Audra: Few things are frustrating to new parents, just hearing your baby cry and not knowing why, life would be so much easier if they could just tell you what they needed right? Well through the use of baby sign language, they can. Tony’s got more into today’s better parenting.
Tony: This is Oscar. About eight months old, he’s got a lot to say. He might not realize that but with baby’s sign language, you can find out exactly what’s on his mind. I'll show you how.
Long before they can talk, babies are trying to tell us something.
Sarah: Between six and eight months, they’re ready to start signing.
Tony: And with baby sign language, we can find out exactly what that something is.
Sarah: They can tell you when they’re sad. They can tell you when they’re hurting like their teeth are hurting, that’s a big one. They can tell you when they’re hungry or if they just want to be held. It's amazing what they can tell you.
The signs that I've chosen are very easy signs.
Tony: Sarah Voggle is a baby sign language specialist. Through her tiny talkers workshops, give parents all the skills they need to begin signing with their babies.
Sarah: It's so frustrating as a parent not knowing why your child is crying. And so to be able to find out exactly what it is for them to communicate with you right away, that’s I think the biggest motivator.
It really works and they can sign so young too.
Tony: Her own experiences proof that with good effort and dedication, the results can be amazing.
Sarah: And when my son was seven months old, we were at the mall and he saw another baby and he pointed to the baby and he signed baby. And my husband and I just looked at each other because at seven months old, you don’t really expect them to see another baby and really make that connection “oh that’s a baby like me”. And we took a step further then baby had a hat on and he signed hat.
Basically, what that did was opened up a conversation. He wanted to tell us that he was thinking about this baby wearing a hat and from tat we ere able to engage in a conversation with our seven month old.
Tony: But there is more to gain than just conversation, research shows that babies who sign speak earlier become better readers and have a higher IQs than their peers.
Sarah: For me personally, it was life changing which is why I decided to go out and educate other parents about it because it was that powerful of an influence in my children’s world.
Tony: We’ll be on the proud clarifications of baby sign language what’s amazing to me is the capacity of learning that kids have even when they’re babies. They’re much brighter than we ever give them credit for. I'm Tony Martinez, thanks for watching.
Audra: Very interesting, and to find out more about tiny talkers and baby signing, you can log on to bttertv.com and then follow the link.