Again, babble.com offers yet another topic that I hadn't really given much thought to - baby sign language.
Here's their article
Basically, I like to read these articles so I can get to the comments. Once you skim past the SEE XXX GIRLS NUDE and ZOLFT PRESCRIPTION 4U!!! spam comments, you get to the actual discussion between parents. And I found it interesting that there were the "I taught my children to sign and they are super awesome magnificent and why wouldn't you teach your children to do something that would help them?" and then the "Stay off my lawn! Stop judging me for keeping my kids locked in a closet of ignorance you shrill harpy!" I really had no idea baby sign language was such a hot topic.
Honestly, I never realized that baby signs was considered a "good parent"/"bad parent" issue. I mean, sure I one time found some baby sign flash cards on sale somewhere and bought them fully intending on (never) using them when Ronan was still a wee cub. But, I never did. (This should not come as a surprise to anyone) I mean, not really. Ronan signed "more" a few times, but I just taught him to actually say "more" and today, as a just turned three year old, I can communicate perfectly fine with him. He speaks as well as many of the college freshmen I had to teach Intro Anthro while slogging through Grad School. Why didn't I teach it? Um, well, I guess it's because I'm too lazy. Sure, I think it looks cute when I see some child doing it. But, really, I'm just not going to do stress myself out over this kind of thing. My three year old was pretty much fully verbal just before turning two. He could communicate everything he wanted to tell us with words and some even in complete sentences. How much sooner does a sign language speaking child speak? Is it really worth it? Inquiring lazy moms want to know!
These are questions I ponder as I listen my fifteen month old baby dipping her toes into the linguistic sea. She says the usual "Mommy, Daddy, Doggie, Iwandis, Iwandat, Iwandown, ball, nummy, mine, no (or NOOOO complete with head shake)" - I mean, she has the basics covered for what you need to accomplish as a fifteen month old. Right? My just turned three year old told me that the "storm clouds were looming" (and they rightly were) - so I'm guessing he's doing okay in the talkie department, too.
Have I done my babies wrong? Are their language skills going to suffer? I'm going to go with "no" at this point and harbor no regrets regarding my laziness in this department. Likely my non-signing children will speak just as mumbly and surly and awkwardly when they are teenagers as those children who were signing their little digits off before they turned two. Am I wrong?
8 comments:
LOL Cat you are hilarious!! No, it is so not something to stress over but it can be such a fun thing to do with your baby! We taught our daughter sign language and found it was really easy and came pretty naturally, she learned so quickly that it was really gratifying - probably made me feel like a better parent that I was haha.
Our son learned a few signs but was less interested. I really want to teach our new twin boys.
I never knew this was such a hot button item! Shesh.
I taught Matthea "more" and "all done" with the intention of teaching her other signs. It didn't happen and she started talking taking away the need for more signs.
Now with the twins it's a whole 'nother story. It is a lot harder to figure out what they want/need when they are both pointing, screaming and generally being 17 months old. I walked my happy self to the library and got a book on it. They know and can use more, all done, shoes, turn, bath, on, off, milk, lovey, lion, eat, cracker and ball.
It helps a ton. Do I think they are brilliant? Yep. But they are mine so of course I am going to say that. Do I think that signs have determined their destiny? Nope. But, it helps the day to day stuff here so there's that.
I also wouldn't pay for it. My 25 cent fine at the library was enough.
I also have no feelings that I am a better parent than someone who doesn't use signs. It just is what is helpful for us. So there :)
Oh, and Hi Catherine! We miss you up here!
Am I a "good parent" because my son signs or a "bad parent" because he learned to sign from the 'Baby Signing Time' dvd's? He seriously loves watching them and it's a nice chunk of time for me or I watch too and learn.
I don't understand how a class would be as effective as the dvd's, I guess I would have to go to some to compare. On the videos they show things like trees or animals and lots of babies signing their version of the sign so you can see that they all do it a bit different. It's definitely helpful, he isn't super verbal yet.
I thought the point was to use the signs before the child had verbal skills, to give her some tools to get her point across without the pre-verbal frustration for parent or kidlet. We did signs for milk, more and eat, which made mealtimes so much easier. But I don't think it had anything to do with her verbal language development.
We used signs with Josie a lot. I didn't think of it terms of helping future language development, but rather in terms of giving her a way to communicate when she couldn't yet. I think it prevented many-a-tantrum. :)
Didn't realize this was a "good parent/bad parent" issue.
Thanks for all your comments! I read this and was like, "seriously? this is something else I have to feel guilty for? LOL!" Anyway, I thought it was hilarious how those comments got pretty heated in the article. It definitely would be nice if Isla could tell me exactly what she was after, but, as it comes down to it, I was too lazy to do it when she was an infant and now it's too late! Ha!
You are stressing over too much. Give yourself credit.
I don't know a better, more loving, and intelligent mom.
Love, Nanna
ok, I'm too lazy to even click on the article and read the comments, but I can only imagine what they say...
Some people get so into the sign language thing! I think it helps somewhat for kids that aren't very verbal, but mine (like Ro and Isla)were very verbal. I found that it was only good for the 14-18 month window when they could pick up a few signs and couldn't really say much... but really we had more "fun" with this than anything. We only got as far as using the signs for More, Milk, All done, Food, and Water.... I tried for please, but that one never took. I think that by the time they got it, they could really already communicate those desires. I found it hardly worth the effort at all. Whatever... I don't that that makes me a bad parent. I think teaching your kids to use their words if fine! I'm sure this is in the comments, but I had a couple of friends that were "SERIOUS" about signing, and their kids (all three of them) were then slow to speak. They used signing, so they didn't have to find the words to communicate. Who knows... with four kids talking my ear off all the time right now, I do kind of wish they could go in the other room and just sign quietly to one another... now that does sound peaceful... but that's not my reality.
I did always get a good laugh at how aggressively a baby could sign "MORE FOOD"
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