Baby Sign LanguageBooks

A few people have asked me what books we are using...

These are the books we have and use:
Baby Signing 123 by Nancy Cadjan The Easy-to-Use Illustrated Guide for Every Age and Every Stage (I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book because it has a section on what to use at each age and suggestions on how and when to use the signs.)

The Everything Baby Sign Language Book with DVD by Teresa R. Simposon
This book comes with a great DVD that shows every sign shown in the book. A live person really makes all the difference.

Baby Signs by Joy Allen (Illustrator)(a board book for the kido)
This is a nice picture book for Allie to illustrations of another baby using baby signs.

Baby Fingers: Teaching Your Baby to Sign by Lora Heller (another board book)
This book has pictures of real children using signs.

Sign away!

Tuesday night Allie made the sign for "MILK." It was awesome. She was soo proud of herself too when I clapped for her. All she has wanted to do for the past 2 days is say MILK MILK MILK. It's too cute. I"m very excited about her being able to communicate with us in another way.

A Season of Firsts

WOW!!! Soo much has happened in the past two months. Allie is growing big and strong day by day. She's had a season of firsts. A list of her most recent firsts include: first solid food (rice cereal mmm yummy, then oatmeal and mixed cereal), first vegetables (she's now had sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, sweet peas and green beans), first juice (Allie tasted apple juice for the first time this week), first fruit (she just had bananas today), first time drinking water, first time drinking water from the end of a straw, first time rolling over from back to tummy, first time sitting in a high chair, first time out to eat at a restaurant (Corky's Barbeque - don't worry she didn't order from the menu), first time sitting alone unsupported, first time getting up on all fours, as well as first time seeing snow. Allie has done a lot of growing up in the past two months. She's talking a whole lot more.

We have been teaching her sign language. We always speak when we use the signs. So far we use the signs for MILK, ALL DONE, MOMMY, DADDY, DIAPER, CHANGE, LOVE, DOG, SLEEP, FOOD, and MORE. She hasn't used any signs yet herself but smiles when she recognizes the signs for MILK , ALL DONE, MOMMY, and DADDY. This month we'll be introducing a few more signs to her. We have four books and a dvd about signing with infants and all of them have great information. Baby Signing 123, by Nancy Cadjan, states that the developmental norm for a child at 12 months is a possible 2-3 spoken words, while a child the same age that signs has 25 signs and 16 spoken words. That's nothing! At 36 months the norm is to understand 800 words and use 3-5 words sentences easily, while the signing child has speech like a 47 month old up to 1500 words and almost total control of everyday language. By the time the children are 8 years old the IQ of signing children is 12 points higher than the developmental norm.

Allie is checking many things off of her milestone list. She's getting bigger and doing soo many things. She has outgrown a ton of clothes and is now wearing some 3-6 month and 6 month+ clothes. One of her biggest accomplishments is her ability to feed herself. Allie loves to hold her bottle during mealtime. Here is a picture of the first time she held her own bottle on February 10, 2009.

As time flies by Allie continues to amaze us. We love her very much and are excited to watch her grow. We can't wait to see what she will do next.