When I first heard about baby sign language a few years back (before having a baby of my own) I thought it sounded a bit daft. A baby using sign language to me was just crazy but I was so wrong. After having Ailsa I properly looked into it and it all made sense. A baby can certainly understand words and what your saying before they can talk and sign language allows them to communicate and helps to eliminate frustration. We have now been going for 5 months and we love our baby sign class.
Why Baby Signing
Baby signing is a form of pre-verbal communication, and babies can begin to sign from around 6-9 months. Our Tiny Talk class teaches us British Sign Language which can also be used to communicate with others who are Deaf or hard of hearing who use Sign language daily so it is a fantastic skill to have. It can also allow siblings to comunicate with each other as well as others around them. We have definitely seen the benifits of Ailsa being able to communicate exactly what she wants or needs over the last several months.
How we found the class
Some friends and I were talking about baby sign classes and I had seen signs up in our local Tesco (Our Tesco has a community room). I decided to look online and try and find the class, I went on to the
Tiny Talk website and enetered my deatials to find our neaerest class. Luckily they still had a space left and so off Ailsa I went to our first class.
Class Structure
The class has a theme each week in relation to what we will be learning signs for, e.g. Animals, Body parts etc. We go through the main signs for that week's class and then get into the singing. Each week we sing lots of different nursery rhymes to go along with the theme such as "Old Macdonald Had a Farm" and we sign along with the songs which helps the mummy's and daddy's learn the signs and the little ones can pick up on them as we go along. Our teacher will also give out little toys for the children to hold during songs which helps them to associate the words and signs with specfic things such as rubber Ducks when we sing songs about Ducks. We will then get up and sing songs on our feet going round in a circle and also get out musical instruments such as maracas for some songs. Our teacher will also read a book during some classes all helping to reinforce the signs we have learned that week and also incorporate signs from previous weeks. Once all the singing is over and the musical instruments have been tidied up we get out the toys and the babies get to roam (if they are crawling/walking) and play with the toys whilst the grown ups have a refreshment (something I love as it's sometimes the only time of day I will get a hot cup of tea)
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| Ailsa with her first sign certificate |
What We Have Learnt So Far
Ailsa can now do 5 signs. Her first was "milk" at 7 months within a few weeks of starting the classes. She has since learnt to wave and clap- both classed as signs. She can also sign "All Gone"( As seen in the video below) and "Food". All of these are very practical for us as she can ask for milk whenever she wants and I know exactly what she is looking for. Ailsa uses "all gone" both for when things are finished but also when she is done with her food or her bath letting us know she wants to get out but she does know that it is different to when she has no food left or something has been put away.
I have learnt loads of signs so far and use them with Ailsa every day as well as teaching James and other family members so that they can use them with Ailsa too. I use the signs when we are out walking and when pointing things out to Ailsa as well as when we are singing nursery rhymes. Hopefully Ailsa will start to pick up more as we go along.
Will We Continue
We would definitely like to continue with the classes for as long as we can. We have found they are very reasonably priced and it is great fun for Ailsa as well as James when he is not at work and myself. We love that Ailsa is able to communicate with us in the small way that she can now, it has certainly stopped her from getting as frustrated in the high chair when she was finished as she is able to sign "all gone". Although Ailsa's speech is coming along and she can now say around 10 words we feel that it is worthwhile to learn to sign alongside her learning to talk in order to help her speech as we use the word with the sign.
We really enjoy the classes and the learning that we continue at home and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested.