Amazing Baby Signing stories: Part 3
Baby Signing Success Stories
We love Baby Signing Success stories. Our instructors take a lot of pride in what they do, and love hearing updates and feedback from past students! Here are some Stories.
Preparing to go to sleep
For us bedtime wasn’t easy with our second child, Q. After we taught him the sign for sleep though, he got excited about bedtime and it made things a lot easier. We’d ask him to show us in the beginning, and he’d be so proud of himself when he crawled into his bed. Not long after he would start telling us when he was ready to sleep – most nights before it was even time for bed! We love using bedtime signs in our house! -Karen
Scared at Halloween
Our son was 8 months old when he started signing, and was really quick to pick new signs up. One of our favorite signing stories was from around this time last year – Halloween. We had been reading a book with our then 15 month old about Halloween and some of the signs that went with it, one of them being ‘Scared’. About a week before Halloween I decorated the house one night after he had already gone to bed.
The next afternoon while having his playtime he suddenly started crying, and at first I wasn’t able to figure out why. Finally, our little guy signed ‘Scared’ for the first time, and pointed to a mummy decoration I had placed out!! I was amazed that he was able to communicate that, and put the mummy away which he was clearly happy about. We love signing with our son, and LOVE My Smart Hands! ~Kristen and Jack
Showing us what hurts
I moved to Toronto last December near my son’s house. My older granddaughter is five now but still has very little fine motor control so a lot of her signs look much the same. But her parents and the teachers at her school are using picture cards a lot now – she has good understanding and will usually point clearly at one card.
This is supplemented with yes-no questions. She answers by pointing to “yes” and “no” cards since she can’t sign yes or no or even nod or shake her head clearly. Her Mom especially is getting good at zeroing in on what’s wrong or what she wants to do. But she does still use signing; she has correctly notified her Mom that she had a bladder infection, by signing “hurt” and pointing. We keep signing to her to help her with understanding her classmates – deaf or non-verbal – who are signing to her. Baby Sign Language has made my older granddaughter’s hard wee life a whole lot easier for her and us.
What a great signing Granddad
My younger granddaughter is a “typical” child and has taken to baby signing like a duck to water – starting when she was six months old. She’s 15 months old now and we find ourselves having little conversations with her
– e.g. playing with Granddad in the backyard; Mom comes out on the deck: She signs “eat”. Granddad: no, it’s not time for lunch yet. She signs “banana” Mom: no, you had a banana for breakfast. Etc.
Both the girls also sign to each other and seem to interpret better than the adults. One will make a sign then they will both hoot and laugh but the adult didn’t get the joke. Also, both at one time or another has alerted her parents that her sister has a problem they hadn’t noticed.
Thanks for my great start to baby signing.
These are amazing Baby Signing Success stories! Click here for some more of these heartwarming stories. If you have a signing story to share, send it to us at rcdirector(@)mysmarthands.com. You could be featured!