S is for Signing

When someone suggested teaching my child sign language I legitimately laughed. I thought this was akin to growing my own kale and harvesting it in order to blend it into a nutritious homemade puree with which to nurture myself and child. Like, no. I'm alright with buying food and teaching my kid to speak by listening to me blabber on, the old fashioned way. This is a bit much.

Now, if you ever meet me at a baby shower or anything, I will SWEAR TO YOU ON MY LIFE that sign language is the best and greatest thing that happened to my kid, and also that it is the reason my kid is a linguistic genius.

Here is the secret: watch Baby Signing Time. I don't have any affiliation with it (yet! hit me up, Rachel from Baby Signing Time!) but I am truly evangelical about it. The songs are super contagious, it is easy peasy for baby and parent to learn the signs, and it makes communicating in a loud bar with your husband really convenient.

The songs are supplemented by videos of Rachel the hostess with the mostest showing the signs, and then by real little people doing the signs, too. The real little kids show the different ways that kids will practice making the signs--aka, it will look different than when the adult does. Its also really engaging for little viewers to see babies and toddlers smiling and making the signs with their hands.

The songs are soooo catchy, its outrageous. The signs are also the signs that babies and parents of babies actually use.

My son is nearly three and for the last year has been speaking in paragraphs; he speaks clearly and says really funny things that we didn't teach him. He's my kid so I'm biased, but he is really a linguistic genius. He says things like "Mom its too bright, make the sun stop being so bright that it hurts my eyes. Can you close the curtains? I just don't like it being so bright in the morning" while in diapers snuggling his teddy bear. It's weird.

But, when he was a year old and a little over that he was hardly speaking at all, just a few words and they weren't with regularity. We were really concerned and read to him a lot, spoke with him a lot, and tried encouraging him whenever he did speak. We were worried that he wasn't speaking as well as his peers.

When he hangs out with kids his age or older, he's on of the strongest communicators. Oh my God, I know. I'm such a braggy mom. But it's true! He is total brat sometimes but he's really clearly communicating it, and its amazing. And in all honesty I think its because of Baby Signing Time.