My niece Jenny and her lovely baby boy Joshua are now bonding nicely, and Jenny feels a lot more confident about her skills as a new parent.

We got to talking the other day about baby signing, and Jenny would love to learn to sign with Joshua, so she prompted me to do a whole lot of research on baby signing so that when the time comes she will be able to sign with Joshua. Baby signing is based on deaf sign language used for hearing impaired people, and there are various ways to teach babies – there are even sing and sign classes!

The first question the Jenny had was -

‘How old should my baby be before I start to teach him baby sign language?’

Really this is the Mothers decision, but due to the general development of motor skills, in most cases babies will not be able to sign back to you until they are 6 months old, or more. There is really no right or wrong time. Some parents sign to their babies from birth and some only start when their baby is 12 months old. It really can vary that much. Are you thinking of teaching your child to sign?

There are many benefits the most profound of which I believe is the bond that baby signing creates between you and your baby. Signing can actually provide an insight into your babies thoughts, and help you to really understand and communicate with your child.

If you would like to strengthen your bond with your baby, then signing could be for you.

Can you imagine being able to communicate with your child without words. It truly is amazing!

You will feel like the best parent in the world – you will certainly never regret it – especially when your baby does his first sign for you!

So I am going to be posting a whole lot more about this fascinating subject and will get some videos together to show just how cute baby signing is!

I am certainly going to encourage Jenny to start signning with Joshua when she is ready to.

If you want to try baby signing take a look at this:-

http://www.yourchildrensfirst.com/recommends/babysigning

• Toddler Interpreter: Teaching Sign Language to Your Hearing Child (Giveaway) (susanheim.blogspot.com)
• How to include sign language (johnaugust.com)

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