Signing With Baby

It seems that ever since parents saw the baby signing in "Meet the Fockers", many other people have gotten onboard to teaching their babies sign language.  Recent studies have shown that babies are capable of communicating through sign language at a much younger rate than we once thought was possible.  There are so many positive aspects to signing with our babies.  It encourages parents to interact with their babies.  It encourages conversation, which helps with language development.  It helps to increase baby's I.Q. also.  Besides all that, signing is fun!

If you want to take your baby's signing to a new level, try to introduce the written word at the same time you introduce a new sign.  If you are going to teach your baby the sign for milk, you can write the word down and show your baby the word milk.  Tell your baby that this is the word milk.  Then you can make the sign for milk.  This takes but a second but the rewards are huge. Babies have the ability to learn written, spoken and sign language all at the same time and it requires no effort for your baby to learn.  Talk about forming some brain connections, this is a fun way to stimulate your baby's language development.

 

What's the Point?

When you begin teaching your baby to read, don't underestimate the power of pointing.  You can point to the text in books as you read.  You can also point out words as your encounter them in your day.  

I have been pointing out words to my little one since the beginning of her life.  When I pour juice, we read the juice bottle.  When we wash our hands, we read the soap container.  When we brush our teeth, we read the toothpaste tube.

My daughter has learned to read granulated from the bag of sugar, luminous from the toothpaste, and Toyota from our van.

Today during our family devotional time I handed her my Bible and asked her to find the book of John while I quickly left the room.  This was just meant to be a distraction and nothing else.  I heard my husband praising her as she found the book on her own, pointed to the word John, and said, "John."

That is how pointing works.  No formal lessons.  Just interacting with words as we encounter them.  It requires no planning and the results are priceless. :)

Interaction With Baby Equals Faster Learning

If you purchase a video series to teach your baby to read, your baby can learn to read just by watching the videos.  By having your child faithfully watch the videos, your child can and will learn to read.  However, if you decide to get involved and interact with your baby, your baby will learn much faster. Videos that teach babies to read are not meant to be a substitute for parents interacting with their babies. You can review the words your baby is learning by viewing the slide show together with your baby.  You can review the words your baby is learning by implementing flash cards or books into your routine.  If your baby senses that reading is something that is important to you, it will be important to your baby.  Spend some time on occasion watching the videos with your baby and discussing what is happening.  Television can never replace interaction with people face-to-face.

Play a Rhyming Game

Get out your magnetic letters or some alphabet blocks and start playing a rhyming game with your baby.  You will be teaching your baby many things with this simple letter game.  You will be exposing your baby to the patterns of our auditory language as well as the phonetic patterns visually.  Your baby will take notice of the fact that only the first letter is changing when you create a new word.  Your baby will be paying attention to the sounds the new letters make and how they affect the part of the word that doesn't change.  You can start off with simple words like wall, ball, fall, call, mall, and stall, etc...  You can even have your baby get involved by handing you the letters to make the change to the word.  This is a very fun, interactive way to teach your baby more about language and it phonetic patterns.  Babies are always learning.  With just a little stimulation they may surprise you as to what they discover.