After my daughter was born, my aunt gave me the book Baby Signing 1 2 3. I heard of using sign language with babies to help with their language development. However, I was a little skeptical about its effectiveness. But I decided to go ahead and try it with my baby -- it definitely could not hurt her, right?
I began signing with her a few weeks after she was born. The book stated that most babies would not be able to sign back until they were 4 months old. However, some may begin to recognize signs at 3 months. With my daughter, I started with the "changing diapers" sign. During diaper changes, my daughter would normally get upset and cry, but as I kept signing with her and singing "time to change the baby", I noticed she began to calm down. Soon, she began to smile and laugh when I signed to her. Then, last weekend, when I was changing my daughter, I noticed she was trying to put her hands together to make the changing sign when I signed it to her. I thought I was seeing things! I did it five more times, and each time she signed back to me! When my husband got home, I told him what the baby did. He was skeptical, but when he changed her and signed to her, she did the same thing.
Now, here's the kicker. The next day, I could tell my daughter was, uh, taking care of business, in her diaper. While she was doing it, she began to make the sign for changing the diaper! She was talking to me, telling me that her diaper needed to be changed! It was amazing!! So I would highly recommend a baby signing book to anyone with a baby. It truly works!!
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