Australian Baby Hands Blog

So many people think when they hear “Baby sign language”, that this is something which I can use with my pre-verbal baby to assist with communication. Baby sign language is a tool that can be incorporated into your home and used with both your young pre-verbal baby but also with their older siblings.

Children of all ages love to use their hands to communicate. This can be seen when children sing “Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes” and they do the actions by pointing at the various body parts. Lots of nursery rhymes such as “Incy Wincy Spider” allow children to be expressive with their hands while being verbal. This is why children of all ages LOVE baby sign language.

So what is the benefit of introducing baby sign language to the older brothers and sisters of your pre-verbal baby, who are either partially or fully verbal? Dr Marilyn Daniels, a professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State University, is an authority of studying the benefits of teaching sign language to children in preschool through to sixth grade. She encourages hearing children to become full participants in language and communication with their family and peers at a young age through the use of sign language.

Children in Dr Daniels studies were found to have benefited from signing in the following ways:

• Improved their English vocabulary

• Improved understanding of concepts

• Number, letter & sound recognition

• Reading readiness

• Better spelling ability by teaching children to read using sign language.

Children are quick to pick up sign language and they can be helpful as you begin to introduce it to your pre-verbal baby. I get many emails from the older brothers and sisters of pre-verbal children who know all 60 signs in the Australian Baby Hands book and are requesting to learn more signs so they can introduce it in their “news” story at school the next week or to their family or siblings. Some children look on it as their own secret language that not everyone knows but it enables them to speak to their younger pre-verbal siblings.

So not only will baby sign language be fun with all the family involved, it will be beneficial for your baby as more people are signing to them and it will be easier and faster for them to make the connection of what is it you are trying to communicate. It is also a fantastic educational tool for all your children, your baby and their older brothers and sisters, assisting with their language, vocabulary, reading and spelling ability.

Start Sibling signing today!

Early language development and literacy skills can be developed with the right choice of books that you share with your baby. Reading with your baby at bedtime also promotes togetherness and calms him before he goes to sleep. It is a great activity to do when bonding with your baby because it provides a lot of opportunities to learn.

You can start by choosing books that are appropriate for his age and interesting to look at. Keep in mind that your child will also want to make this choice. Offer him a selection and variety. Give him time to explore each book before deciding on what he wants. Make sure that the books you show your baby are appealing and have pictures that go with their stories. Pop-up books are good too because they are interactive and will really catch your baby’s attention. The language used in the books should be as simple as possible. The sentences should be short and easy to understand.

You can find ones with repetitive language such as those with nursery rhymes. It is also a good idea to choose books that are at a level higher than your child’s competence. This maximizes the learning potential of reading.

When your child participates actively in the story, it teaches him more about books. He will learn how they are read, how the pages are turned, and about words that are associated with reading. Teach him the signs for opening the book and turning the page.

Take this opportunity to develop his left to right eye movement by running your finger along the words as your read them.

You and your baby can have a good conversation about the book. Just follow his lead and wait for his response. Point out the pretty pictures and talk about them. You can incorporate Auslan in this activity by showing your baby the sign for each picture you see. You and your baby can also guess what is going to happen next. Doing this will encourage your baby to make predictions. If your baby says or signs about a certain picture, build this up by including words that can describe it. For example, your child may point out the picture of a house. You can go further by telling him that, “Yes, this is a white house and it has a red door.”

Encourage your baby to ask questions about the story as you go through the pages.

As your child develops language skills, the books that you read and share with him should get more complex. Eventually you will have to actually start reading the text of the book and not just pointing at the pictures. As mentioned, try to go beyond his current language level to make it more challenging. This helps your child develop his literacy skills. It is important that you encourage your baby to be a reader at an early age. This is an important skill for him to master because it will be of great use to him throughout his life.

Check out the selection of the special Auslan board books that we have in our store. These cover a range of classic childrens stories and nuresery rhymes in easy to handle board books that children love.

Just a reminder that the Brisbane Pregnancy, Babies & Childrens Expo is coming up this weekend.

We have complimentary tickets for all our readers who would like to come along to the show and I hope that you might take the time to come along by our stand and say hello.

We will be at stand G42 which is located fairly centrally in the hall and I will be there all weekend. I’ve been up in Queensland for the last few days already and it’s a nice break from the chill down in Sydney at the moment.

How to Get there:

Access to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) couldn’t be easier. Car parking is available immediately underneath with access off Merivale Street or Russell Street.

The South Brisbane train station is only a few hundred metres away.

Once you arrive at the station turn right into Grey St and take the ramp up to the plaza level of the BCEC the lifts down to the main Foyer, then follow the signage to the Expo.

To plan your trip visit www.transinfo.com.au and type in “Brisbane Convention Centre” as your destination.

Natalie, our Redland Bay teacher will also be at the standover the weekend so if you woudl like to talk to her about the  Redland Bay Baby Sign Classes that she runs please feel free to come along and have a chat.

To get your ticket just download the pdf and print off your own copy.

Feel free to pass it along to any of your friends who might also like to attend.

Sorry if you are not in the Brisbane area but we will be at the next exhibition in Melbourne towards the end of October.

Happy Signing

Jackie

The Brisbane Pregnancy, Babies & Childrens Expo is coming up next weekend at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Southbank on the 19th - 21st of June

We have complimentary tickets for all our readers who would like to come along to the show and I hope that you might take the time to come along by our stand and say hello.

We will be at stand G42 which is located fairly centrally in the hall and I will be there all weekend, (I’m looking forward to some warmer weather as Sydney is very cold at the moment).

How to Get there:

Access to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) couldn’t be easier. Car parking is available immediately underneath with access off Merivale Street or Russell Street.

The South Brisbane train station is only a few hundred metres away.

Once you arrive at the station turn right into Grey St and take the ramp up to the plaza level of the BCEC the lifts down to the main Foyer, then follow the signage to the Expo.

To plan your trip visit www.transinfo.com.au and type in “Brisbane Convention Centre” as your destination.

Natalie, our Redland Bay teacher will also be there on the stand over the weekend so if you have any questions on the Redland Bay Baby Sign Classes that she runs please feel free to come along and have a chat.

To get your ticket just download the pdf and print off your own copy.

Feel free to pass it along to any of your friends who might also like to attend.

Sorry if you are not in the Brisbane area but we will be at the next exhibition in Melbourne towards the end of October.

Happy Signing

Jackie

So many people think when they hear “Baby sign language”, that this is something which I can use with my pre-verbal baby to assist with communication.  Baby sign language is a tool that can be incorporated into your home and used with both your young pre-verbal baby but also with their older siblings.

Children of all ages love to use their hands to communicate.  This can be seen when children sing “Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes” and they do the actions by pointing at the various body parts.  Lots of nursery rhymes such as “Incy Wincy Spider” allow children to be expressive with their hands while being verbal.  This is why children of all ages LOVE baby sign language.

So what is the benefit of introducing baby sign language to the older brothers and sisters of your pre-verbal baby, who are either partially or fully verbal?  Dr Marilyn Daniels, a professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State University, is an authority of studying the benefits of teaching sign language to children in preschool through to sixth grade. She encourages hearing children to become full participants in language and communication with their family and peers at a young age through the use of sign language.

Children in Dr Daniels studies were found to have benefited from signing in the following ways:
•    Improved their English vocabulary
•    Improved understanding of concepts
•    Number, letter & sound recognition
•    Reading readiness
•    Better spelling ability by teaching children to read using sign language.

Children are quick to pick up sign language and they can be helpful as you begin to introduce it to your pre-verbal baby.  I get many emails from the older brothers and sisters of pre-verbal children who know all 60 signs in the Australian Baby Hands book and are requesting to learn more signs so they can introduce it in their “news” story at school the next week or to their family or siblings.  Some children look on it as their own secret language that not everyone knows but it enables them to speak to their younger pre-verbal siblings.

So not only will baby sign language be fun with all the family involved, it will be beneficial for your baby as more people are signing to them and it will be easier and faster for them to make the connection of what is it you are trying to communicate. It is also a fantastic educational tool for all your children, your baby and their older brothers and sisters, assisting with their language, vocabulary, reading and spelling ability.

Start Sibling signing today!

When ever any one asks me what baby sign language is all about I normally say to them, “Have you seen the movie Meet the Fockers……?”, which normally jogs the memory.

While the signing that Robert Deniro is using with his little Grandson Jack is ASL (American Sign Language), the principle is exactly the same as using AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language), which all Baby Hands Products are based on.

This is a great clip from the movie where Grandpa Jack (Robert Deniro) is showing off little Jacks signing prowess to Greg (Ben Stiller).

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The movie is great and I fully recommend getting a copy for yourself, especially now that winter is rolling in so a great night in with a funny movie is a nice way to pass an evening by.

As you know we were at the The Sydney Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s expo last weekend which was a great opportunity to meet many of you who came up to the stand to say hello.

One thing that was really clear to us after this weekend was how much more understanding there is now on the benefits of baby sign language. The number of parents who have heard of baby sign, either use it themselves or know someone else who is using it has increased dramatically in the last couple of years since our first expo.

It also seems that so many parents have now actually heard of AUSLAN and understand that there are many different signed languages around the world.

While at the expo I did a short talk each day on baby sign which answered some of the common questions that people often send through.  Many people sent through questions and there were also a lot of people who emailed me as they were not able to attend the expo but I manged to get a recording of my talk which you can watch below.

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Thank you to everyone who came up to say hello at the stand, it was great to meet you.  Hopefully we will get to meet a few more of you in Brisbane next month

Since coming back from Honeymoon I’ve been busy this week with Baby Hands Teacher training and getting ready for the The Sydney Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s expo.

I will be there all weekend form the 15th to the 17th of May at the new location of Rosehill
Gardens

If you didn’t get your free ticket yet you can download a copy from here, just print out the pdf and bring it along with you to the show.

Feel free to pass it along to any of your friends who might also like to attend.

There are also information sessions each day at mid-day which I will be appearing as part of covering the topic “Baby Sign Language - Your Questions Answered”.

If you would like to come along and visit us to find out more about our baby sign classes or information on becoming a baby hands teacher and running your own baby sign teaching franchise I would love to have a chat with you.

Sorry if you are not in the Sydney area but there are further exhibitions planned for Brisbane and Melbourne which we’ll be attending later in the year.

Hope to see you at one of the exhibitions.

Happy Signing

Jackie

The Sydney Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s expo is coming up on
the weekend of the 15th-17th of May at new location of Rosehill
Gardens this year.

I have complimentary tickets for all my readers who
would like to come along and see the show and hopefully pop by our
stand to say hello.

I’ll also be appearing each day as part of the information sessions
where I will be covering the topic “Baby Sign Language - Your Questions Answered”.

This session will be occuring at mid-day every day and if you have
any questions particuarly that you would like covered please email
them to me by tomorrow (sorry for the late notice)and we will try to
include them in the session.

To get your ticket just download the pdf and print off your own copy.

Feel free to pass it along to any of your friends who might also
like to attend.

Sorry if you are not in the Sydney area but there are further
exhibitions planned for Brisbane and Melbourne which we’ll be
attending later in the year and I’ll be sure to try and get tickets
for those also.

Hope to see you either next weekend or at one of the future expos

I’m in Ireland at the moment as one of the stops on our honeymoon.  Tonight we’re having a party with my family as many of them could not get over to Australia.

As so many people missed out on the ceremony we put together this little slide show of pics from our big day to show tonight at the party and I wanted to share it with you all at my blog as it was such a special day.

Just click play below for the slide show to start, there’s a nice soundtrack to if you have your speakers on

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We’re heading of to Paris tomorrow for a few days, then on to Rome before heading to Bali for a relaxing time in the sun before we head home to Australia.

I’ll be back running things soon enough with new teachers and baby sign classes scheduled for my return.

If you need any information on classes please contact the teachers directly, or if you would like any information on becoming a baby hands teacher contact Kerryn our Franchise manager.

Happy Signing

Jackie