Helping your child learn baby sign is easier now than it used to be. That’s because there have been many pioneers in the practice who learned what worked best and what methods were less effective. And now they can help you learn how to baby sign because they have created a wealth of materials that you can use with your own child. Indeed, many of these have been developed by the very same researchers who studied the effectiveness of this type of training in the first place.
Baby Signs, Inc. (www.babysigns.com) is one organization that uses baby sign books and other tools created by researchers themselves. Their website is full of information about courses and reference guides. But their main thrust is the products that teach how to baby sign. These include everything from board and picture books, to flash cards, toys and instructional DVDs accompanied by music CDs. The organization also provides training to people who want to become certified sign language instructors themselves.
Videos and music are another popular set of tools when parents want to learn sign language for babies. For example, the www.signbabies.com website carries a nine-volume DVD series in their online store called “Signing Time,” and it uses American Sign Language symbols as the basis of its system. There is also an equally rich DVD product line, with volumes carrying names like “My Mealtime Signs,” “My Bedtime Signs,” or “My Pet Signs.” These videos entertain babies even while they are being taught.
It’s not as though things like a baby signs video or a picture book will actually accomplish the job of teaching a baby to learn signs, though. These will indeed teach how to baby sign, but there’s simply no substitute for the parental interactions. All of the tools are just that; tools. Parent and baby are actually a team learning these signs together, and placing a young child alone in front of a television to watch a video will defeat the purpose altogether. The signs will only be useful if they are part of a two-way communication between you and the baby.