Book Review: Signing Smart With Babies And Toddlers

Paperback: 256 pagesPublisher: St. Martin's Griffin (April 28, 2005)ISBN-10: 0312337035ISBN-13: 978-0312337032Price: $11.32My wife tells me she had a vague notion that signing would be a good idea ever since her sister told her about a TV program she saw where non-verbal toddlers could communicate what they needed. So when she became pregnant she looked it up on the Internet. Wow! Sing and sign, baby sign, ASL, BSL - it was a big subject. Then our child arrived and it all got put on the back burner.I'll let Katherine pick up the rest of the review: "When she was about 6 months old I decided to give it a go, but I was flailing really. A website I found said repetition was the key and you should start with a sign that would help you as a parent, and therefore alleviate frustration for both of you, such as "milk" or "more". Well I tried, but I had questions: How would I know it was working (when my offspring looked at me as if I was crazy)? How long before something should happe
n? Was it all worth it?"It all came together when I discovered Signing Smart with Babies and Toddlers by Michelle Anthony and Reyna Lindert. It had me hooked by the first page - a personal experience of a 12 month old asking what the moon was? In sign? This, I wanted! An insight into what my child was thinking, real communication. Could it be possible? The book explains that what babies need to grasp is the concept of signing and that the way to do it is by using the natural interest they have in what is around them and the games you already play with them. I really do it no justice by my superficial explanation, so I really encourage you to get the book and see for yourself. Suffice to say I now had confidence in giving it a go and, amazingly, exactly what was supposed to happen happened! The day that my one-year-old got ready to scream to be nursed as usual, almost imperceptibly paused and cautiously signed "milk", was wonderful. But that was eclipsed by the time she picke
d up my fork and in response to my wittering on about how that was mummy's fork but when she was bigger she could have a baby fork, she signed "what - baby" and pointed to the fork. "What 's a baby fork?" Excellent question, very good point - but she would have wondered the same thing, and I would never have known the marvelous workings of her mind, if she had not known those simple signs."Now she has this way of looking you directly in they eye. And she talks - does she ever! I have lost count of the people who have looked at her curiously, amazed at her vocabulary, and said, "How old is she?" Would she have been any different without signing? Who knows? Will it help her in the future? Maybe."One thing I do know, I would not have missed those early, non-verbal, insights-into-her-secret-self conversations with her for all the tea in china."We are constantly amazed at the rapid progress our child has made in communication, and we put a great deal of that down to signing with
our baby - something that Signing Smart made immensely achievable. Our child still loves to sign, and her vocabulary is extraordinary. This is the book to help make that happen.

View this post on my blog: http://www.yourgamebook.com/book-review-signing-smart-with-babies-and-toddlers.html