YOUR BABY CAN TALK!
Join our fun-filled, interactive play classes in which you will learn:
- which signs to use,
- how to use them,
- and how to recognize what your baby is signing back!
We use exclusively ASL signs (American Sign Language)
Signing Smart Infants and Toddlers
- Can begin communicating with signs as early as 6-7 months of age
- Can have a vocabulary of over 100 signs by 15-18 months
- Tend to learn spoken words easier than non-signers
Don’t just sign with your baby, COMMUNICATE!!!
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“It‘s amazing how much these little people know, if they just have a way to tell us”.
- Caire Krol, mom to Chase, 13 months
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“Jacqueline has about 25 signs and she uses them every day, I can’t imagine not doing Signing Smart with her!”
- Kristen Speth, mom to Jacqueline, 15 months
WHY SIGN WITH YOUR BABY?!
More and more parents are discovering the joys of communicating with their children at a surprisingly young age… by using sign language with their hearing infants and toddlers!
Children gain control over the gross motor skills required to move their hands and arms by 6-7 months. However, they don’t develop the fine motor skills required for speech until 12-18 months, on average. As a result, a young baby can use signs to let others know what they want or need long before they can communicate those desires in words.
Even more exciting is being able to experience the world… as your baby sees it. Most of us go through the day relatively unaware of the number of lights all around us… this ambivalence will quickly disappear as soon as your baby learns the sign for LIGHT, as they will be sure you notice the dome light in the car, the lamp by the changing table, the fluorescent lights at the store, the wall sconces at the restaurant! The same applies to
barking dogs, airplanes, and sirens, all things that we have learned to tune out of our busy minds… and don’t even get me started on HATS!!!
Parents can start signing with their babies at ANY age… the Signing Smart Parent Workshop provides everything needed to get started signing with your baby, and is great for expectant parents, caretakers, or a baby too young to take the play classes. The Signing Smart play classes are recommended for babies from age 5 months to 2 years.
The play classes run for 8-10 weeks, during which parents learn over 150 ASL (American Sign Language) signs, focusing on themes such as mealtime, playtime, health and safety, outside and sports signs. Strategies to help your baby sign back as quickly and prolifically as they are able will be discussed, as well as developmental information regarding how children learn, how they assimilate language, form categories, and more.
Many of the youngest children demonstrate their first sign before the end of the 10 week class session. Older children, those who start near or over 1 year of age, may well have a vocabulary of over 15-20 signs by the end of the class.
Even older children who have begun talking benefit greatly from the Signing Smart classes. Some children begin speaking quite early, but may not have perfect enunciation or complete vocabularies for some time to come… signs can help reduce frustration for both the child and the parent, as it offers them alternative tools for communication.
The Signing Smart Talking Toddlers class, which follows the Beginner class, focuses specifically on older children who have begun talking, and offers parents tools to help build their growing spoken vocabulary. This advanced class also focuses on strategies to support long term learning, concept development, and literacy.
Please contact Rina at rina AT SigningChild DOT com for more information. I hope to sign with you and your baby soon!
Join us to sign with your baby! Remember, we use real ASL signs, not baby signs… by teaching your child a real language, you are opening up their world in ways that made-up signs just can’t do!