Why Baby Sitters And Parents Should Do A Baby Sign Language Course
By enabling your baby sitter or au pair with baby signing you are helping them by investing in themselves. A baby sign language course is not an examination subject. But it is a skill which has become more visible recently. Naturally you are also aiding in your baby's development too. Once baby is born it is imperative in the first instance to build a loving environment. Caring becomes second nature and being the provider of health and well being is the beginning of the relationship. From this base you are in a position to help baby, yourselves and your helpers. Essentially you should not delegate the responsibility of signing on to your sitter or au pair. Don't take a back seat in the crucial early development stages. You too need to get to the bottom of baby signing! OK so it's something else to add to the never ending list! This is not a flaky New Year's resolution that's going to crumble after a couple of weeks! This is the building blocks of your babies education and much more!
Think of the advantages of the following: Your sitter or au pair understand the importance of baby signing. Primarily to aid in your baby's nurturing but also to enhance their range of abilities. Explain it so they see the sign language course as something they can use time and again should they choose to. If they move on to other families and are discussing what they have achieved. Then they will have advantages over any competition. So they can then offer to implement this knowledge and become indispensable. In terms of offering relevant skills then having knowledge of a baby sign language course in their back pocket is very useful! Of course if they choose to have their own children then they can implement signing too! These are great reasons to get involved!
Back to the present: Imagine baby is surrounded by a loving, caring environment.That's a wonderful start! As you must gain baby's trust before any communicating begins. Now add that the people who most often come in to contact with baby are primed to recognise and develop those earliest indicators. Indicators from baby that they are able to receive and transmit basic signing messages. You see it's no good try to get baby in to signing if baby not ready! The early signs of being receptive include: Turning their heads in response to sounds, looking in the direction of the sound after the head is turned, repeated opening and closing their fingers. Loosely put these actions mean that babies senses are working. Remember that humans have five senses - look out for other signs too! Can you appreciate the benefits? Let's run through a few of the primary signs you can get going with: Eat - Drink - More - No.
So if this is the beginning of the two way communication and you have loads more on both sides, how exciting is that?! As baby shows interest in signing then you build more signs in to the day. Bare in mind that you can't examine your child's knowledge on a weekly basis! Sitters / au pairs and yourselves need to talk about which signs each of you are observing and responding to. It may well be that as busy parents away from home, that your helper is blazing the trial in terms of baby's development. Listen to them! And ensure that your all using the same signs. Otherwise you maybe teaching baby the wrong sign - who needs more confusion?! Tell them that they are valued and that their help is genuinely necessary. But don't lay it on too thick or they'll think your needy and demand a pay rise! This symbiotic relationship between "teachers" and "pupil" is highly instructive. What you will find is that often the "teacher" becomes "pupil" because if baby uses creativity and imagination then they might demonstrate their own signs. There are different sides of the fence on whether it is better to follow a set of instructions rigidly or use your own signs. But that's not the topic here. I would say that as long as predominantly you follow a recognised structure of symbols then you won't go off piste.
What are the long term implications of a baby sign language course? In the first instance you get a feel for baby's needs, food, drink, yes, no etc. This will bring peace of mind. These needs grow organically in to more complex things like happiness or contentment, sleepiness. Earlier indication of illnesses. Generally better day to day communication will flourish. So your lifestyle will be enhanced, perhaps even easier! As baby grows the signing generates body language and gesticulation. This is terrific! Studies show that body language is a significant factor in communication. As baby develops these abilities then the tendency to form words using the palate and mouth muscles is increased. As you will have been mouthing the words of things along the way.Then it will be second nature for baby to imitate you. With these skills ingrained from such an early age, baby growths up in to childhood and beyond with advantages. Simple put they will be better at communicating and get a better understanding quicker of what people are saying to them. This has far reaching implications. Did i hear anyone say competitive advantage?! Personally i'd like my kids to grow up with the best possible start in life. By getting the sitters / au pairs involved and yourselves in a baby sign language course your helping in the best way possible.
