Nicola Smout is a qualified BSL (British Sign Language) Baby Signing Teacher and mum to a 2 year old signing baby boy. She educates people in the joys of Baby Signing and the benefits that Baby Sign can bring to both parent and child.
For more information about signing with your baby visit www.babysignonline.co.uk
Baby Sign Language (using sign language to communicate with pre-verbal hearing babies) has had a revolutionary effect in the States and is now building in reputation in the UK – so much so that speech therapists and child care professionals are now including signs in their baby development sessions.
What used to be viewed as a faddy new gimmick for pushy parents has proven its worth and has been adopted by the professionals. Benefits of using baby sign language include increasing communication skills, increasing confidence and self esteem, deepening the parent/baby bond, and decreasing tantrums. In research carried out in America over the space of 16 years children who were taught to sign as babies scored an average of 12 points higher in IQ tests and consistently did better in school. It’s no wonder the child care professionals are taking it up in their droves.
A lot of parents and grandparents still worry that by using sign language with their babies they will some how delay the child’s speech. In fact quite the opposite has been proven to be true; babies who sign have a greater understanding of language earlier, have a wider vocabulary and are more likely to speak earlier. When teaching a baby to sign, the sign is always used along side the spoken word so the baby learns the action matches the word.
Nursery Schools, speech therapists, child minders and play groups are all joining the baby development revolution it’s already been featured on some of the prime time TV programmes such as ‘This Morning’ and the ‘BBC News’ and you can expect to be hearing a lot more about it in the coming years. As more and more parents discover the benefits of baby signing it looks like it’s here to stay.
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