Signing Time

Araella has been learning signs through a book and video series called Signing Time. For those of you not familiar with Baby Signs, babies, from about the age of 8 months can begin to learn simplified sign language to communicate, eventually picking up a fairly complex vocabulary long before they can actually talk. Beside the wonderful thrill of being able to communicate with your little one and the inevitable cuteness of seeing a toddler doing sign language, the real benefit lies in the child’s ability to communicate specific wants and needs rather than resorting to the usual non-specific screaming and crying. Allegedly it greatly alleviates the terrible twos as well as helps language development since by the time the child begins to talk, they have already learned to form complex trains of thought through signing and so forming sentences come naturally.

So that’s the spiel. So far Araella has picked up around 30 signs, though there are a good 100 in the videos. We use them a lot and she loves mimicking, though more often than not she is teaching us since she is constantly learning new one’s from the DVD’s. It’s a lot of fun and definitely helps us sort through her various needs and wants since she can say what she wants to drink and eat, if she wants to play or is tired, and can ask for specific people or toys. The photo above is her own interpretation of the sign for “scared”. Mostly she just loves the reaction she gets from all the doting adults when she comes up and performs her “scared” sign.