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Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 1 Early Literacy Tip Tuesday September 1st – Baby Sign Language Hi everyone! Welcome to our third installment of Early Literacy Tip Tuesdays. I’m Miss Lizzi, the Youth Services Director at Tremont District Library. Many people approach Early Literacy through “The Five Practices”: Talking, Singing, Reading, Writing, and Play. Last week we delved deeper into the Talking practice and talked about parentese, or baby talk. This week I want to discuss another way babies and other children who are still learning words can communicate: Sign Language. Baby Sign Language is becoming increasingly popular in the home, and for good reasons! Babies who learn Signs can communicate before they know what words they need. Teaching a child simplified American Sign Language also promotes better emotional communication when children learn how to better read facial and body signals earlier. Teaching your baby or toddler baby sign language doesn’t mean they will have a full vocabulary in that language that you’ll have to learn too. It just means that they will be able to communicate needs for themselves that they can’t communicate before they have full vocal communication abilities. Here are some tips and tricks for teaching Baby Sign Language, and some fun first signs. First, it’s important to set realistic expectations for yourself and your baby when you are both learning sign language. Like vocal communication, or any other language, this is your baby’s first way of communicating using words. The best way to teach Baby Sign Language is through repetition and patience. Second, Sign Language requires Fine Motor Skills that your baby is also trying to learn. Most babies don’t start signing back until around 8 months old, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make signing to them a part of daily life earlier. Only plan to learn a few signs at a time so that you don’t exhaust yourself or your baby. Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 2 Repetition and association are very important when teaching signs. When showing a new sign like “milk”, pair it with saying the word “milk’ clearly and giving your child their bottle or cup. Doing this repeatedly strengthens the connection between the object, vocalized word, and the sign for your child. Teach signs in the right environment. Eating and drinking signs in the kitchen, bedtime signs in the bedroom, or bath time signs in the bathroom, and so on. Now that we know the absolute basics of Baby Sign Language, let’s learn some signs! Here are some of the most common signs used in Baby Sign Language Common signs are different for each household. Here are some more fun signs that might have a place in yours! Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 3 Remember, this isn’t an extensive list of Baby Sign Language. There are tons of great resources out there to help you learn how to use Baby Sign language effectively in your home. Babysignlanguage.com covers just about every aspect of Baby Sign Language you could want. They have informational videos, how-to’s for lots of signs, Lizzi Ogle – Tremont District Library 4 and kits that you can buy to help you and your baby learn together! The pictures that I used in this video came from Thebump.com’s article “How to Teach Baby 25 Key Words in Baby Sign Language. Another great local resource is Communication Junction! Communication Junction is an educational group based out of Peoria, Il. They offer Sign and Play classes where parents and children, 3-36 months, can learn signs together. They also offer Sign and Sing Storytimes! Sign and Sing Storytimes are a great mix of sign language, stories, movement, and repetition. You might’ve seen them here at Tremont Library before, but if you haven’t keep an eye on their calendar for where they will be performing next. Next Wednesday, they’ll be at the McClure Branch of the Peoria Library. You can find more information about Communication Junction on their Facebook or on their website, communicationjunction.net. Thank you all for joining me for another Early Literacy Tip Tuesday. Tune back in next week to learn a little about how your child’s brain works and why it’s important to give them time to think before they respond! Bye everyone! Articles for more information:  https://www.babysignlanguage.com/  https://www.thebump.com/a/how-to-teach-baby-sign-language  https://communicationjunction.net/  https://www.facebook.com/communicationjunction/