Baby Del Signs “Dog” in Baby Sign Language!

Here’s a video of Baby Del’s third sign from the Baby Signs program: “dog”.

An Accidental Baby Signs Video Moment

In this video, I planned to tape Little Del playing with some wooden knobs I’d scattered around on the floor, next to some scraps of paper, a bowl, and a container. Best free toys ever!

But it turned into his first Baby Signs video! If you watch the video closely, you’ll see the moment when he notices the dogs and turns his attention. Does he actually *say* dog too, when he sees them? Watching the video I’m not sure.

Our sign for dog is opening the mouth, sticking out the tongue, and panting. Listen in the video for his cute little panting sound! Aw! So much fun!

Baby Del’s First Signs

Del is now ten months old. His first sign was “bye bye” (of course!) and his second was “light.” He *loooves* signing “light” and does so whenever he sees lights — as we move from room to room, when he wakes up in the morning, and he even signs “light” when it’s dark in a room, right before he reaches for the light switch.

(One our favorite games, in fact, is turning on and off the lights. Del can turn the switch down for “light” and we turn it back up for “dark”. In the early days, I’d bounce up and down and dance every time he turned the light on saying “Yay! Light!” Now he joins me, makes the sign for light gleefully!)

Del even *says* light these days, which I am am amazed to hear. It comes out more like “ayt,” but he says it consistently and repeatedly when he sees lights and usually right before or at the same time as he makes his sign. Cool, no? I don’t have video yet of Baby Del making his “light” sign, but I’m on it!

What is Baby Signs?

Baby Signs is a program of rudimentary baby sign language that you can do with your baby before she is able to talk, from about 9 months until around two years. I did baby signs twelve years ago (twelve?!!) with my first son and he loved it. It makes communication easier and so fulfilling in those pre-linguistic months. Stae’s favorite thing in those days was trains, and he would sign train so enthusiastically every time we took the light rail or saw a train along the road!

So sweet to give your baby the ability to tell you what’s on their mind! According to the creators, Baby Signs was actually proven in a NIH-funded study to improve baby’s acquisition of spoken language, but it has so many more day-to-day benefits. My first son also learned to read before Pre-Kindergarten and was reading chapter books soon after. Any relation to starting language acquisition early with Baby Signs? Maybe!

Comes down to it, we’re having fun! If you’re interested in adopting Baby Signs for your baby, it’s never too late or too early as long as she isn’t speaking regularly already in English (or your own native tongue). We use the program by Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn:

• Baby Signs, the book (aff) - This contains pictures of babies doing their thing and all the supporting information you need to decide how you’ll implement the program. I was given this as a gift and used it with my first son to great success!
• Baby Signs, the starter kit (aff) - I bought the kit this time around for Baby Del. If you prefer to take a bit of a shortcut, the DVD video introduction in this kit is brief, as well as the quick how-to book that includes all the important tips on how to teach your baby signs. There’s really not that much to it, so if you’re time crunched this is a great resource. Downside: the video demonstrating signs is hard to navigate with your DVD controller, but the illustrations of the babies doing signs are hard to understand by themselves if you haven’t seen the signs in the video. Upside: The video for babies is pretty mesmerizing for those emergency days when you need a break! It also contains several little baby books that Del really enjoys simply as books (they’re small so they fit well in his fingers).

I wonder what Baby Del’s next sign will be? Will it be “cat”?

Love,

Mama Hope