Sign Language Leads to Spoken Language

When I was a student at the University of California at Davis, I took a course with professor Linda Acredolo, whose research lead to Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, a book that preceded and probably sparked the baby signing trend. I was fascinated by the idea of babies being able to communicate in infancy and promised myself to teach my children sign language. 

My daughter's first sign -- "more"

When my daughter was born I got a few books and attended a few signing play dates but I had difficulty figuring out the signs from two-dimensional drawings. Still, I used the simple ones; milk, mom, ball, car, dog. I had a total of about twenty words I used with my daughter. The mistake I made was not being patient or persistent. I stopped signing when my daughter was about seven months old because she wasn't signing back to me. I should've read the literature which explains that most children start signing back at around eight months. 


When my son was born the following year I decided to give it a serious go and signed up for an ASL (American Sign Language) class with my husband. It turns out ASL, real sign language, is much simpler to learn than what some call "baby sign language." In the first day of class we learned about thirty words and I felt comfortable enough to start using them all day, every day. My daughter started signing right away too. Though she had started speaking at ten months, she seemed excited to be able to sign and be understood by us more often. To my surprise, she immediately started speaking a lot more words too. Signing expanded her vocabulary and her confidence.  

My daughter's favorite sign. 

My son started signing for milk when he was five-months-old. At six months he started speaking -- "mama, papa, avion (airplane)." By the time he was just over one year-old my son was speaking in complete sentences. People thought he was a midget because he spoke so well. I credit his fluency and ease with words to genes of course -- his dad and I are geniuses. Ha, ha! In all seriousness, I truly believe both of my children started speaking early because we signed with them. 

"Hurt" - one of the most helpful signs
for babies and their parents. 

It seems the act of signing helps children "get" words more easily. Something clicks in their brain when they see mom signing and speaking at the same time. I also believe the ability to communicate long before they are physically ready to formulate spoken words, encourages them to communicate more and to actually speak earlier. 




Seeing my children's excitement and the positive effect it was having on our level of communication, I purchased the Signing Time DVD series. I had seen other signing DVD's but this is the best I found (and it was recommended by our ASL teachers). 


I love the fact that the Signing Time series was created by a mom whose child was born deaf -- a true labor of love. It's easy to learn signs from these videos because they show multiple examples of each sign. My kids love watching them because the signs are taught not only by Rachel, the creator, but by babies and children as well. The songs are cute and pleasant and I love, love, love that the videos are also available in Spanish. 

"Thank you," one of my favorite signs. 

I'm happy and proud that we taught our children sign language and believe their ability to communicate with us decreased the number of tantrums and the level of frustration experienced by both them and us (my husband and me). Now that they speak fluently we don't use signs as much but there are a few, like "be careful," I love to use at parks instead of screaming, and every once in a while we watch the Signing Time videos and review so as not to forget it all. 

"Careful." 

Product link: Signing Time - http://www.signingtime.com/
Image credits: abcmesign.com, athensparent.com, littlesignersclub.wordpress.com, www2.ljworld.com, lifeprint.com

Must-Have Booster Seat

New moms often ask "what are the things I really need for my baby?" One easy answer for me is "the Fisher-Price portable booster seat."

When my daughter was six months old and started eating solids, she was a tiny little thing weighing about fifteen pounds. Her high chair practically swallowed her up and her chin barely made it over the tray. We tried pillows but they slid out from under her and the seat belt was too big to hold her in the center of the seat. 

So we sold the high chair and bought her the Fisher-Price Healthy Care Deluxe Booster Seat

What I love about this booster seat : 

* It's the perfect width to keep baby from sliding from side to side. 

* It has a removable tray for easy washing, as well as a tray cover to keep it clean during travel. 

* It snaps on and off easily. 

* It has adjustable heights so you can lower it as your baby grows. 

* The two exterior seat belts keep it safely in place on the chair. 

* The back folds down so you can carry it with ease. (We used to take this seat with us to restaurants when our kids were babies and I've seen other parents walk into restaurants with the same seat). 

* Once your child is tall enough to sit at the dining table you can remove the tray and continue using the seat. 

Camila and Mateo, now four and three-years-old respectively, still use their booster seats at home. Besides their cribs, I can't think of any other baby product we've used for four years -- it's a definite must-have! 

Product link: http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2002&e=product&pid=27475&ncat=thumbnail&pcat=bgh

Baby's Schedule

I'm excited -- this is my first reader-requested blog! After reading my July 29 entry, "What Would You Do," one reader asked if I could share ideas for a baby's schedule. 

I am by nature a person who loves routines; getting up at the same time, eating the same breakfast, doing things in a particular order... very methodical. So when I became a mom, I tried to get my daughter Camila on a schedule as soon as possible.

The key to getting a child on a schedule is consistency. If I'm not willing to do the same things every day, get my child to bed at the same time for naps and bedtime every day, she won't be able to follow a schedule. A schedule is sacrifice but the payout is big.

Here is what our day looked like before Camila turned one-year-old...

7:00 a.m. Baby woke up (I was awake earlier. Showered and ready to go by the time Camila woke up)

                

7:15 a.m. Feed Camila

7:30 a.m. Floor exercises - I stretched her legs, put her on her belly, moved her little arms around.  (Bragging right -- by three months my little Tarzan baby girl could come to a standing position by pulling herself up by my two index fingers!) 

8:00 a.m. Dance time! 

8:20 a.m. Reading time! Even as a little baby Camila loved to listen to me read and would fix her eyes on brightly colored books. It's never too early to start reading to children! 

8:45 a.m. Change baby, ready room for nap. 

9:00 a.m. Bottle and nap time. 

11:00 a.m. Wake up from nap, change and feed baby.

11:15 a.m. Playing on the floor in her little floor gym. 

12:00 p.m. Read a book or two while pointing to pictures and asking her questions about the book. (I loved listening to her babbling responses!)  

12:30 p.m. Time for a walk around the neighborhood! 

1:00 p.m. Change baby, listen to music and play on the floor with her. 

1:15 p.m.  Nap time again! 

3:15 p.m. Wake from nap, change baby, give her a bottle. 

3:45 p.m. Park time or play date

4:30 p.m. Head home

4:45 p.m. Change baby, give her a bottle.

5:00 p.m. Nap time again! 

6:30 p.m. Wake up, change, give her a bottle. 

7:00 p.m. Tummy time. 

7:15 p.m. Ready the bath, bathe her and let her play in the water a little.

7:45 p.m. Dress, read a book.

8:15 p.m. Ready the room and baby for bedtime. Give her a bottle and sing to her. 

8:30 p.m. Bedtime. 

10:30 p.m. Bottle. (She drank a bottle every two hours through the night). 

I was very blessed to have a baby who took three naps a day for a long time, because I was pregnant with my son and so, so tired all the time! But Camila only drank two ounces of milk at a time and fed every two hours around the clock until she was 7 months old! Her pediatrician told me I couldn't stop feeding her at night because she was a thin (though healthy) baby, but when she was seven months old (and I was five months pregnant) I couldn't take it anymore. We let her cry it out through the night for two nights and she started sleeping 12 to 13 hours straight. Ahhhh. She also started eating more during the day and was eating solids by that point, so her she didn't lose weight or anything. 

As she got older, we went out a lot more, usually had a park play date in the morning and stayed home in the afternoons, reading, dancing, and singing. But our schedule was pretty much the same until her brother was born when she was 11 months old. After she turned one, I started implementing art projects into our day; finger paints, regular (washable!) paint, Play-Doh, and she started taking swimming lessons (my husband and I agree it's a crucial skill for all ages). I also cut out pictures from magazines and let her make collages or just rip them (babies love to rip paper!). 

Some of my family and friends thought (or think) I was crazy and inflexible because her schedule was and is my religion, but that schedule keeps me happy and sane. I know when she is doing what, and most importantly, I know when she was going to sleep at night and I get to have a little bit of downtime with my husband or by myself. That makes me a happy mommy and a happy mommy makes happy babies.

Before You Elbow Your Husband...

My son woke up screaming bloody murder three nights ago. Though it has become a rarity, (thank heavens) it's not insanely uncommon for this to happen. Mateo, our youngest child didn't sleep through the night until he was over one and a half-years-old. And he has never been one to whimper -- when he wakes up he makes sure everyone within a one mile radius wakes up with him. And even though he's three now, I still wake up with my heart pounding, wondering who just got stabbed.

In the fifteen years my husband and I have been together nothing has perplexed me more about him than how he is able to go on sleeping, not even flinching, when our children wake up crying like that. At times I've turned on a light and stared at him to let him know I know he's faking it, to no avail. He just keeps on sleeping as peacefully as when we had no children. At times, when one or both of the kids have woken up three or four nights in a row, I have actually elbowed my sleeping husband but he's one of those people blessed with the ability to fall right back asleep even after having just been elbowed by a resentful, exhausted wife.

But I recently learned something -- it turns out women are biologically hard-wired to hear a child's cry. It's actually the sound most likely to wake a woman regardless of whether or not she has children. Duh, right? (Actually, I would've never considered what sounds are most likely to wake women versus men, but once I read the article it made perfect sense). 

What's the sound most likely to wake a man? The sound of a car alarm. I guess that makes sense because to a lot of men their car is their baby (I actually knew a grown man who called his car his "my baby"). The sound of a child wailing isn't even in the top ten sounds most likely to wake a man. The wind howling is more likely to wake them!

So the next time my son wakes up screaming like a banshee, I'll remember these scientific findings... or maybe I'll start blowing really loudly in my husband's ear to see if he wakes up. Now if he has the pillow over his head, the top ten list of sounds goes out the window and my elbow will in fact be aiming for his ribs.


Do you want to see the list of top ten sounds that wake women and men? Visit:
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/why-mom-wakes-up-when-baby-cries/