed, the tour explores the world of a deaf or hearing-impaired person. This tour's goal is to give the visitor the real experience of how it feels to be deaf or hearing impaired. It is a true hands-on
exhibit. So, how can you really empathize with a deaf person? The answer is --- experience what he or she feels… The SILENCE.

Let the Sign Shine,

etel

Etel Leit, M.S.

Founder & Owner http://www.signshine.com/

Publisher http://www.babysignshine.com/

Engaging and Repeating... Even with Diaper Changes

How many times would one think you could hear "change diaper" during one mere diaper change. Well, apparently many many times.

I honestly can see educationally speaking how repeating a word helps children to remember it, but this can also help calm a child down as you engage with them. Signing to my children has given me the opportunity of forming a habit where I am able to not only sign what we are doing but to repeat the words being signed. This is particularly useful when signing expectations or daily routines.

As seen on the video below, my son finds a connection with what is going on. And although he is not seen upset here, I recall just three months ago when he was two months old, I laid him down on the bed to change his diaper. He began to cry. I began to sign.

Within seconds his eyes were fixated on what my hands were doing as I found myself repeating the words change diaper in a very enthusiastic manner. I was engaging with him.

If I would not have been signing, I don't believe I would have chosen to speak in a consistent manner where my voice, although possibly annoying to the outside world^_^, was able to bring calmness. And my hands became a distraction from what was seemingly upsetting at the time.
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As stated in my previous post, I feel encouraged to sign by choosing three signs for a particular routine and then having the choice to add to those signs.

The three words I sign when changing a diaper are change, diaper, and wet or dirty.

I then add all done and all clean at the end.

Enjoy the journey of engaging with your children through the power of signing... even if it is in those moments of diaper changes. You never know what may be remembered as precious memories when looking back.^_^

Transparency and Babies' Understanding of How Language Works

In sign language, nearly all the signs for body parts are made by pointing to the specific body part. For example, 'nose', 'eyes', 'mouth', 'arm', 'hair', 'ear', are all signed by pointing to the specific body part. These body parts represent the meaning of transparent. You will often see a baby point to his various body parts when you ask him/her, ‘Where is your nose? Where is your mouth?” This is an example of the beauty of a language that has signs that are transparent and/or iconic. When the sign actually looks like the meaning of the word, or in this case is the body part, it is easier for a baby to process and comprehend the way language works. So when a baby points to objects or body parts, s/he is actually saying ‘this is my nose’. This is visual transparency.

When a baby learns the sounds that animals make, this is auditory transparency. He actually hears the cat say 'meow' or the dog say 'woof woof', so s/he often assigns those corresponding sounds to those respective animals. Sign language takes these animals and assigns a visual sign that is closely linked to the meaning of the animal, again reinforcing the benefits of learning sign language which may initially consist of many visually transparent or iconic signs.