Baby Hands Productions, creators of the My Baby Can Talk product line, was founded on the principle that babies can communicate at a very early age and with the commitment to offer educational products to promote early language development from simple gestures to first spoken words. The My Baby Can Talk products teaches preverbal babies and their parents to communicate using simple gestures to bridge the gap between the time babies can communicate with their hands and the time babies can speak. This period of time generally falls within the range of ten to thirty-six months.
Babies are able to communicate at a much earlier age than they are able to speak and research has shown that babies who use sign language tend to speak sooner with larger vocabularies. This book teaches babies American Sign Language (ASL) in a format that delights the senses while tapping into a baby's natural language abilities. This award winning series encourages babies and parents to communicate at an early age, reducing frustration and creating a special bond that is so important for healthy child development.
We suggest that you read the book with your baby several times each week and at the same time during the day until your baby has learned all the signs that are of interest to him or her. Pick a time when your baby is well rested and most playful.
The book should be viewed as a resource to encourage interaction between you and your baby using sign language. Your baby will look to you to determine how her or she should interact with the book. Therefore, as you read the book together, comment on the images and sounds, point at the images, say the words and make the signs as they are presented and your child is more likely to do the same.
There are many ways to read the book with your baby and our advice is that you try a couple of methods that we have found to be very useful. One method is to place your baby on your lap and make the signs that are presented in the book on your baby's body or in front of your baby as each sign is presented in the book. Another method is to sit next to your baby or facing your baby and sign on your own body.
Just as babies begin speaking at different ages, so to will babies begin signing at different ages with some starting as early as six months. The more control your baby has over their hands and the more interest they have in communicating with you, the more likely they will begin signing back to you.
There are two milestones in baby education of sign language that most babies will pass through in learning. The first milestone is the first time that your baby signs to you. This moment will be as thrilling to you as your baby's first spoken word. Once your baby learns a given sign, they will notice the object that represents the sign everywhere. Your baby may also use this first sign to refer to many different objects and actions. This is similar to a baby saying "da" to refer to everything in their world because they finally have a way to communicate.
The second milestone or education is often referred to as a signing explosion or signing cluster. This usually occurs after your baby has learned their first five to ten signs. At this milestone your baby has assimilated one of the most powerful symbolic actions that distinguishes our species from all others on our planet - the link between abstract symbol (the sign) and the experience it represents. Once this monumental achievement is in place, they are likely to learn additional signs very rapidly. The ability of the baby in learning additional signs will most likely only be limited by your ability to provide them with the signs.
