You may think of trying to baby sign during short little conversations with your child, using signs for “sleep,” “hungry,” “food” and “toys.” Yet there are several different avenues that can be used for teaching baby signing. Besides actual toys to help facilitate learning, there are flash cards, DVDs and picture books as well. But you can’t ignore that music is another important aspect that is used in so many ways to help babies learn.
Much of the structure of the programs that help to teach sign language for babies is based on the social and medical understanding of early childhood development. So it’s not a surprise that the creators of these programs have included music, since it plays such a large role in baby learning in general. Even the Baby Einstein program, which started out trying to increase babies’ intellectual capacity with classical music and poetry, has entered the baby sign language realm. It offers a video called “My First Signs
Sign Babies sells a whole line of instructional DVDs that teach the use of signs to babies, and each of the thirteen volumes in this set has a music CD that accompanies it. Baby Signs, Inc. also includes music in its instructional materials, usually bundled with videos but also sold separately or with toys. So there is plenty of music from which to choose. And sometimes there are local groups, like the Sing-A-Song organization in New York, that engage in baby sign teaching through regular classes, using their own original songs and music.
Music has long been recognized as an avenue to help make learning easier, along with all its other functions. Learning to baby sign is no exception to this, as music provides an aural as well as a visual avenue through which the signing information enters the baby’s mind, helping the child to retain that information better. As you and your baby learn to sign, music may also be a stress reliever, because after all, melody is known to slow the heart rate and steady the breath. And music can help make the process just plain fun, as baby learns this wonderful new way of communicating.