It is proven Baby Signing does speeds up child's vocabulary

Hanz's : Shared this great progress in former blog January 2010.

When I said,"Go read book," to my Baby Hambali, immediately he would signing 'book' and trotted to the bookshelves and picked one of his favourite book and started reading.

When I want to distract him from continuing making a mess over my makeup , I would suggested to him,"Watch VCD ya?" and he will stopped messing around, signing 'video' (VCD) back to me & straight away plopped on the sofa while I switch on the DVD player.

And everytime when he wants something especially 'Nenen' (milk), eat and sleep, he will signed to me especially or to his Papa. Things are quite different with his elder brother, Hanafi as when Hanafi was about the same age like Hambali now, we never knew the existence of any Baby Sign.

Hanafi was a bit delayed in communicating although we are amazed with his high attention span and quick minds especially absorption of anything his mind wants to adopt. Differ with Hambali whom very expressive and with the tools which is Baby Sign, it does make a big difference. The key point is you have to be persistence and believe till one day, you are soon to yield it's great result. This is what happening to us.

I still referred to that book and that Signing VCD that I bought is always shown to Baby Hambali. He seems glued to it and day by day, he adds more signing. The most recent one is 'Video' (VCD) totalling 21 Signing so far.

You probably thinking Signing is only for the deaf or only for those having speech delayance, but that is a misconception people seems to be having. You probably thinking why my family love signing so much and keen to let people know about it. Just saying we are living proof that signing speeds up our lil toddler's vocabulary, would that convincing enough?. It close the gap of communication blunder as we know the interpretation of our child's needs and we can pass the message to him smoothly as well. Do take note though, we are not only signing. Everytime we sign we speak the word simultaneously. That explains nowadays, sometimes, without signing, I just say the word and Baby Hambali will respond by signing the exact word that I just spoke.

Take the expert word if you still unconvinced. According to the research, babies who sign are less frustrated, have closer bonds with their parents, develop larger vocabularies, become better readers and outsmart babies who don't sign. Mothers, especially, have a sixth sense (don't you agree?) when it comes to interpreting their baby's cries and body language. But a signing baby can share more specific information about what he wants or needs. Simply put, baby sign language is a way to communicate with your baby before your baby can speak by teaching him a few basic gestures or signs. It's a way to bridge the gap between his gurgling stages to the time when he actually talk.

Another misconception people seems to be having, signing baby will delayed his speech. But, seriously, we are not having that issue. In fact, Baby Hambali seems eager to talk too.Research has shown that while babies lack the fine motor skills to speak, they do have the ability to understand and use language as early as six to seven months, provided they are given the right tools and guidance. While speech can only be acquire, averagely by research findings between 18 months to two years plus, a child ability to manipulate objects with his hands is rapidly increasing. So, why wait for your baby to speak his first words? Your child may ready to communicate now!

Can all babies do Signing?

As you know, gesturing is a natural tendency for a baby. It's something that he'll do even if you follow through any specific signing programme. Babies are mimics. They take their lead from the people who surround them. They learn to speak by listening to you. And they'll learn signing by watching you.

So whether or not a baby will sign has little to do with the baby. All babies can learn to sign. How fast they'll learn and how many signs they'll make are the things in question. Each baby's capabilities and milestones differs likewise their fine motor skills. So the degree of signing success a baby achieves is in direct proportion to the level of dedication and enthusiasm of his parents.