Baby Sign Language & What Every Parent Needs to Know about Baby & Toddler Communication

If you’re ready to decrease toddler temper tantrums and increase their ability to communicate then baby sign language might be the answer for you.

Starting around six months old you can use baby sign language with your baby, in everyday conversations and everyday activities. This is going to really start the process of your child’s brain remembering all of the things that you are showing them as you’re telling them and talking about their day. Of course a six month old can’t quite communicate their needs, wants, desires and all the things. But as you are starting to really teach them all of these different signs, they’re going to be able to communicate them eventually. By the time your child is 12 months old they can actually understand everything that you’re saying to them and they can start to understand what they’re feeling and what they want, they just don’t have the vocabulary or ability to speak yet in order to tell you what they want.

I am a huge advocate for using baby sign language starting young so that you’re really minimizing the temper tantrums.I’m going to tell you five major things that you need to know about baby sign language. But first I want you to grab my guide in the description box down there are 100 and one baby signs that you can use with your child, https://slumberandbloom.com/product/baby-sign-time-101-signs-for-babies-toddlers/ .

The first thing that is so important to know is that you don’t need to be fluent in sign language to use sign language with your child. To help your child communicate their basic needs you only need to use very basic signs, so you don’t need to be fluent in an entire language to be able to communicate.
You need to start slowly with only a couple of words. Does your baby want more? Are they all done? Those things are simple signs to have your child start to communicate with you.
Be very repetitive with the signs that you’re choosing to use and to use them often. Does your baby want more food? Do they want more bubbles? Do they want more playtime? Anything? Anywhere that you can use the word ‘more’,
Speak and sign at the same time. You want to say “more, do you want more” and you can take your child’s hands if they say yeah, they want more, you can take their hands and show them more please using sign language.
Don’t force it, just make it natural. The more you practice when your baby is younger, the more natural it’s going to be, and you’re not going to feel weird when you have a 12 month old who’s starting to use these signs because you’ve been practicing them all along.

Circling back to that 101 baby signs guide, I want to remind you to grab that, https://slumberandbloom.com/product/baby-sign-time-101-signs-for-babies-toddlers/ print out the pages that you want and have the signs accessible so that you’re actually looking at them wherever you might need them. If you’re looking for more information on why parents should use sign language with their babies, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDDgTVHQUBw.