Sign Language For Babies - Beyond Peek-a-boo

Like to know what your baby is feeling? There's a world of different approaches to learning, an article in the Chicago Sun Times states, and sign language for babies is one of them. I whole heartedly agree!

August 27, 2007 www.suntimes.com

Maybe you know this already, but there's more a baby under age 1 can (and some say should) experience than peek-a-boo, visually stimulating toys and the important but typical array of other developmental activities detailed in countless baby books and magazines. Much more. If you're searching for alternatives, one of these might fit the bill.

Sign Language for Babies

"[Babies] know what they would like to share with their parents through the observations they make," says [sign language for babies expert Linda] Acredolo. "They even have some sense of what they're feeling. And so with simple signs, they can express those emotions, and they can let parents know what they are seeing and perceiving and remembering."

And, Acredolo says, her research has proven that signing won't stunt the development of verbal skills, as some skeptics fear. Other experts agree.

Liz Gordon has taught baby sign language in the Chicago area for two years. "It's very important for parents and anyone that really deals with the child on a regular basis to use the signs consistently at home," says Gordon, who teaches private in-home sessions (for groups of four or more) and public classes at various suburban park districts. One of Gordon's former pupils, the 13-month-old daughter of Wauconda resident Heather Kearns, began at 9 months and already has mastered 35 signs. "It's sort of cool," Kearns says, "because you're like, 'We're actually sort of communicating. She's getting her point across.' "