I
have always been a great believer that even though a baby cannot speak this
doesn’t mean that they do not understand everything we are saying to them from
the moment they are born. If we spend our time talking to them in the womb
assuming they can hear / understand us, then why would we assume different once
they are born.
One
of the books I read before having Sophia 6 years ago was ‘The Baby Whisperer’
which had been recommended to me. I loved the way Tracy Hogg spoke of taking
your baby around the house when they had been born talking them through each
room, what it’s purpose was, where they would be sleeping etc. I so connected
with this way of being with your baby.
I
have a sister who at 15 months old was left severely brain damaged after a
vaccination. From that moment onwards she could no longer say the few words she
had recently learnt and was locked inside a new world where everyone assumed
she no longer understood anything. How wrong they were. As her younger sister,
I watched her frustration at the way people often treated her. Granted her
mental age was hard to guage but she wasn’t stupid, far from it. She understood
everything and sensing this my relationship with her was quite different from others.
Because of this unique relationship and bond I vowed to find a way that I could
communicate with my own children when they were babies. If we believe that the
soul is all knowing when we are born then surely we owe it to our babies to at
least try to find ways to communicate with them and allow them the ability to
communicate with us as early and as easily as possible, alleviating as much
frustration as possible – for both parent and child.
So
when Sophia was born, I looked into baby signing. I had come across ‘Makaton’
with my sister. It was something we had all learnt to use with her in small
amounts. As defined on the Makaton.org
website “Makaton is a language programme using signs and symbols to help people
to communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs
and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order.” Baby signing as I
understand it, is a modified version of British Sign Language (BSL) or American
Sign Language (ASL) dependent on your country of origin and is also used whilst
saying the words themselves. When you sign to your baby you speak too. This is
very important.
Initially,
because I was still in France when Sophia was very small I didn’t have access
to baby signing classes so I searched the internet and found a baby signing
book and then found the ‘Sing &
Sign’ website run by founder Sasha Felix. I ordered her ‘Sing and
Sign’ DVD and didn’t look back.
However,
at first even I was sceptible. Sophia was about 6 months when we began and it
seemed at first that all our efforts were futile. However, we persevered and
after about 3-4 months Sophia started signing. Sophia did not sign massively –
she would mainly use the signs for milk, more, eat and drink – but she
understood an awful lot of what we signed to her. Seeing the delight on her
face at being understood was just incredible. She knew we were trying to
communicate and understand her and as time progressed even when we just
couldn’t work out what she wanted (despite all out efforts), she knew we were trying
so would often giggle at us instead of getting frustrated. And we would laugh
too !
We
moved back to the UK when Sophia was about the age Jess is now, 22 months, and
I looked into classes near where we lived. We then found Sarah Glover who runs
the East
Devon Sing & Sign Classes which were just fabulous. We attended
the Stage 2 classes as Sophia was too old for the baby class, and she loved
it. We invested in the CDs to play in the car (singing helps to promote talking
too) and Sophia decided that she would also like a Jessie cat of her own.
Jessie cat is a bit of a star in the Sing & Sign world. She is a black and
white cat (see picture) who the babies / toddlers just love. She plays peekaboo
in the classes and is an integral part of it all. We all love Jessie !
After
our own Jess was born we started signing with her too at about 6 months of age
and she became a keen signer from the off. She has also had Sophia signing with
her, which has defintely helped her development. I have continued Sing &
Sign classes with her, and used all 3 of the DVDs (Sign & Sign, More Sing
and Sign and Have a Sing and Sign Christmas). There have been times when Jess has
insisted on having one of the DVDs played almost on a loop ! I suppose if you
place your child in front of the TV, a Sign and Sign DVD is a better choice
than most. She has grown out of this obsession now (thank goodness) but I
suppose if we understand that children learn through repetition, I can see why
she wanted to keep watching it over and over. Whilst watching the DVDs I would
sit with both of them and partake in the experience learning the signs myself.
Both
Sophia and Jess have been early talkers, both speaking 2-4 word sentences from
about 12 months onwards. It has been an exceptionally rewarding thing for both
my husband and I to be doing with our children and I would seriously recommend
it to all parents. It will be worthwhile time invested.
In
addition to ‘Sing & Sign’ there is now the 'Little Signers Club' who
also run classes around the UK, but mainly I believe in the home counties at
the moment. I have not attended one of their classes so cannot personally
recommend them, but they seem to be growing fast.
I
seriously hope that after reading this you have been inspired to give signing
with your babies a go. I don’t believe you’ll regret it.
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