It’s a boy!
Fans of the monarchy here at the Limping Chicken (that’s ahem, not all of us) offer our warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the arrival of their new son – we look forward to seeing the tiny heir soon.
There are many questions that parents ask themselves when it comes to raising a child. One of the more modern ones is ‘shall we learn baby sign?’
For those of you who don’t already know, baby sign is a simplified sign language that help babies communicate before speech is developed enough to express themselves verbally.
Baby sign is used to express all kinds of things, like what a child wants to drink or eat, how they feel and the names of family members. Through baby sign, babies can be communicating with parents at the age of six months.
One of the biggest benefits of using baby sign is the avoidance of tantrums, according to the founders of the site Babysignlanguage.com: “After hundreds of shared secrets and averted tantrums we can’t understand how any parent could live without Baby Sign Language” they say.
On another note, we wonder if they have signs for chauffeur, or butler? They might be needing them soon…
Seeing babies signing is cute too. Check out the video (from America) above. People love to see it, and lets not forget, Princess Diana, the late grandmother of the new baby was a signer herself.
It is even claimed that learning baby sign benefits the intelligence and learning capability of children although this is, of course, also disputed.
So the question for you, the reader, is this. Do you think the royal baby should learn baby sign? Tell us below!
By Andy Palmer, Editor-at-large
Andy volunteers for the Peterborough and District Deaf Children’s Society on their website, deaf football coaching and other events as well as working for a hearing loss charity. Contact him on twitter @LC_AndyP (views expressed are his own).
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Robert Mandara
July 23, 2013
I say yes, provided that it is done with lots of publicity so that millions of other new parents are encouraged to do the same.
Deafinite maybe
July 23, 2013
There’s something slightly sinister about this video. It’s reminiscent of performing chimps and makes you wonder what you have to do to the baby to train it to follow your instructions.
Helen Angel
July 26, 2013
Yes all babies and parents would benefit from learning to sign. It’s fun and educational . I went to TinyTalk baby signing with my two girls and we all loved it. They could tell me when they were hungry without having cry for it, ask for daddy and tell me they had seen a duck and lots more. It’s amazing to see them signing and that they have the ability to do it. My daughters are great communicators and their language development has been commented on by their per school teachers. We also made some great friends in the classes social time 6 years on we still get together regularly . I know there are TinyTalk classes all over the country I would definitely recommend it to anyone
Helen Angel
July 26, 2013
I would never compare the learning of baby sign to training a chimp to perform. A baby won’t sign if they don’t want to a little bit of praise is good for building self esteem and a sense of achievement. And being actually been understood and with a the problem of more than 20% of children getting to school age without the communication and language development they should have it is something that more babies and children should be doing. Baby signing helps to reinforce speech as it gives a picture, or object to the word.
Joelle
July 26, 2013
Yes definitely! Nanna should get him down to the TinyTalk classes in Bucklebury.
P.s Here’s a video of lots of lovely babies using BSL: http://youtu.be/8eSyA056aJw
Bernadette
July 26, 2013
I also went to a TinyTalk baby signing classes with my 2 children and not only was signing beneficial but the classes were fun. I learnt lots of nursery rhymes and made fantastic friends during the social time (hot drink, biscuit and baby chat). I would recommend baby signing to everyone because it does fill the gap between a child talking and understanding what is going on around them. When your baby signs back to you it is truly magical. Mine are older now but my son’s school signs because they have a child with additional learning needs so he was ahead of his peers.
Claire
July 26, 2013
Teaching my baby boy to sign was probably one of the best things we did and we managed to do this without any extreme animal type training ways!! We attended TinyTalk baby signing classes which are about as unsinister as you can get! Signs are taught by using the sign at the same time as you say the word so no electric shock treatments, drugs, inprisonment, torture etc. etc. so please don’t worry Deafinite Maybe…no babies were harmed in the teaching of signing!! Our boy could use about 40 signs by the time he was 1yr old and by the time he was 15mths old he was linking 4+ signs together. Yes…I do think it would be great for the Royal baby to learn how to sign. He can then tell paparazzi to “go” or “stop” or he can tell his mum and dad he wants to go “home” because he’s had enough! Don’t worry…it won’t delay his speech either…another little urban myth to chuck in to the debate. Our boy was chatting away from 18mths plus and started to drop his signing at around the same time although he still signs along to songs now and occasionally uses the sign for “please” and “thank you” as the nursery he attends uses signing too.
A Writer Inspired
July 28, 2013
Yes, yes, yes! I don’t have children myself but lots of experience with young signers. I even encouraged a friend to do so with her baby and her results were as described here in the comments. I’m going to help her with her twins when they come. Double the fun!
Mike Aston
August 7, 2013
That’s an interesting question for the late Princess Diana has been our champion in BSL but I am beginning to wonder if she did teach William and Harry in baby signs before they could speak. Anyhow it would be nice for somebody to send a book of baby signs to Wiliam and Katie as a congratulatory birth gift. This might make William say something of his past with his mother in deaf connections.