Now having a child who is able to sign her most basic needs, I can't imagine how I got by with my first daughter who I did not have the pleasure of signing with, although she does love signing with us now.

I don't for a second claim to have a child who doesn't have tantrums, or other crazed behaviour that 16 month old kids display, but just to know when she is hungry, wants a drink, or needs a nappy change, makes a mom's life SO much less stressful! Even if you only take the time to learn 10-15 signs you'll gain so much pleasure from being able to effectively communicate with your child.

If you're anything like me, you'll become hooked and want to learn more and more signs as your child's interests grow. My kids just love fruit so here's another one of our favorites- apple. Younger kids will develop their own unique versions of slightly harder signs, but the sign combined with the sound "a, a, a", will have you knowing pretty quickly what they want.

** The Sign -Apple- Twist the knuckle of your forefinger by the side of your mouth. The cheek represents the apple and the knuckle represents the stem that is twisted out when someone eats an apple.

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May 31     In Need of Signing Help?

Two Little Hands Productions, the producer of the television series 'Signing Time' have a great set of DVDs and CDs especially for babies-
The series features real toddlers signing, as well as other lovable characters and memorable songs, so your child will love having someone else their own age to sign with!

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May 16    Anyone for Banana?

Well, I finally managed to get my hands on the camera and caught my daughter signing the word 'banana'. The sign is usually accompanied by the words 'nana', so it is not just the signing that is developing, plenty of language generally accompanies any attempts at signing.

We have been introducing less new signs this week, but I taught her the signs for shoes and socks during the week while we were looking at a board book. I must say I was amazed when she signed 'shoes' right back at me after only being shown it two times prior. I am constantly amazed at how intelligent toddlers are, and there so much of it that I would not know if my daughter did not sign.

Anyhow, the sign for shoe/shoes is a nice easy one that you can use when you're getting ready to head out for the day.

** The Sign -Shoe- Hold both of your hands flat in front of you and make two fists. These are your shoes! Now tap them together at the thumbs, just like tapping your two heels together when wearing shoes.

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May 10 A Signing Explosion

In the past few weeks we have seen our daughter using signs in a much more consistent manner. It seems that she constantly has a hand up to her mouth telling us that she wants something to eat, and with any luck she also knows the sign for the food to make my life even easier!

She has also started using two signs together, again usually food related. She signs, 'more food', and 'balloon pop'. If you haven't yet learnt the sign for food then it's a valuable one to teach babies. Here is the sign...

** The Sign -Food- Hold all of the fingers of one hand together (like you have a piece of food in your hand) and put your fingers up to your lips. Another fairly easy and intuitive sign that is easy to learn and remember.

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April 23 Going Fruity!

This week we have been learning some fruits as our daughter loves eating fruit, especially pears and bananas. We've picked up a few different signs all at once but the easiest one to remember has got to be for a banana, and what baby doesn't love banana? Here is the sign...

** The Sign -Banana- Point the index finger of one hand up (this is your banana) and use the fingers of the other hand to literally 'peel' your banana. Just like how you would do it if you had the real thing! This is what I love about signing- so many of the signs are intuitive making it easy to learn and remember so many of the simple signs that we teach to babies.

(For more fruity signs - refer to the online dictionaries for help- scroll to the bottom of Getting Started or try Signing Time who have a great range of Sign Language for Baby books, DVDs and CDs.)

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April 18 A Sign Of The Times

An article in Harborough Today in the U.K. discusses the merits of teaching baby signing- starting with babies as young as six months. The most interesting point I gleaned from the article was the use and the importance of the signs for 'sick' or 'hurt'. I have had a child sick with an ear infection and it is a terrible feeling as a parent to know there is something wrong but to not be able to work out what it is.
Anyhow, so here is the sign...

** The Sign -Hurt- Open hands shake up and down in front of chest. Point to body part affected. (There are various signs that can be used for this feeling- refer to the online dictionaries for help- see Getting Started)

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April 13 And the List Grows..

Well, I am still not fast enough on the camera but we are all having heaps of fun with this. My daughter is an age where she will try to put just about anything on her head in an attempt to be a hat. I thought that we had better track down the sign, so here it is...

** The Sign -Hat- tap one flat hand onto your head.
This one is a no-brainer! You kind of knew it already didn't you? I told you baby signing was easy!

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April 12 Plenty of Progress

We introduced some basic signs to our 14 month old about 6 weeks ago. To get started we purchased a great book illustrated by Annie Kubler, called 'Baby's First Signs'. It is a board book with illustrations of about 20-30 signs that you might like to use as the starting point for your baby. It has been a great resource to get us up and running.

We have learnt and used most of the signs in the book and are now using the online dictionary to find new words that are relevant to us. Having a birthday party last week we learnt the sign for balloon as she was fascinated by them.

** The Sign -Balloon- place both hands to mouth, as if you were about to blow a balloon, now pretend to blow and let your hands expand as the imaginary balloon fills with air. Easy isn't it!

Words that our daughter has so far signed to us- milk, more, bath, book and hot. Pretty exciting, now I just need to capture it with some pictures.

  **Back to   Baby Signing  . Getting Started