Signs During Bedtime Routine

I want to share another story with you from a mom whose baby could clearly tell her what was upsetting her through sign. This mom always used sign language during her bedtime routine. First, they would eat dinner, then play a little, bath, book and finally bed. One day her family went out for dinner and got home a little late so they skipped the bath and went straight to story and bed. During the story time her daughter was crying and very fussy. The mom just assumed she was getting overtired. Finally the baby signed ‘bath’, the mother was amazed! The baby had never used the sign ‘bath’ before, the mom had always used this sign in their bedtime routine but the baby had never signed it. The mom figured the baby hadn’t used the sign before because the need hadn’t come up. However, during this night, out of desperation, she used the sign to let her parents know what was wrong. I love this story because you never know if your child is picking up signs or not and this clearly shows that babies do pick up more than we think they do. I highly encourage everyone to begin using signing during his or her bedtime routine! :-)

Laura Berg, Founder; My Smart Hands, 'educating young minds' http://www.mysmarthands.com

Remember the Speed-Reading Courses in the 90’s?

Remember the speed-reading courses in the 90’s? Well, signing while reading works the same way -- we teach children to read and scan the most important words in a sentence. See if you can find the key words in the following sentence: “Mommy went to the park with her boy and they played in the sand.” Your answer is probably: mommy - park – boy – play - sand. These are exactly the ones we would sign while reading, because these are the words the brain is focusing on. When a child who signs starts reading, he has already developed some of the skills necessary for reading; hence, he is a better reader and will likely enjoy it more!

SignShine hosts many Free Signing Story Times througout the Public Los Angeles Lirbaries: Check our schedule: Click here.

The Colorful World Around Us

I have two young boys, the ages of five and three. They enjoy playing different characters. Their most recent character roles have been "tiger" and "bug." My youngest makes sure to remind me every time I call him by his actual name that his name is "tiger."

I enjoy hearing their ways of coloring up the world around them. They also have been able to bring more than one world together such as the other day when I heard the following conversation between the two boys:

"I'm tim."
"And I'm cam."

I know my husband speaks Vietnamese to the boys and they understand the language, but this was one of the first times I heard them choosing to use Vietnamese words within their own conversation along with the signs. My oldest signed "purple" as he said "tim" (describing his "bug" color) and my youngest signed "orange" happily as he said "cam" (describing his "tiger" color).

I continued to them ask them what were some more colors in Vietnamese, and we enjoyed signing them together. All along I knew that sign language was a great tool in bridging the gaps between two worlds of languages. And as this gap is growing smaller for my boys the older they get, it will serve as a bridge, for me, their mom^_^, as I hope to some day learn the language too.

Written by Shawna Tran: www.mybabydetails.com and www.vietnammylife.com

Don't Mess With The Bedtime Routine! (hehe)

I wanted to share this great ‘aha’ signing moment that a My Smart Hands graduate shared with our London instructor. I love hearing stories like this!

“The other night we were putting our daughter to bed (skipping the bath because me and my husband were too tired). She was fussing and crying, which she never does at bedtime. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with her until she started signing "Bath" (or her version of bath - but close enough that we knew that was what she wanted - her hands were flat rubbing up and down on her chest). If she hadn't been able to tell us she wanted a bath she probably would have cried all night and we wouldn't have known what was wrong. We didn't offer her a bath...and she had never used the sign before. But I guess she had never had to use it before because we give her a bath every night and sign bath to her every night before her bath. It was the best signing moment we've had yet!!! In the morning when we wake up I ask if she wants Milk, Water or Juice...and she lets me know by signing what she wants. It's hard to get her to sign on demand ... she only signs when she wants something - which is fine with me… but disappointing when others want to see her sign.”

It’s always great to hear stories like this because other parents can really see how useful signing can be! I’ll share more stories like this with you as they come in!

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

 ASL  benefits bi-lingual families!

“I'd totally recommend signing with bilingual children. Signing not only gave us our first means of effective communication, but was also definitely a nice way to confirm that [our son is] comprehending both English and Japanese -- the two languages he is most exposed to. In fact, [he] has recently started responding with sign when spoken to in Cantonese also...thus confirming he comprehends all three languages just fine.”

“My 2 yr old speaks to me in Portuguese and to his dad in English, sometimes using signs too as we are both hard of hearing. He always uses ASL with my Deaf friends.”

“What's been especially helpful is that, since Aries is being raised bilingual, for me to show the sign whenever I say the Russian word for an object, and when I say the English one. I think it really helped cement the idea that they stood for the same thing.”

“If you speak English and your partner speaks Spanish, when introducing a word such as "milk" you would say the word "milk" in English and introduce the sign for that word. Your partner would introduce the word "milk" in Spanish ("leche") while also using the same sign for "milk"."

Yes, it's extremely useful to use the same signs with the two different languages that your child is exposed to--it bridges the gap, decreasing confusion and frustration while increasing learning opportunities and language development.

On our Baby Fingers sign & song DVD, we teach our color song in English, Spanish, and ASL.  Bi-lingual families in our program have benefitted, and have also translated it into other home languages!

Let's Grow with the Grahams:

I wanted to share with you recent videos were shared with BabySignShine from Kelli Graham, mom of three, who signs with her three kids: Haviland, Jackson and Bennet.

"Bennett is the youngest of our three children- all of which have signed. He started signing at 10 months and while very verbal now at 23 months he still enjoys signing. I know that signing enhanced his verbal skills and have loved the journey!"

Bennett- age 10 months signing MORE:
Click here or on the picture to watch Bennet signing .

Bennett- age 19 months signing MILK PLEASE: Here is a video of Bennett asking, or rather demanding for milk. The boy knows what he wants when he wants it. At least I got a "please" out of him. :)

Click here or on the picture to watch video.

This one is of Jackson when he was 13 months. He was just learning to sign and would "babble" with his hands. This was in 2004. There is no sound on this clip - old digital camera"

Click here or on the picture to watch video.

And lastly, Haviland at age 7 months signing her first sign "milk". She was my earliest signer by far, and hasn't stopped talking since! This was in 2005. No sound on this one either.

Click here or on the picture to watch video.

I wish I could speak another language...

My husband and I are from Germany originally, living in Austin, TX, USA. You can tell from our accent that we are not native English speakers and of course that results in lots of conversation openings from total strangers (supermarket, playground,...).
First question is: Do your kids speak German as well?
Yes, we do speak exclusively German at home.
Next statement from the other person: I wish I could teach my kids another language.

My answer is YOU CAN!!!
American Sign Language (ASL) offers you this opportunity. The beauty of it is that you don't need to be an expert at ASL to teach your children the basics. May it be only a few signs or a few sentences, you are building the foundation for another language.

And don't forget, you are never too young or too old to learn another language. Teaching ASL to your preschooler or elementary school child is as rewarding for both of you as teaching ASL to your baby!

I find it very exciting to teach ASL to pre-K and elementary school children. They have so many questions on where this language comes from, how Deaf people live, how they interact, what their culture is like. My oldest son, a 1st grader by now, is as motivated to learn ASL as he was when he was a baby. I have 2 more children (daughter who is 4 and a son who is 2) and they all love signing.
I am pregnant with twins right now and once they are born and start their own journey of learning ASL, I will post updates. I am so curious to see if the twins will adopt American Sign Language as their secret language to communicate between each other.

Good luck on your signing journey!
And remember, ASL is accepted as a foreign language!!!