11 minute read
BABY SIGNS
BABY SIGNING HELPS CHILDREN TO ENGAGE WITH YOU AND SUPPORTS THEIR DEVELOPMENT
TIME toSIGN
Baby signing is a way to open up conversation with your child well before they can talk – and with potential benefits that last from infancy into young adulthood
By RACHEL HOGG
Picture this, you are taking your baby to the park, and you tell them this by using the signs for ‘walk’ and ‘park’. Strangely, your baby keeps signing back to you the words ‘cat’ and ‘bed’ and at first you think they have misunderstood.
But then you remember that this time last week when you were heading to the park along this very same road you saw a cat sleeping on a wall. You realise that your baby has remembered that encounter and wanted to share the memory with you. They started this conversation with you using baby signing.
This was a real experience between a mum and a baby and illustrates just how useful and rewarding baby signing can be. The experts say this is a tool capable of opening up a rewarding dialogue between parents and children well before spoken conversation begins.
It is important to distinguish ‘baby signing’ from ‘sign language’, as they are two separate entities with di erent purposes. British
Sign Language (BSL) is specific to the deaf community and is a complete language in its own right with an alphabet and grammatical structures. Baby signing, on the other hand, is the use of gestures with spoken language.
It is not meant as a substitute for the spoken word, but rather as a means of supporting language and helping young children engage with their world. Baby signing involves parents using a limited number of simple gestures to support words as they are spoken. This helps encourage communication and underpins the natural development of your child’s speech.
Baby signing today has its roots in the US and is generally acknowledged to have started with the work of Dr Joseph Garcia (then an American Sign Language interpreter). He noticed that children of deaf friends who used ASL communicated by six months old, whereas children in verbal households tend to start limited communication at 12 months plus. A similar concept was pursued by two University of California child development academics in the 1990s, Dr Linda Acredolo and Dr Susan Goodywn. They spent some 20 years developing an impressive body of
evidence and techniques for baby signing, also publishing books accessible to families. Here in the UK, baby signing has found many champions. Sasha Felix developed one of the first parent programmes, Sing and Sign, some 20 years ago – initially as a means to help her own young child’s development by combining baby signing with music. Sing and Sign has now introduced thousands of families to baby signing using music.
GETTING STARTED
While learning a language and teaching it to your child may seem daunting, baby signing does not require a huge investment of time – nor does it feel like an imposition. Gesturing when we speak is something most of us do instinctively, especially when we’re talking to children. Baby signing also acts as a natural extension of children’s own gestural stage, which is an important part of speech and language acquisition in early years.
The process of learning baby signing can be fun too. You can get started by reading books or watching online videos; however, a popular and social option is to attend in-person classes with your baby. Whatever route you choose, once you have started to pick up the basics it’s easy to implement these throughout your daily life. Armed with this new simple language of gestures, you then pass on these communication tools to your child. A popular age to start implementing baby signing is around six months – once an infant can sit up and use their hands to sign things out. Sasha Felix believes this is the best age to start, but some parents are keen to get going even earlier, and Sing and Sign has even introduced a class that caters for newborns. It’s important to note that baby signing does not interfere with your child’s natural speech development. Once your child becomes verbal, they will typically start to phase out their signing because it is quicker to speak than sign. That said, children may still continue to include a sign for emphasis, out of habit or when they are being particularly insistent.
FAMILY BENEFITS
The broader goal of baby signing is to help families to communicate, and the benefits are felt by parents and children alike. For parents it is a good way of learning how to speak clearly and communicate words and concepts at a level infants can understand. It also gives vital and fascinating insight into how children navigate the world. “It means they can communicate so much of what they are seeing, experiencing and feeling, so it’s a wonderful tool for bonding and getting to know your child,” says Sasha.
While communication is the first goal, when a child has the opportunity and means to express their thoughts, feelings and desires this does usually end up having a positive impact on behaviour. “I would never be so presumptuous as to say that it takes away the frustrations of a two-yearold,” says Sasha. “Little people often have big feelings, and the goal of baby signing isn’t to get rid of those feelings, but to help them better communicate them.”
So don’t expect a total absence of temper tantrums or meltdowns. There is no such thing as a weak-willed two-year-old, and the goal of signing isn’t to turn your little one into an obedient robot. That said, arming them with extra communication skills does help with conflict de-escalation. Children are likely to pause to respond, and also feel more understood and listened to through the process of signing to you. Another big benefit is that baby signing naturally kickstarts the process of learning to recognise and label feelings, which is an important step in developing emotional intelligence.
While learning to hold a conversation with someone still in nappies may seem strange at first, baby signing is fun for both sides and establishes an environment of engagement and positive communication from the earliest years. Families that implement these simple language tools often continue to feel the benefits long after their little ones have moved on from signing and grown into talkative young people – and that’s got to be an idea worth investing in.
CHILDREN TYPICALLY PHASE OUT SIGNING ONCE THEY BECOME VERBAL, BUT MAY STILL USE IT FOR EMPHASIS
For more about baby signing classes and resources, visit singandsign.co.uk
Smart MONEY
A new book for young people sets out to demystify money and help them unlock their entrepreneurial flair - and the timing is spot on
Talking to young people about money is tricky. Schools usually shoehorn personal finance within PHSE. For parents, it’s even harder – we want our children to understand its value, its pitfalls and the importance of securing their own future financial stability without alarming them.
Despite best intentions, often we approach the subject with our own baggage (guilt, cynicism and anxiety included). What makes it more complex today is that all bets are o on old certainties – safe career trajectory, job for life, cast-iron pension.
But money has leaped from business to front page news recently – so a good time for a financial heart to heart. A new book, Max Your Money, makes a great starting point for honest conversations. The book takes an international perspective and is aimed squarely at ‘tweenies’ and teens, pitching content at a level young people relate to. Its authors are old hands in the world of high finance. Larry (Laurence) Hayes runs an investment fund when he’s not writing books for children (including How to Survive Without Grown-Ups), while Rachel Provest is a family o ce and private equity director based in Singapore, and with a special interest and expertise within education.
As the book reveals, there’s some good news. During their research, the two discovered a rich vein of optimism and entrepreneurial flair bubbling up among the young. “Larry and I were just amazed by the number of case studies we came across of children in the target age group, from 11 upwards, who had started their own business and were running it brilliantly,” says Rachel. “Having really taken the time to do the groundwork on this area, we’re convinced – and quite blown away – by the power of children to build their own businesses without that adult cynicism.”
Rachel puts some of it down to the ease with which an internet connection enables young people to carry forward brilliant ideas, learning and researching as they go. “YouTube is the great educator these days,” she says. Rachel also believes young people see the business opportunities adults can’t spot. “Adults are almost in their shadow trying to keep up with the way they are thinking.” And thanks to crowdfunding and other new avenues of funding, the traditional barriers are down. “Historically, you had to have money behind you otherwise it was impossible to catch up – you never had that advantage – so very few children could get beyond that and be successful o their own back. Whereas now, there’s really nothing stopping children as long as they have a good idea. With that, it’s more important than ever to make sure that they do have this basic understanding – how do you understand a profit and loss account, what’s the bottom line, how do you budget?” says Rachel.
This is where the book does a brilliant job. Divided into Earn it, Grow it, Use it, it o ers the kind of useful information every young person needs. For instance, it has
a comparison of certain jobs and what they pay. Who knew a Lego Master Builder can make £19 an hour and an English League 2 footballer makes £25? Fascinating facts indeed, but the book goes deeper, including explanations about why some salaries are much higher than others, which jobs may disappear in the future and how to boost your earnings. There’s advice on how to work out what sort of job would suit you, and how to approach interviews. Also, how to negotiate a pay rise and know your own worth – a section many parents may also find useful. The book covers savings and investment, spending money wisely, e ective charitable giving and – in the most exciting part – testing your own brilliant entrepreneurial ideas like a business pro to see if they could be winners and learning about other successful young entrepreneurs.
The authors got their own children involved as critical readers to ensure the text was clear and engaging. “If they didn’t understand what we were talking about, we’d go back and try and clarify it a bit more. So that helped us ensure we had a form of bulletproof book that was definitely child friendly,” says Rachel. One thing that amazed them both during their research was young people’s openness to business ideas and their ‘can-do’ spirit of optimism. “It’s wonderful because with children there’s no cynicism there – no negativity. They naturally don’t think that way, they just go into things with best and honest intentions.”
Read the book’s case studies of young entrepreneurs and you will agree that there’s something wonderful going on. From the super earner Ryan (of YouTube channel Ryan’s World), who earned $29.5m in 2020 as an unboxer to the Argentinian ethical hacker Santiago Lopez who netted a more modest $1million plus, young entrepreneurs around the globe outline how they have spotted opportunities and gone for it. The Max Your Money authors have a companion book on its way for young would-be millionaires and Rachel is looking to use some of their research so far as the basis for a curriculum to help young people unlock their entrepreneurial talents.
One side benefit of Max Your Money is that Rachel’s own daughter – one of the book’s critical readers – has taken its ideas to heart. Aged just 12, she is now running a startup that utilises her digital skills and creative spark. “She makes TikTok videos for companies,” says Rachel. “It started with a friend who needed help. It has gone from one to seven people. She sets their videos up for them, which is fantastic. I’m looking forward to retiring quite soon!”
RACHEL PROVEST
Max Your Money by Laurence Hayes and Rachel Provest is published by Welbeck Children’s Books, price £14.99
