Be Aware of Gestures and Eye Contact

One of the moms in my Baby SignShine class shared with me that her little one had been signing ‘milk’ for days before they realized that she was signing ‘milk’. Her baby just turned one year old, and is rapidly acquiring many more words. During her meal time, she would reach her arms out as if to ask to be taken out of her highchair. When her mommy realized that she was not happy with being taken out of the highchair, she suddenly realized that her child was actually trying to let her know that she wanted ‘milk’. Every time she wanted ‘milk’ she would reach out her arms and wave her fingers.

Another mom reported her baby placing his hand on his head whenever he would hear his daddy’s car parking in the garage. Then she noticed he would do that same hand on his head gesture when the phone would ring, and it would be daddy calling to say ‘hi’. Mom realized that he was anticipating daddy either coming into the room, or hearing his voice because the baby would clearly make eye contact while touching his head. Although it didn’t look exactly like the sign for ‘daddy’, it was definitely an approximation. It would have been easy for this mom to miss the sign and think that the baby was rubbing his head randomly.

When a baby is consistently using the same gestures in the same context or situation, chances are, they are using an approximation for a sign and are trying their best to communicate. It may not look exactly like the sign you have learned, but it is in fact your child trying his/her best to communicate!....Blink, and you may just miss your baby signing! Look for gestures that your baby is using over and over again in the same context, observe his/her eyes as s/he tries his/her best to make eye contact, take note if s/he seems frustrated if you are not understanding his/her efforts to approximate the sign. You may find it helpful to write down what you think is his/her approximation and be sure to share this with your spouse or nanny so that s/he can keep an eye out for such approximations. The sooner you can identify what sign s/he is attempting to use to communicate, the more empowered your child will feel, and the happier you both will be! See how Frisee and her mom are understanding one another:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSZfW4gVhI

Use these same tips for your baby’s approximations of spoken words, and you will see how rapidly s/he will be able to communicate using speech in addition to her sign. Have fun!

Connect with SignShine and win: $120 Apple, $80 Amazon and more!

view this message online: http://www.signshine.com/article25.php

SignShine would like to celebrate Father's Day with you! on June 3rd we will give you super prizes (see below). All you have to do is Cick, Connect and WIN! It is easy on: facebook / twitter / Blog.

Every time you sign up to be a Facebook fan or a friend, follower on twitter, or subscribe on our blog your name will be put in our drawing, 4 times it is!
Every time your friend mention your name in his/her drawing, you get an extra entry in the drawing! So now, email it to all of your freinds and ask them to mention your name.
You don’t have to be a parent or a signer, ANYONE can join!


There is no purchase necessary and a purchase will not increase your odds.


Prizes:
First Prize: $120 Apple Gift Card
Second Prize: $80 Amazon Gift Card
Third Prize: free SignShine Sing and Sign on line
Forth Prize: 2 movie tickets with popcorn

Following is how you enter, each step is one drawing entry:


1. Become a Friend of SignShine on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SignShine and Fan of SignShine on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BabySigning
2. Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/Baby_Signing
3. Subscribe to our Blog http://babysignshine.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Now (you must complete the entry and follow this last step!), come back to this page and leave a comment with the following information:

- Your Name
- The name of the person who suggested you become a fane.g.
“Hi, Jane Doe here, I was referred by John Smith. Hope to win!”


Remember the more friends you invite to become a fan, the more times your name will be entered by your friends, so the odds start to look better for you.


All entries will be entered into a random drawing. The four winners will be picked from one valid entry, where both names appear. Odds depend on number of entries.Winners will be drawn at random on June 3, 2010. Winners names will be posted on the website, Facebook and Twitter pages and will be contacted directly via message Facebook.


[Your email is never published or shared]

So many ways to express my love- MOMMY!

I wish you a special day, celebrating the most important, joyous, complex, rewarding, challenging and miraculous “job” in the world -- being a MOM!

Let's start by signing MOMMY:

 Spell: M O M

Baby: "MOMMY"    -     Mom: "I LOVE YOU"

Let the Sign Shine!
etel

Etel Leit, M.S.
Founder & Owner www.SignShine.com  
Publisher www.BabySignShine.com  
Become a fan http://www.facebook.com/BabySigning

How to sign FaceBook in Sign Language?

Let's Learn, Click and Connect:

 

Become a fan: http://www.facebook.com/BabySigning


Be a friend: http://www.facebook.com/SignShine

Let the Sign Shine!
etel


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

Sign Language for Babies - Part 2

Here is Part 2 of our journey of teaching our baby Scarlette how to use baby sign language to communicate. If you missed it you can read Part 1 first.

In Part 1 we discovered how useful baby signing was before she could sign back to us, and here I will discuss what happened next.

The next milestone came the day she signed back to us. She had just finished her milk, the empty bottle was on our bedside table. She looked over at the bottle and signed 'milk' to us. We were so excited! I was lucky enough to get this special moment on video - she was only 9 months old.

Stay tuned for Part 3 where we discovered how all this fit together with her language development...

Don't Delay with a Speech Delay!

I've recently had the opportunity to instruct a number of different parents along with their children and have experienced the discovery of delayed speech in children 24 to 27 months old! As I carefully attempted to inquire with the parents regarding any acknowledgment or proactive stance on the matter - I found parents to be uneasy, but their pediatrician "assured them it was normal".

Well, clearly I have had to bite my tongue and curb my reaction to those claims. These same parents couldn't understand why the child has now started to lash out at a younger sibling, break and destroy things in their home, and/or "completely flip out in public" (a direct quote from a dad).
Do you think the child is ticked... because they are unable to effectively communicate? Maybe!?!?

Just so you know, there are a multitude of reasons children experience a delay in speech. The main one, no one seems to be addressing as early on as they should and can for that matter... Dyslexia! This causes speech delays in 20% of the WORLD's population. Not just the USA - the world. Most often, Dyslexia is not addressed until the child completely fails in reading and then that spills into other subjects, right about grade 3. The US school system then attempts their "college try" of slower-n-louder. These kids aren't Deaf - they're Dyslexic.
To learn more visit: Bright Solutions for Dyslexia

Sign Language Can Help Children Learn to Read

Teaching your baby sign language will actually improve his/her ability to learn to read.

Reading is a complex process that requires the reader’s brain to develop a multitude of neural pathways. The more developed those pathways, the greater the chances the reader will be able to automatize the act of reading. As the many pathways become fully developed, the reader becomes a fluent reader, and comprehension is possible.

A reader has to transfer the visual information of print into phonological information that is familiar to him from the auditory language that he hears daily in order to make meaning out of the print that he is processing. But a reader who has learned sign language, which is spatially visual, has the advantage of having developed neural pathways that connect the visual with language, or meaning. In other words, the baby who has learned sign language has a jumpstart on his ability to transfer visual information into meaningful linguistic information, relevant and critical to reading. He already understands that language or visual symbols convey meaning.

A child whose only exposure to language is auditory begins his development of the neural pathways at a much later age. The child who only knows auditory language must learn to take visual information (print) and make those visual symbols meaningful.