The Miracle of Baby Sign Language

I read an article about baby signing when I was newly pregnant, and my curiosity was so piqued that I decided I would try it with my baby when the time came, just to see if it really worked. Boy did it ever!

It worked so well that in just a few months I began experiencing a sense of sadness and deprival for babies who weren't taught sign language, because they weren't given the abundant ability to communicate that my baby had. Signing with her was amazing! I can't wait for another opportunity to teach a baby to sign so I can communicate again with a genius little baby brain that can talk before it can speak.

At first it was frustrating. I was overwhelmed that there were at least 100 baby signs and I had to know them all before I could use them. Then the fact that I had to get good at signing regularly as I talked to my baby so she could learn the signs intimidated me. But I formed the plan to pick five basic signs for things I discussed with my baby often (signs that had to do with everyday things like eating). I decided that once she'd started doing a couple of the first signs, I'd gradually add one at a time. I discovered there were more than five signs that I remembered off the top of my head simply from the reading I'd done. All of the signs are fairly obvious, so it's no trick to keep track of which sign means what. And after about a week of signing to my baby, it became a habit.