Baby Signs

Let me preface today's post by saying that if you've left me a comment and haven't heard from me yet, I'm not ignoring you--I've had a wicked head cold going on for a couple of days and my main side effect with taking cold medication is a serious case of Loopy. I just get crazy loopy--so hopefully, I have responded to your comments; if not, give me a little grace. Conversely, due to being in the depths of Loopy, I may have responded multiple times to your comments--what can I say?


I'm often asked about various parenting techniques we use with our brood. Hopefully over the course of our experience of the last eighteen years, we've picked up a few useful items along the way.


Using a hybrid of sign language with babies has certainly come into vogue over the last few years. Proponents of baby signing believe that giving babies an ability to communicate needs through the venue of signs can lead to earlier communication and less frustration on the part of baby. Baby signs can be used before the child has developed verbal language.


Do we use baby signs? Well, yes. However, we have chosen to develop our own version of it, one that also takes into account the communicative ability of facial expressions as well as repetitive oral sounds. Through careful study and years of experience, we have honed our interpretive abilities and feel somewhat expert in understanding this grouping of signs and early language. I offer the following photographic menu along with the accompanying interpretations.


Here is the Baby Sign for 'Get Me Out of This High Chair Now'...





Be careful not to confuse it with the more subtle sign, pictured here, which means, 'You are Going to Have a Heck of a Diaper to Change in About Five Minutes'...





And here is the sign for 'You Should Have Gotten Me out of This High Chair Five Minutes Ago Instead of Getting the Camera' (we have chosen to use highly specialized baby signs...)





Now, this is the baby sign for 'I Believe in Chocolate Milk'...





And this is the closely associated sign, 'I Love the Camera'...





And this would be the sign, usually only seen with multiples, that means 'I'm Being the Easy Baby Today as Compared With My Screaming Twin'...





Now, this next collection of signs is very subtle, very difficult to interpret as a new parent. Don't fret if you're not able to pick up on these faint signals...with time, you will be able to decode these effectively...


This is the sign for 'I'm Done With My Scrambled Eggs'...





Yes, I know, I know, this one is tough to read. Let me include another shot so that maybe you can begin to recognize what is being communicated here...





Hope this has been helpful as you look for ways to understand what your baby is trying to tell you. I'll be sure and post more of our baby signs. Just trying to serve the greater good, you know....