Australian Baby Hands Blog

As well as educating parents on the benefits of using baby sign language with children, I have spent the last number of years educating parents on sign language and sign language systems in general.

People are amazed to find out that there was a difference between the sign language system Australian people use and that of people in other countries. “Auslan or ASL, what’s the difference and what should I use?”, were common questions. To them, they had assumed that there was only one sign language system and it was universal.

To put this in context, I would refer to how there are many people around the world who speak English but they have adopted it and made it their own through colloquialisms and slang.  Think of a person speaking English in England and a person speaking English in Australia (more…)

Since the launch of Baby Hands, each week I get more and more emails from Australian grandparents asking questions on baby sign language, requesting more information on baby sign language or wanting to share their baby sign language story.

For those of you out there who are a grandparent and have not begun using baby sign language with your grandchildren, I will highlight the benefits of doing so and get you to join this amazing grand-parenting revolution.

In Australia today, we have a lot more couples having children and needing to return to work and rely on family or childcare to take care of their children.  We have seen over the last number of years a growing trend in childcare centres using Baby Hands baby sign language in their centres as they recognise the benefits of (more…)

When deciding to do baby sign language many parents want to know when is the best age to start?

The simple truth is that the best time to start is when you feel ready that you can consistently introduce baby sign into your new baby’s life and routines.

But, there are also stages of your baby’s development that will mean even though from an early age they can understand signs they do not have the physical ability to sign back.

A baby’s physical ability to sign begins at around 5 – 6 months, once they can hold a rattle or a toy.  Once they have developed this level of control around their hands they may attempt to do some signing.

Because your baby will not be able to sign until approximately 5 – 6 months of age we generally recommend to parents that this is a good age to start introducing baby sign.  Now, the reason for this isn’t because your baby can’t start to learn signs at an earlier age (more…)

Introducing practical conceptual signs, such as “More”, “Please” and “Thank You” can be quite difficult.  It just isn’t the same as introducing a sign for “Book”.

With a book, or any other object you have something tangible that’s there to show your baby so they can relate to the sign, the word and the whatever the object might be.

So when we come to introducing a sign such as “More” we need to be a little bit creative (more…)

So, you have either heard of Baby Sign language and are trying to find out more about it or you just started using baby sign but you have had some doubts because once you told your friends/family/co-workers one of them told you it just doesn’t work and will delay your baby’s speech.

Naturally you want the best for you and your baby and you want to trust your friends advice but are they right?

There will always be skeptics with anything and even though baby sign is no longer new and certainly out of the “fad” stage there are still those people out there who (more…)

The most common question I used to get asked was “Wont using baby sign delay my baby’s speech?”

Baby sign has now become very common since I first started Australian Baby Hands over 5 years ago (which is now in over 20,000 homes around Australia) and many people are aware of the research and studies that show baby sign actually helps to promote language development, not inhibit it.

Also many more people these days have a personal experience of baby sign and have seen the benefits.  The number of people these days who I meet who tell me about their friend, neighbor or relative (more…)

Through many of the previous posts in our blog we have looked at the benefits and reasons for introducing baby sign and also the much asked question “Does baby sign delay speech”? In this post I want to share with you three specific ways to help you introduce baby sign with your baby.

Its important to use a mix of motivational and practical signs for best results with your baby to ensure that they are interested in what it is you are signing about to start with. (more…)

Something that a many parents don’t understand when trying to introduce baby sign is the  importance of ensuring that you have a balance of motivational and practical signs for your baby.

Practical words are the ones that will help you as a parent to understand what it is that your baby wants (more…)

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. (more…)

When parents have to start dealing with toddler temper tantrums, the job of being a parent can turn from one of joy to one of hard work and frustration.

World famous toddler taming expert Dr Christopher Green, whose advice has been followed by millions of parents worldwide adopted a more holistic view on the way to deal with temper tantrums after he suffered a stroke.

Previous ideas that it was perfectly normal for children to (more…)