Looking back, I feel lucky that I had a friend who had mentioned to me about baby sign language and baby signing. I think I had heard about babies signing in the past, but it had slipped my mind when I got pregnant. When my friend mentioned it to me, I thought about it again and figured that it was something to think about. But with my daughter being my first pregnancy, I really did not realize the scope of the communication possibilities until I had her.
With the arrival of my daughter and watching her development I quickly learned that signing might be a great tool for both of us to be able to communicate better. Unfortunately I did not know any sign language. So what was I to do? I could make up motions to represent a word, but I figured that would not be a useful tool in the real world. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that if my daughter was going to learn to sign, she should learn the real signs for terms.
Being so tired as a new mom, I knew I would never read a book about it and learn the signs. Any moment I had to read, I wanted to catch a few minutes of rest so I was ready for my daughter when she woke up. So I was on a search for an easy way to learn a few useful terms in sign language.
Then one day another friend mentioned to me about an apparently very popular Disney baby dvd series called Baby Einstein. I thought the name of the dvd series was pretty neat and implied an educational element to it. So I went on a hunt to find this Baby Einstein dvd series and what it was all about. Check out this short documentary I found about the Baby Einstein videos.
Off I went to the stores to take a look at the Baby Einstein dvds. I checked out Babies R Us and other dvd stores. I found the dvds a bit expensive, but I was able to take a look at them and see their content. I liked the look of them and how they used puppets as their characters. I was able to find three of their dvds that had signing in them.
The three Baby Einstein baby signing dvds have Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin doing the sign language followed by children performing the sign language. The dvds have their signature puppets in them as well. My daughter loved these dvds. She loved the puppets.
The first dvd I have pictured above (My First Signs) is rated for six months and up and the other two are rated for twelve months and up. I found though, that my daughter loved to watch them right from the beginning. I think that the age rating is more an indicator of when the average child starts to comprehend the dvd. I think it benefitted my daughter though to start to watch it early on. I know it benefitted me because I was able to learn a few sign language terms. This meant that I could start signing along with verbal language right from an early age. I felt proud and ready to communicate with my daughter.
I found that my daughter picked up the sign language very quickly. She was able to ask/sign for “more” of whatever she wanted. She could sign words like “milk,” “water” and “cereal”. She could sign “please” and “thank you.” These were all useful words especially when she was starting to want milk and instead of just crying could sign “milk” to me. It was amazing too when we were eating and she could sign “more.” I knew right away if she was still hungry or if she wanted more of what we were having.
Baby signing I believe increased the ability for my daughter and me to communicate. I believe baby signing decreased my daughter’s level of frustration because she could let me know what she wanted at a time when she was unable to get the words out.
The one thing that I learned from my doctor (that I made sure to do), was to make sure to always say the words to my daughter when I signed them. I wanted to make sure my daughter was learning the words verbally as well as learning to sign them. We were very successful at both. My daughter talked early and was able to put two and three words together early. She still knows how to sign and often signs the word along with verbally saying them. It is something that people who see us in public admire and I feel pretty proud of my daughter and our ability to communicate especially in those times of her frustration.
I recommend learning signing with your baby. There are a lot of signing dvds out there and I did try a few other ones, but I loved the Baby Einstein dvds best. The Baby Einstein dvds provide a level of entertainment and education all at the same time and captures your childs interest. I truly believe the reason the Baby Einstein dvds are successful is because they use the puppets as their main characters.
The best place I found to get the Baby Einstein dvds was on Amazon. I could not find them cheaper anywhere else and Amazon offers free shipping on orders that are over $25.00 in the USA and on orders over $39.00 in Canada. The best deals overall are the volume packages. They are extremely hard to find in store. The Baby Einstein volume packages are available on Amazon. The only thing about the volume packages is that you cannot control the dvds that you get as it is a set package.
I purchased all three volumes above and they are all great dvds. In total we own twenty-four Baby Einstein dvds. I did find that my daughter had favourite Baby Einstein dvds though. If I was to recommend the best Baby Einstein dvds to you I would recommend the following:
If I had a chance to preview the dvds before buying them, I would have only purchased those twelve above. That is not because the other dvds are no good. My daughter just simply loves the twelve I mention above and I find them to be great learning tools for everyday conversation and life. I was able to find a few previews on one of the Baby Einstein dvds (Baby McDonald) which I have placed on the bottom of this blog for you.
My daughter has really learned a lot from the Baby Einstein dvds. The three baby signing dvds gave us a level of communication early on that we just otherwise would not of had. I seriously recommend the Baby Einstein dvds to you and your little ones. I would recommend you buy one or two first though. We all know every child is different so you might find that your little one is not as crazy about them as my little one was. I will tell you that Baby Neptune was and still is her absolute favorite dvd. She loved the turtle puppet in it. My First Signs is great for signing because it teaches the basic essential words. Your heart will melt when your little one signs mommy to you.
Here is another company (Two Little Hands Productions) that produces baby signing dvds. I heard of this company after I had already purchased the Baby Einstein dvds. Two Little Hands Producitons are a well known baby signing dvd company. I have put the link here for you to explore.
I hope that this review has been helpful. I hope that you and your little one benefit from our blog. Let us know your experiences.
Here are a number of baby signing books in case you want to check it out.
I found this on for you to be able to take a look at the videos to see what you think.