Baby Sign Language Basics

It's always best to start at the beginning. Start by learning the basics of baby sign language. A great tool for hearing parents to teach your hearing babies sign language. Parents, you'll learn 60 baby-friendly American Sign Language signs.

Baby Sign Language Basics

Early Communication for Hearing Babies and Toddlers

by Monta Briant

Why are thousands of hearing parents signing with their hearing babies? According to a long-term study at UC Davis, funded by the National Institutes of Health, signing babies:

• talk sooner and have larger vocabularies • have stronger parent/child bonds • have less frustration, crying and tantrums • show more interest in books • engage in more sophisticated play • have increased IQ scores

Signing also increases baby’s self-esteem and gives parents a window into their child’s mind and personality.

In Baby Sign Language Basics, parents will learn 60 baby-friendly American Sign Language signs. Baby-specific signing techniques, songs, and games are included to make learning fun and easy, and also open up two-way communication quickly. Baby Sign Language Basics is the perfect baby sign language book for new parents. After all, what parent doesn’t want to know what their baby is trying to tell them? (And the book is even small enough for the diaper bag!)

Price $8.95
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See what others are saying about Baby Sign Language Basics: Early Communication for Hearing Babies and Toddlers:

"Why not have a bilingual toddler? This is a compact and well designed introduction to ASL for infants. The book is very small (about 4" x 4") and can go anywhere the baby goes. The first 40 pages seek to motivate the reader (speaking babies who learn to sign test with higher IQs). The next 160 pages cover 'how', and aim to make the non-signing parent the perfect instructor. The last 100 cover 60 signs. Each sign is a two page layout with 'text' on one page and a photo demonstration on the other. The words are: airplane, baby, ball, banana, baby, bear, bed, bird, blanket, car, cat, change, cold, cow, cracker, daddy, dance, dog, drink, duck, eat, elephant, finished, friend, gentle/pet, giraffe, go, grandma, grandpa, happy, help, horse, hot, I love you, jump, keys, milk, mommy, monkey, more, mouse, music, no, pain, pig, play, please, scared, share, shoes, sign, sit, sorry, stop, swing, telephone, thank you/welcome, tiger, walk, water and where. Briant highlights 10, calling them lifesavers: cold, gentle, help, hot, no, no-touch, pain, scared, share, stop.

There are several interesting discussions about 'learning language'. In particular, Briant advises against 'teaching'. Instead, she advises simply adding 'signs' to your normal chit-chat with baby. It is just like a baby learning to verbalize English. Mom and Dad just talk a lot around baby, and presto... baby starts talking. Additionally, kids will pick up words that interest them most. Briant begins the book describing a conversation with her 10 month old baby regarding elephants. Her baby was terrified of elephants and thought any loud noise signified their presence. It seems like a fairly advanced issue for 10 month olds to worry about, but fears and parental protection seem to be the sort of stuff babies are highly motivated to discuss." - Mark Mills