By Kris Smooke, Owner/Instructor Tiny Hands Learning
About Baby Signs
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a window into your baby’s thoughts and growing personality? Actually, you do! Open up the lines of communication with your baby using signs that they can use to communicate before they can talk.
Why Sign?
Research suggests that using baby signs has significant and long term benefits for your child’s growing brain. Teaching a baby to sign has remarkable emotional and social benefits; signing reduces tears, tantrums and frustrations.
Teaching sign language will promote fine motor skills as they practice signing back to you.
Getting down on your baby’s level and actively engaging with them in this way is a great bonding experience for you both.
Bilingual families can utilize signs to tie spoken languages together.
Language is processed in the left side of our brains while visual stimuli is processed in the right side. Using signs while using spoken language engages both sides of the brain simultaneously. Studies show that boosting baby’s brain development in this way can result in:
- earlier reading and larger reading vocabulary
- better grades in school
- 12+ IQ point advantage
- larger speaking vocabulary and ability to form longer sentences.
Signing with your baby gives them a taste of communication and encourages them to talk. Signing babies are generally early talkers.
When to Begin
There is no such thing as too much language exposure so whether you start signing with your baby right from Day 1 or wait until they are nearly 2 years old and desperate for language, you will enjoy the improved communication that baby signing brings!
About Kris
Kris Smooke owns and operates Tiny Hands Learning, a fast-growing baby sign language business based outside of Charlotte, NC. She now offers an online course where families can access her teachings.
Find it here:
https://tinyhandslearning.teachable.com/
www.tinyhandslearning.com