Babies Trying To Communicate on their Own

Nice article from Babies and Sign Language

Almost all babies try to use gestures to communicate, but many parents/caregivers tend not to notice because of the focus on the speech part of communication. If you observe closely, your Baby will even create his her own gestures until s/he can vocalize the word in English.

Your baby easily grasps the hand motions for hi/bye and head shakes or nods to mean yes or no. Most parents stop here, not realizing that their child is capable of learning many more signs and gestures, thereby making communication a smoother (and earlier!) process.

Hearing children will learn to speak and talk eventually, but why wait until they are only able to pronounce words when you can have amazing conversations with them even before that physical process happens?

First off, learning a few basic signs for your child is not hard. Some signs are just as easy to learn as waving, clapping, and pointing. If your baby can nod her head yes or no, she is in essence, already using signs! You do not have to command the entire ASL language to begin communicating earlier with your child. Just a few signs incorporated into your daily routine is all it will take to reap these delightfully amazing benefits!!

Baby Sign Language Article

Click Here to Go to the Article

One night 12-month-old Isabella woke up crying at 3 am. Her Mother rushed in and tried to figure out what was wrong. Was Izzy sick? Was she just teething? Did she need Tylenol? Before the panicky first time Mom could start the familiar process of trial and error to find out what was wrong, Isabella put three fingers to her lips and made the sign for water. "Do you want water?" Isabella's Mother asked surprised. Isabella made her yes-grunt sound and nodded her head enthusiastically. 5 minutes later after downing a sippy-cup of water, Isabella was peacefully asleep.

Isabella is one of the thousands of babies who have learned how to sign, so that they may communicate before they are able to speak. For parents, sign language is heaven sent. It cuts down on tantrums and allows parents to be able to understand what their baby wants and needs. Babies as young as 6 months old can use sign language, whether they are hearing impaired or not. Plus, you don’t need to know sign language to teach your child. There are tons of baby signing videos and classes, such as the popular “Baby Signing Time” series and “My Smart Hands” classes. Arizona parents can start immediately in a beginner sign language class or take a crash course for busy parents in a class from “My Smart Hands”. See My Smart Hands for more info or find them on facebook.

There are also tons of youtube videos you can watch with your child for free. So, if you are a parent who wants to understand your baby ASAP, then start signing. Although, it does take a lot of repetition and patience, before you know it you will understand your child all too well.

Isabella’s nervous Mother never would have guessed that little Izzy simply wanted a glass of water in the middle of the night. Thanks to signing, Isabella was able to tell her Mother what she wanted and all were able to get a decent nights rest. What more could a Mother want?

GIVEAWAY WINNER

So as I was doing some searching online to find a tool to pick a winner at random (without having to actually write every name out and put it in a hat! ha!), I discovered that I really was not 'allowed' to run a Contest on Facebook.com without prior permission. OOPS! And I also can not post the winner on Facebook itself. It's a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo that I don't really get, but unfortunately this will have to be my last Giveaway on Facebook. Click Here To Read More (especially if you have an FB fan page for your own business)

But because I don't want to disappoint everyone who worked so hard to get My Smart Hands - Phoenix to 100 Fans, I am going to announce the winner here on my blog (which just handily happens to have a 3rd party connector to FB with NetworkedBlogs - yay!)

Drum roll please......................Our winner of a Level 1 My Smart Hands Class is:

DANICA NORRIS

Yay! Please email me at crystal@mysmarthands.com with your mailing address of choice, and I will put your gift certificate in the mail!

Thanks again to everyone for participating, and sorry I won't be able to do these on FB anymore! :(

The "Fireflies" Song in ASL

Do any of your kids like to watch the fireflies?

Check out this fun video of a young man signing to a song called "Fireflies".

The song's lyrics, as well as the ASL translation, are along the bottom of the screen.

Notice how his very expressive face helps to get his message across as he signs.

Super fun!

Laura's Son, Hartford, Signing at 12 Months

Check out this amazing video of Hartford, just 12 months old, signing with his mom, the founder of My Smart Hands, Laura Berg! :)

Benefits of Baby Sign Even After They Are Babies!

Did you know that hearing children who use sign language tend to have larger vocabularies, higher IQ scores, and learn to read sooner? Check out this video of My Smart Hands founder, Laura Berg's, daughter Fireese reading when she was 2.5 years old!

My Smart Hands - Fall Schedule

Imagine communicating with your child before he or she can even speak!

At My Smart Hands - Phoenix, we offer classes and workshops that will give you the skills and knowledge you need to communicate with your preverbal, hearing baby. If you are looking for baby and toddler sign language classes, My Smart Hands - Phoenix is here to meet your needs! Come learn how signs taken from American Sign Language (ASL) can help you engage your child in two-way communication.

Research shows that preverbal infants and toddlers can communicate through the use of sign language long before they can verbalize their needs using speech.

Teaching sign language to your baby or toddler:

-Reduces Frustration

-Accelerates Verbal Development

-Strengthens Cognitive Skills

We offer classes for children birth to age 5, but a recommended starting age is around 6 months. This is more for our benefit as parents than the children, as children typically can make their first sign around 8-10 months, with some signing sooner and some signing later.

The parent or caregiver participates in class with the child. Siblings can register at no extra charge, as well as one additional caregiver (mom, dad, grandparent, etc).

My Smart Hands Phoenix - Class Schedule

Saturdays, Sep 11 through Oct 2 @ 10:00am

Location

Conservatory of Dance
13637 N. Tatum Blvd, Ste 8
Phoenix, AZ 85032
www.cofdance.com

Mondays, Sep 13 through Oct 11 @ 7:00pm

Location

Nurturing Hearts Birth Services
1220 N Spencer, Ste 200
Mesa, AZ 85203
www.nurturingheartsbirthservices.com

Cost

$85 for 4 week session, including full-color manual and CD.

Register Now At www.MySmartHands-Phoenix.com

Miley Cyrus "Party in the USA" in ASL!

For you sign language and Miley Cyrus fans (I know you're out there!), check out this cool video of a college student signing "Party in the USA". It has subtitles for the English and ASL being used. SUPER fun video!

Spring 2010 Registration Now Open

Due to thinking I was going to have to find a new location, it took me a little longer to open up Spring 2010 registration than I had anticipated. But fortunately, the Art of Dance studio in Scottsdale was able to offer me another time slot to hold classes!

My Smart Hands - Level 1 Classes will begin on Saturday, April 24th, at the Art of Dance studio in Scottsdale. Click HERE for more details!

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Remember to join our Meetup.com Group to join us for free playdates!

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ATTN WORKING MOMS! Check back for information on my new Lunch & Learn sessions!

These classes will be great if weekends are family time but you still want to learn to sign with your child. The registration fee will include 2 lunch sessions, a Level 1 class manual, and 2 hours of instruction (1 hour at each lunch session). You will learn all of the basics of my Level 1 class at a more rapid pace. And you can take home what you learned to teach your child!

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I will be joining the world of Facebook soon! As soon as I have my page up, please become a FAN!

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Have a wonderful day!

New Baby and New Meetup Group Events

Wow! I can't believe it's almost half-way through March already!! Where has the time gone?

New Baby
Our family welcomed our 5th child on February 17th! He is our first BOY, and we named him AJ. He weighed 9lbs 1 oz, and measured 21 inches. He's just a little over 3 weeks now, and he's already changed so much. His big sisters adore him, and we're all adjusting to life with a new baby again.

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My Smart Hands - Winter Recap

My Smart Hands - Phoenix finished our first Level 1 class at the end of January, and I'm SO proud of the families that attended! It was so much fun getting to know the parents, grandparents and kiddos! And I know that using sign with their children is going to be extremely beneficial and fun!

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Meetup.com Group Events

The My Smart Hands - Phoenix Meetup.com group is now scheduling events, and I'd love to have you join us!!

Sing, Sign, and Play
Monday, March 15th @ 3pm
Location: My House (please join our Meetup.com group here to RSVP and receive the address)

Park Playdate at Desert Horizon Park
Saturday, March 20th @ 9am
Location: Desert Horizon Park - 16002 N 56th St (56th & Paradise Ln)

Hope everyone is having a great 2010! Look forward to seeing you at a playdate or a class soon!

Sign of the Week - HORSE!!

Wow! I apologize for getting so far behind on my Sign of the Week posts. I've been feverishly getting ready for baby #5 to arrive, and as of tonight, we still haven't gone to the hospital! I can't believe it! I thought for sure we'd have our little bundle of joy home by now. :) BUT...he or she will come when it's time I suppose.

Anywho...on to the sign of the week! I'm going to finish up the Animal Theme with Horse! Horses are another animal that most kids seem to love for some reason, even though most of us don't grow up around horses.

Hope everyone is having a great week! I'll be starting up my Level 1 and Level 2 classes in April, so watch for more info on that!

Sign of the Week - Bird!!

Hi All! Sorry for the late post this week - we had a touch of illness in our house the last few days and I got a bit behind.

This week's sign is BIRD. The sign approximation you may see children commonly use is to open and close their whole hand near their mouth, rather than just their thumb and index finger (you actually see the baby do this in the video). Continue making the sign correctly when you sign it to your child, and when your child's dexterity allows them to use just the two fingers, they will do it. :)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Sign of the Week - CAT!

This week's animal sign is CAT. Only a few weeks until our newest addition to the family makes his/her arrival. I'm getting REALLY excited. Have a GREAT week!

Sign of the Week - Dog!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone is doing well and setting those 2010 Goals! :)

For January, I thought I would start with the theme of "Animals". My daughter, Audra, loved to learn the Animal signs when we first started signing with her. And even at 23 months, she loves to learn new Animal signs.

I'll start with one of the basics, which is "Dog". There are two ways to sign "Dog" - you can either just pat your leg, or you can pat your leg and then snap your finger (like you are calling a dog). Most babies will just pat their leg.

We don't have a dog in our house, but I would love when I would take Audra for a walk and she would hear a dog and make the sign. It was wonderful to communicate with her so early, it was as though she was asking me "Do you hear the dog, mommy?" - rather than just making a noise and me not understanding what she was trying to tell me.



Happy Signing!