Signing with Milly...

Well, I have begun signing with my 6month old, Milly!





Aiden(my 3 year old) has been studying the signs to help me teach Milly baby sign...



Aiden and I have been showing Milly the sign for 'milk' for a few weeks now...

She is definately now recognising the sign as she goes bananas when we do it! This was a good one to start with with her as she LOVES her milk!

Now we just keep persevering and wait for her to sign back....will keep you informed...

Amanda

Harri's first Sign!

Wow, how exciting to see my six and a half month old son Harri signing! I started doing a few signs with him from about four months. At first I found it hard to keep his attention so I backed off for a while, lately though he has been watching our every move and really showing lots of interest in everything around him so I started again with just a few signs. Things have been pretty hectic at our place in the past month, packing up our house in Sydney and moving to Canberra, which made it hard to be really consistant with it, so I was quite suprised to see Harri signing back "Mummy" after showing him maybe half a dozen times. We got so excited and gave him so much praise for being so clever, he was very proud of himself!
Harri's big sister Maija is almost 3 and is very keen to teach him to sign, she loves to show him different signs and play games with our Signing Stars flashcards with him. We didn't start signing with Maija until she was over 1 so its very exciting to be signing this early with Harri. Now that we are set up in our new house I will put up our "Signs that Stick" to help Daddy(Henrik) can get involved too.
Will update with news on our signing progress soon,

Sonya

Ava & Olivia

Time has flown! Ava will be three soon and Olivia is walking talking some what and her signing is going great guns!
Ava has learnt a lot more signs lately and is very keen to learn more.
The signing class I organised with Tiny Hands Talk was really good, the kids loved it. Unfortunately Ava was sick and did not get to go. Olivia liked it though. There was fun for all.
Olivia’s favourite sign at the moment is ‘dog’ everything is dog! She has also started saying ‘mummy’ Finally!!!!! ‘Dad’ not so much, which is weird because ‘dad’ is usually the one they say first, but I don’t mind at all.
Olivia’s BIG news is that she has learnt a new sign, ‘bath’. Although it does not look like the Auslan way, it is Olivia’s way.
Olivia also has six teeth now and still chases Ava around, but now she can do it a little faster. They also ‘play’ together and see who can annoy each other first, and then it ends up who can hit each other the hardest!!!!.....then the tears come.

I have also put our signing poster in our kitchen which i think has helped them alot because they see the signs all the time. Sometimes Ava will sit down with me and we go through all the signs and 'play find the sign'. She likes this as much as playing 'hide and seek'!!

Our chickens are also growing up. They are all fully grown…but no eggs yet!...i keep telling myself they will earn there keep soon. The girls love playing with them. When Ava and Olivia wake up in the morning and come into the kitchen the first thing they look for are the chickens. Olivia signs ‘bird’ and points at them with a big smile on her face. It is so cute!

Why is it that when you try and get them to show other people the signs that they know, they suddenly don’t know them anymore…why is that?

I would like to thank the people who have seen and are using Signing Stars products. We like hearing the nice feedback and are very proud of our products.

Happy signing!!
Kylie

Ava, Olivia and Maija and the iphone

These are some pictures of the girls playing with our iphone app. All three of them are very clever at it!!!!

Progress!!

It has been a while since my last update and alot has happened since then. Olivia has had her 1st birthday. I cannot believe she is one already where has the time gone? She is also walking. Chasing after her big sister! Her baby signing is also going really well, she now can sign 'finished','mummy' and 'daddy'. We are having a baby signing class on Friday with Judy from 'Tiny Hands Talk'i am looking forward to that because both my girls love music! I will let you know how they go.
Ava, Olivia and Maija were all playing with our iphone app the other day and they absolutely loved it. They all knew how to slide the screen to change the flash card and do the sign!!

Fine Motor Development Milestones

Hi Kylie
I thought this article on fine motor development might be of interest. Baby signing is a great way to develop fine motor skills. Just click on the heading to follow the link.
I cant wait to start signing with Harri!
Son

Olivia and Ava

Olivia is almost one now, and the time has gone so fast. She is walking and is signing more signs now. She can sign 'eat', 'dog','fish','bird' which she loves to sign because we have four baby chickens that she and Ava saw hatch, the picture of Olivia with the chickens,you can see she is signing 'bird'. When we are outside and she See's a plane she points and i have started signing that to her as well, although she cannot do it yet she tries to. Olivia has almost mastered 'more' and can sign 'finished' when she wants to. Tonight Olivia signed 'bed' to me for the first time in context, without me prompting her. She was really tired for her day at day care. Both my girls seem to really enjoy learning new signs, they get very excited when they can do it right especially Ava. She says to me "look at me mummy" and does the sign.

Update on Olivia's baby signing

Well it's been 3 weeks since our family holiday at Easter time. Olivia now signs 'bird' without me having to ask her. Whenever she see's or hears a bird she signs it. I think she is so clever and so does she. Ava is also helping me teach Olivia to sign. I have now taught her to sign 'dog' which she does most of the time, when i ask her. I am also in the process of teaching her 'finished'. You can see her trying to sign it but she just does not have the co-ordination yet. I know she is doing it. I have been showing Ava and Olivia our 'Animal' flash card set. They both enjoy looking at the cards together.
I would really like to hear anyone else's 'baby signing' stories. Please feel free to email me at kylie@signingstars.com.au

Olivia signed back!!!

We are all down at Batemans Bay for Easter long weekend. When we were all down the beach on our first day, and when ever i saw a 'bird' i signed 'bird' to Olivia. She would look for a bird. Then on Sunday she signed 'bird'to me. when we were all down the beach. Ava was having alot on fun chasing them. I was signing 'bird' to her and then to my surprise she signed back!!
Also that night when she was having dinner. I was doing the usual ritual of signing 'eat' with every spoonful and then she signed 'eat'. She made me a very excited and proud mum. Now there is no stopping her!!!!

Well what can I say, not much progress has been made with Olivia’s baby signing, but that’s ok she is not going to get it straight away. She loves waving bye bye to Daddy when he leaves for work and the girls at day care where she goes tell me she waves to everyone. So I can at least tell she can do that baby sign! She also thinks she is very clever when she claps her hands
I am changing my approach with teaching her to Baby Sign Language, because she is such a laid back, HAPPY baby. She does not need Baby Signing for communicating. What she wants as she just goes with the flow. So I am trying the ‘motivational’ approach. So now I am trying to teach her signs for toys that she wants. For example she has ‘Sophie’ a giraffe that she loves, so now when she wants ‘Sophie’ I sign giraffe. Also whenever I turn a light on she can see I sign light and when we see a bird I sign bird just to name a few. I am hoping the change to ‘motivational’ signing will help kick start her along. There are no hard and fast rules to Baby Signing; I think trial and error is the key. See what is best for you and your! And to have fun in the process!!!
On the other hand, Ava my oldest loves learning new signs. With the signs she already knows I can do the sign with out talking and she knows what I am saying. For example the other day she was taking food from a table that was not hers and I saw her doing it and I signed ‘no’ to her, she just looked at me I kept signing no and she eventually took her hand away. She was such a good girl.
She knows a lot of signs already. We eventually might be able to have secret mummy, daughter conversations with out daddy knowing!!
I have also noticed her speech is a lot clearer and I believe signing has helped her with this, when she is talking to me she will sign the word, as well if she knows the sign for the word she is saying.
We went to our first baby signing class last week with ‘Tiny Hands Talk’ and Ava loved it. We had a lot of fun!!

Olivia update

Hi,
I was just wanting to give you an update on how Olivia's Baby signing is going.
Well she now waves goodbye to daddy when he leaves for work every morning. she thinks she is so clever, and she has signed "eat" a few times since my last entry. She is going well(i think anyway. Olivia will be 9mths soon. She is growing up so fast.

Kylie

Olivia's baby sign diary

Hi,
My name is Kylie, and I am apart of the Signing Stars team. My interest in baby sign language started about 1yr ago, and now I have started baby signing with Olivia. I started baby signing when she was about 7mths. I noticed she would watch my actions of the sign “eat”. Although she could not do it, she watched me very intently. Now she is just over 8mths, I think she did her first sign to “eat”. I was so happy to see it, even though she has not done it since, she still watches my action and now I also get her big sister to do it as well. Ava is two, and I am also teaching her to sign and she is very good at it. I can say a word she knows the sign for and she does the sign without any prompting. I am hoping she can help me teach Olivia along the way.
Keep a watch out for more Olivia baby signing updates, I will be updating you on her progress

Happy signing
Kylie

What does learning to Baby Sign involve?

Learning sign language with your child is not meant to be a time-consuming chore. Rather, it can be worked easily into your daily life as a natural part of communication and it should be a fun journey!

No prior knowledge of sign language is required! Most parents learn right along with their children with the aid of sign language tools and resources.

You can start as early as six months of age. Remember, though, that babies can take weeks or even months before making their first sign.

Simply choose a sign (or several signs) to begin with and use it when you have your baby’s complete attention. For example, use the sign for “milk” just before breastfeeding or giving a bottle. Use it consistently, and soon your baby will begin to understand your signs, and eventually communicate them back to you!

Click here for more information on getting started with baby sign language.

Happy Signing!

Why Teach Baby Sign Language To Your Baby?

To reduce frustration, to increase communication,to find out what your baby wants and needs before they start crying. These are all reasons to start signing with your baby. The use of baby sign language is emerging all over the world as parents and caregivers find out how amazing it really is!

By the time your baby is 8-10months old they are capable of telling you what they want but just dont yet have the verbal skills to do so. Baby sign language can fill this gap and enable communication before your child can speak. Many babies naturally develop their own simple signs anyway - beginning with just a wave for "bye bye".

Using baby sign language expands on this innate skill by encouraging him to use a wide variety of signs to express his needs - the benefits of which are clear to any parent!

Visit the Signing Stars website for more information and some great products to help you get started with Baby Sign Language.