While the popularity of Baby Sign is ever growing in Australia its much more common for Mums to be the ones who start using sign much more so than the Dads.

Now I do know that there are a lot of you Dads out there who do sign with their children so please don’t get upset, you Fathers should be proud of what you are doing and the interaction that you are enjoying with your baby’s through sign.

But, the reality is that for many families Mum is the primary carer of the baby and Dads are out at work all day, coming home later in the evening with little time to spend with their precious little one.

The idea of starting to learn something new to a lot of these Dads is that it is not worth it as they don’t have to deal with the day to day communication problems that are associated with a young baby.

But here’s the thing.  Learning to sign and having that extra bond with your baby does not have to be hard.

Here are some ways to help get your partner involved; but first make sure that they do want to be involved and start out by teaching your partner the signs that you have already introduced or are planning to introduce so that you are both working together as a team.

  • Explain why you are doing baby sign;

The research and studies into baby sign have shown numerous benefits from enhanced vocabulary, higher IQ, reduced tantrums and a closer bond as a parent.

By talking these through with your partner and explaining why you feel that using baby sign will be of a great help to you in raising your baby your partner can understand your motivation and desire and work with you to support that.

  • Reading with your baby;

While they may be out at work all day a lot of Dads enjoy the role of putting their baby to bed at night as this is some of the only time they get to spend together during the week.

A bed time story is a great way to send your baby off to sleep and reading with your baby is a great opportunity to introduce some signs to help animate the story.

  • Get your family involved;

Baby sign is all about consistency and repetition so the more people you have signing with your baby the better.  Get Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and siblings involved.

Create fun easy games that anyone can play to help you entertain your baby like hide and seek where you hide your baby’s favourite toy and sign “Where is the Toy”.

The more people who are involved the more likely your partner will start to join in as well since nobody likes to be the odd one out.

  • Teach your baby to sign “Dad”;

I’ve lost count of the number of mothers who I have spoken to who started using baby sign while their partners were sceptical only to become the most proud father of the playground the moment their child first signed “Dad” before they were talking.

  • Take a baby sign class together;

Taking time to do activities with your children is an important part of the bonding process so doing a baby sign class as a family can help you all learn new skills while having fun at the same time.

If you’re a Father who has used baby sign with your baby please do leave us your feedback below or send us your story, I would love to hear from you.