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Published:
October 2, 2006

Baby Signing For Dummies

Overview

Have you thought about signing with your baby or toddler? Parents and caregivers are discovering the benefits of using American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with children long before they can speak. Some studies show that signing babies talk sooner, have larger vocabularies, and have fewer tantrums!

Baby Signing For Dummies gives you the skills to connect in a meaningful way with your hearing baby or toddler. Packed with more than 150 illustrated signs, this friendly, easy-to-follow guide shows you how to use simple hand gestures and baby-specific signing techniques to start interacting with your baby. Every sign is accompanied by step-by-step directions and an illustration—from meeting and greeting, people, and mealtime signs to clothes, animals, outdoor signs,

and, of course, bath time and bedtime. You’ll discover how to:

  • Introduce signs to your baby
  • Incorporate signing into daily life
  • Make everyday events easier with signs
  • Overcome stumbling blocks
  • Decrease fussing and crying through signing
  • Help your baby sign combinations of words
  • Keep your baby safe with signing
  • Get the whole family involved
  • Find outside help (Web sites, videos, and signing schools and courses)

Complete with illustrations of the entire ASL alphabet, signing dos and don’ts, and ten songs to sign along with, Baby Signing For Dummies is the key to enhancing communication with your child and increasing his/her intelligence in a simple, fun, and rewarding way!

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About The Author

Jennifer Hill Watson is the mom to three signing children. She began signing with her first daughter when her daughter was about 6 months old. At 41⁄2 years, her oldest now has over 300 signs. Jennifer’s second daughter is nearing 300 signs at age 31⁄2. Her son has 116 signs and 154 words at 19 months.
A former teacher, Jennifer has taught in both private schools and Houston public schools. She teaches signing classes for babies and their parents in the Houston area and helps lead the Houston Signing Babies support group both on the Web and at regular meetings.
Jennifer also speaks at national conferences to teachers on using American Sign Language in the classroom. Jennifer works with McGraw-Hill/Wright Group’s Early Childhood Division as an Early Childhood Consultant and teacher trainer. She volunteers as director of a preschool choir and leads confirmation classes with sixth graders in her church.
She has a bachelor of science from Texas Wesleyan University in FortWorth, Texas. Jennifer and her family currently live in Katy, Texas.

Sample Chapters

baby signing for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

Baby signing builds a bridge between you and your hearing baby or toddler. When baby knows how to sign before he or she can speak, it reduces frustration all around. Teach your child some basic signs for family, animals, mealtimes, and the outside world.

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Articles from
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Baby signing builds a bridge between you and your hearing baby or toddler. When baby knows how to sign before he or she can speak, it reduces frustration all around. Teach your child some basic signs for family, animals, mealtimes, and the outside world.
Mealtime signs can prevent frustration for babies and toddlers (and you!) if they know how to express their needs. Baby signing during meals means less cleanup time (no more mushy peas on the walls) and a happier baby.
Making baby signs for the outdoors is something that a child will do enthusiastically. There's a whole world of learning outside, and babies seem to instinctively know that.
Baby is busy right now. She's learning to sit up, crawl, and walk — or some combination thereof. Perhaps he has a lot on his mind, and his attention may be focused elsewhere. If your baby isn't signing back, consider the following reasons. Maybe you're overwhelming baby with too many signs Processing lots of signs at once is more than baby's brain can handle.
Animals are a big deal for babies, so knowing how to sign animals is important. After all, babies see them in books, on television, as toys, and more.
Your baby or toddler probably has a few things on his mind regularly, like "What's that in my diaper?" "It's time for a potty visit!" "Where's my cup?", "I'm hungry!" or "I need a drink!" The simple signs in this article relate to those things and will get you and your baby on the right track with two-way communication beyond "waaaaaah!
Babies and toddlers can use some basic signs when you leave them with a caregiver or pick them up, when they learns who's who in a family, and when they want to melt your heart by showing they love you.
Sign language for babies is a method of using either invented hand gestures or American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with very young children months — and even years — before they can communicate verbally. (American Sign Language is the official name of the official sign language for the deaf.) The reason babies don't speak isn't for lack of understanding.
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Frequently Asked Questions

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