Language development in the first year

Hi I am a baby sign teacher and I wondered if any of your members would like to know more about this amazing form of comunication. on looking through your web site which is very informative, I found that there was nothing relating to this. Sign comunication is very strong in the West Sussex area and so far I have taught more than 300 families which is wonderful.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes
Trish

Hi Trish, I would like to know more about baby signing. I have 5 children in all, my 4th, Molly, has global developmental delay and even though she is trying to speak uses sign language as well. It really helps her as she is less frustrated when trying to comunicate, but the only problem is that her nursery is teaching her more and more and I am getting left behind. Also my new arrival is 7wks old and I would like to teach her to sign as soon as possible, as it really amazed me how quickly Molly picked it up.   Jayne

Hi Jayne

You can sign with your baby from any age. If you started doing this now it would become a natural way of being. We recommend that babies be a minimum age of 6 months for classes as they really enjoy the sessions.

With regards to learning more signs. You could try our book “Joseph Garcia’s Complete Guide to Babysigning” which has a DVD with a 172 signs. This would give you all the information required to be successful with your little one and to learn more signs for your communication with Molly. The book is available in libraries so you could test it for free.

There is also information on our website: [u]www.babysigners.co.uk[/u].  You could also try the British Deaf Society who also have a stock of signing DVD's.

I hope this has helped.

Trish