Baby Signs with Nickie

Goodbye, Signs...

2010-04-02T00:49:00.004-05:00

I haven't posted here in quite a while, so I wanted to make a final post while I am logged in.

We've come to the end of our signing adventure, I believe, since Caoimhe began talking. She's now 19 months old and is speaking in sentences, so she has dropped most, if not all, of her signs. I'm sad that she's no longer signing, but happy that she is able to talk to me now and we are communicating better than ever. I do think that her signing background gave her the skills she needed to be able to talk so well at such a young age. I will continue signing to her so she doesn't forget the wonderful signs she has learned (she knows over 100 signs now, how amazing is that!), but at this point she's not much interested in signing except on rare occasions when she can't pronounce a word correctly and will sign to help get her point across.

As for me, I've moved on to other interests - I'm making hand stamped mommy necklaces to sell in my Etsy store ( www.CaoimheLily.etsy.com ) and I have a new jewelry related blog ( www.CaoimheLily.blogspot.com ). If you happen to stumble across this blog looking for signing help, you should still feel free to contact me at those links and I will point you in the right direction. Thanks for reading, and good luck with your signing - it has made such a wonderful difference in our lives and I wish the same to you.

-Nickie

Let there be Light!

2009-12-07T14:02:00.002-06:00

Is your little one having fun looking at all the beautiful holiday lights? Learn to sign 'Light' from this quick Baby Signs video:

BabySignsTV : Baby Signs Inc. : Vacaville, CA

Happy Holidays from Baby Signs, Inc.!

2009-11-18T16:39:00.002-06:00

Well, it's that wonderful time of year again. The holidays are here! Please enjoy these tips on holiday signing, from Baby Signs, Inc.:

When teaching your child to sign, consistency and repetition are the most important things to remember, even during the holiday season. In addition, the holidays give you wonderful opportunities to share the joys of the season with your child while also teaching them signs for the things you see. Here are a few ideas for adding signs into this busy time:

• Whether you have a tree in your home, or if you see one in the mall or at a neighbor's home, it is a great time to show your child the sign for "tree". And, if that tree has a star atop it, teach your child the sign for "star" as well.

• Some of your neighbors may have put a lot of time and trouble into creating beautiful light displays in their yards, providing you will a wonderful opportunity to teach your baby the sign for "light."

• Whether you have carolers visit your home or hear holiday songs on the radio, don't forget to sign "song" to your child.

• Now that December is upon us, it is a great time to sign "cold" for your child. Your child can experience the cold first-hand as you both step outside into it. Also, a great time to sign "hat" and "coat" as you will likely need these to keep you both warm.

• Holiday family mealtime is a great time to practice manners – so sign and say to your baby throughout the meal: "please", "thank you" and "excuse me". Of course, you can't go wrong with practicing the basics at mealtime: "eat", "drink" "more" and "all done."

• When your child receives a gift from someone, show her the sign for "thank you."

Baby Blues

2009-11-16T13:35:00.003-06:00

Fun Signing Story: Rainbow!

2009-09-30T17:14:00.003-05:00

This story was included in a blog post from Singwa, our Baby Signs Hong
Kong partner:

There is a fun, musical fountain in a shopping mall that we usually go to. It is a series of four urns that have water jetting out from one urn and arcing into another. We would always stop and watch. The kids are always fascinated by the water dance. We were standing there watching one time when Zoë started to excitedly say "Bo-bo. Bo-bo!" She was around 14 months at the time. I looked at her and she said it again, while watching with rapt attention at the water arcing from one urn to the other. I asked her, "Bo-bo?" She looked at me and then she made the sign for RAINBOW! I was so excited that she was able to relate the arcing of the water jets to a rainbow and that she was able to "tell" us about it.

What was so great about her using signs then was (1) that I didn't know that she understood the concept of a rainbow, even though we had shown rainbows to her in books; (2) that she could liken the arcing of the water to a rainbow; and (3) that I might not have known what she meant by "Bo-bo" if she hadn't clarified by making the sign for RAINBOW. How wonderful it was to share that moment of discovery with her. Without the sign, I might have just repeated, "Bo-bo? Bo-bo? Okay." and asked her to say bye-bye to the fountain before moving along. But because she shared her amazing observation with us, we were able to acknowledge her brilliant discovery, stay at the fountain a bit longer than we normally would have, and share in her excitement and delight at being able to share her world with us. What a pity if we would have missed this beautiful opportunity.

Sharing a question someone asked:

2009-09-24T08:25:00.002-05:00

Q: How do babies know what you are signing? For example, when I sign I Love You, how will she know what I am saying to her?

A: When you give your baby her milk, say the word, and do the sign, the spoken word and the sign reinforce the object you just gave her. So she learns to associate the word and sign with that yummy stuff she drinks. The same goes for Ball, or Eat, or any other sign. They only know what you're saying in sign, if you teach them what it means.

I Love You is a great sign, but it's not a concept that babies understand yet. So while your baby may sign it back to you, she won't really know what she's saying until she's older. That doesn't mean you shouldn't teach it to her, as she will eventually catch on, but it's much easier for babies to learn words that are concrete, i.e. things that you can point at. It would be helpful to sign I Love You whenever you give her a big hug or kiss, and at special moments like when you rock her to sleep, so she can associate the sign with being close to you and give it more meaning.

Water Babies

2009-09-03T09:20:00.013-05:00

Kiki really wanted to go swimming yesterday, and she let me know it!

She first did the baby sign for Swim, and said "Wah" (water). I told her no, that we could not go swimming right then.

She again did the sign for Swim, adding the mouth movements which mean Fish, and then she yelled and signed "Bath!" as well.

Can you tell that playing in the water is one of her favorite things to do? :)

Does your baby love to splash in the tub?
You can use these three signs for bathtime fun!

Cold & Flu Season is Approaching

2009-09-02T12:36:00.003-05:00

As autumn arrives, so does the dreaded cold and flu season. Sick babies are in many ways worse off than a sick adult. Not only are they more vulnerable to illnesses, but they also have a hard time telling us when they are sick.

One thing you can do to prepare for this winter's colds and viruses is to teach your baby a few easy health signs. Knowing simple signs such as Hurt, Hot, Cold, Help, and All Done can make a big difference. Your baby will have the means to tell you if they feel pain, or if they feel as if they have a fever or chills. If they need a shot, you can tell them the pain will quickly be All Gone, or tell them that the Doctor will Help. By learning a few simple signs, you and your baby can feel a lot better about being sick!

To get started, you can download a free ASL Health Signs Poster from the Baby Signs website.

Keep your eyes open!

2009-08-18T08:17:00.008-05:00

I finally managed to get some of Kiki's signs recorded on video:

Kiki signing at 11 months old

She's 11 months old here and knows how to sign 15 words. She also has a spoken vocabulary of about 15-20 other words.

This video brings up something that I'd like to mention about teaching your baby signs. Sometimes your baby will do a sign, but since you haven't seen him/her sign it before, you might not even notice it! It may take someone else (or a video) to bring it to your attention. That was the case here, when I recorded Kiki. I was busy trying to think of signs for her to do, and even though I had just finished giving her a few pieces of cereal to eat, I missed a completely obvious sign that she was doing (Cereal) because I just wasn't expecting it and she had never signed it before.

So keep your eyes open, and if your baby makes a strange hand movement you haven't seen before, and it looks like a deliberate action, try to think of what they might be trying to tell you.

Chances are, it's a new sign!

6 Signs for Summer

2009-08-12T01:00:00.002-05:00

Here are six fun summer signs for you to practice with your baby.

I have a feeling that Ice Cream will be Kiki's next sign, because I gave her a little bit this week and she loved it...in fact, that's what she was eating when she signed More for the first time!

Enjoy your new signs! :)

Kiki's Newest Signs

2009-08-12T00:21:00.003-05:00

Just a quick update on Kiki's signing progress -

She has been learning a lot of new signs this month. Her newest signs are Drink, More, Sleep, and Monkey. She learned them from watching the Baby Signs videos! She loves watching the monkeys on the video, and she signs Monkey when she wants to watch them, or when she sees them on the TV screen. She finally started signing More, it was one of the first signs I taught her but she never used it until now. She also says the word when she signs it. Drink is a sign I have rarely ever used, since she is still on formula and we use the Milk sign for her bottle. So that's how I know the videos actually work.

And when she is sleepy, she will say "Baby" and do the sign for Sleep (she used the sign for Baby a few times, but then dropped the sign because she learned to say the word pretty quickly). Then she'll curl up in bed with her seahorse doll and go right to sleep! The first time she ever used the Sleep sign, I had just given her a bunch of new toys to play with. We sat down on the floor to play, but she signed Sleep to me instead. I was so surprised, but it was obvious what she was signing, so I put her into her bed and she fell fast asleep. How cool is that?! If she didn't know how to do the sign, I probably would have kept her awake playing with all the new toys, never knowing she needed a nap instead. And everyone knows how much fun an overtired baby can be, right? Lol.

It's so exciting for her to have such a large vocabulary already, and she isn't even a year old yet (3 more weeks to go). She has a signing vocabulary of about fifteen signs, and a spoken vocabulary of about twenty words as well. I know that sign language is what really helps her put the words and their concepts together, and I'm so glad that we began signing with her when we did. It's been such an amazing experience, and I am so proud of her.

If you want more info on the Baby Signs videos, you can find them on the Baby Signs website at www.babysigns.com. And as always, I can offer a small discount if you choose to order them through me. The videos are well made (the Baby Einstein videos were actually modeled after the Baby Signs videos so they are very similar, with the exception of the Baby Signs videos spending more time on each sign which is nice), and Kiki is living proof that they actually work. I highly recommend them to anyone who is signing with their baby.

Children's Health Fair a success!

2009-08-01T12:57:00.004-05:00

I just want to thank everyone who came out to our table at the Children's Health Fair today. We handed out a lot of flyers, information, and of course, sippy cups.

If you are just recently reading my blog after seeing our table at the Health Fair, welcome! You'll find a lot of information in my previous posts, along with information on my upcoming scheduled class, and there will be more to come so check back often.

Re: www.babysignsprogram.com/withnickie

2009-07-31T20:39:00.007-05:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know I am dropping my other website, which can be found at www.babysignsprogram.com/withnickie. I liked having a product page to show the items I am selling, but the website wasn't very customizable and you can't make purchases from the website anyway. So I have decided it's not worth the monthly cost of maintaining it.

I will still be maintaining this Blogspot website, along with my Myspace page, so stay tuned here for more fun baby signing info.

If you would like to purchase signing products (such as books and DVDs) for your baby, you can still purchase them from me; you will just need to go to the official Baby Signs website (www.babysigns.com) first to see the items that are for sale. If you choose to buy through me, let me know which items you want to buy, and in most cases I will be able to pass on a small discount to you as well.

Thanks,
Nickie

KPLC TV Interview

2009-07-31T08:21:00.003-05:00

I was interviewed this morning by Britney Glaser at KPLC to talk a little about my upcoming class at McNeese. You can watch it today on their 10:25am segment, and I'll post a link to it if they put it on their website once the story airs.

In all, I think it went well, although I was pretty flustered at how fast it all went and I'm sure I made a few blunders. I didn't get to say everything I wanted to, but hopefully people will be interested in registering anyway.

Kiki was there with me also, wiggling around and distracting Mommy, and looking absolutely gorgeous in her first television debut. I'm hoping that next time we do an interview, she will agree to do a few signs for everyone. Today, she was just too shy!

Baby Sign Language Class scheduled

2009-07-30T22:59:00.003-05:00

A Baby Sign Language class has been scheduled for October 5 & 7 from 6:00 - 7:30pm. The class will be held at McNeese State University as part of their Leisure Learning courses.

Day 1 of the class will focus on the benefits of signing, how to get started, and easy ways of adding signs to your baby's everyday routine.

On Day 2 we will sign along to books and songs, and practice signing with other fun activities as well.

The course is only $59 for two parents/caregivers and baby, (late registration is $79, so register early!), and includes a parent guide, a video dictionary DVD with real-life demonstrations of 100 baby-related signs, bookmarks to sign along with your baby's favorite books, and a handy signing flip-guide to keep on your fridge.

If you're interested in attending the class, you can register by calling 475-5616 or you can fill out and mail in the registration form found on the McNeese website at www.mcneese.edu/conted.

Children's Health Fair

2009-07-30T12:28:00.003-05:00

I will be hosting a booth at the Children's Health Fair on 8/1/09. We'll have some handouts with baby sign language information, and will be giving away sippy cups and stickers for the kids. We'll also be playing some Baby Signs® DVD's, and Kiki will be there to give a demonstration of her signs; if she isn't feeling too finicky, that is! Here's the press release:

On Saturday, August 1^st, West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital will hold its Annual Children's Health Fair from 8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. at Dynamic Dimensions in Sulphur. Free immunizations will be offered along with a variety of free health screenings for kids of every age and stage of growth.

Nearly 20 local healthcare agencies will be on hand to distribute information on everything from injury prevention to safe sleep for babies. Information will also be available regarding the two additional vaccines now required for the upcoming 2009 - 2010 school year. The Sulphur Fire Department will display a fire truck and child ID kits will be distributed by local law enforcement. For additional information, please call (337) 528-4735.

Questions or Comments?

2009-07-30T10:40:00.005-05:00

Do you have any baby signing questions? Feel free to ask! You can email them to me at NickieAbshire@gmail.com and I'll do my best to answer them all.

Also, if you have any signing stories you'd like to share, I would love to read them!

Kiki's First Signs

2009-07-30T10:13:00.005-05:00

Since I plan on using this blog partly as a journal to keep track of Kiki's progress, I thought I'd talk a bit about how we got started.

I started signing with Kiki when she was four months old. I knew that it would be a while before she would begin to sign back to me, but I wanted to start early for two reasons. The first being, I wanted to make signing a part of our everyday routine. This would allow me to become comfortable with signing, and add a few words to my signing vocabulary before she began asking me how to do the signs for everything else around her. Second, I wanted to immerse her in both spoken language and sign language early on, so that I could reinforce the concepts behind the words and try to help her learn them a little faster.

We started with the signs for Milk, All Done, Eat, and (diaper) Change. The first thing I noticed was the she soon began to pay close attention to my hands when I talked to her. She knew something was going on with them, but she just didn't know what! Soon she realized that whenever I opened and closed my hand in the sign for Milk, she would get her bottle. She would get excited whenever I signed Milk to her, so I knew that she was catching on. When she turned six months old, she began mimicking my hand movement, and very quickly learned that if she did it on her own she would get a nice reward of warm milk. From there, she learned the sign for Diaper Change and All Done pretty quickly. It was so cute seeing a tiny little six month old asking for milk and a clean diaper! But it was so very helpful as well.

Not all babies will pick up on signing as quickly as Kiki did; many babies don't sign back until about ten months old or so. You can make it easier for them by using a lot of repetition, but some words and concepts are just harder for them to get until later. Although Eat was one of the first signs I introduced to Kiki, she just started doing the sign for it this week, when she turned eleven months old. So if your baby isn't signing back, just stick with it and they will catch on eventually.

Trust me, it's well worth the wait!

Did you know?

2009-07-29T15:17:00.004-05:00

Baby Signs with Nickie is also on Myspace! You can find me there at www.myspace.com/babysignswithnickie. Be sure to add me to your friends list for the latest news and tips.

What a Difference the Night Makes

2009-07-29T14:40:00.002-05:00

Dr. Acredolo and Goodwyn’s third book, Baby Hearts, begins with the following story that illustrates how important signs can be:

Fifteen-month-old Zack loved his new clown doll so much he insisted on carrying it around all day. After he was asleep, his mom thought it would be nice to put it on the bureau near his bed so he could see it first thing in the morning.

Apparently, however, a clown doll at night isn’t the same as a clown doll during the day, or so Zack’s mom discovered when she went in to see why Zack was crying in the middle of the night. Going into his room, she saw him also pointing to the doll and making his sign for SCARED. Immediately understanding the problem, she took the doll away and settled Zack down. All was well.

But, what if he hadn’t had the sign? Hearing him crying and seeing him point to a doll he had loved the day before, his mom herself admitted she probably would have put it in the crib with him! Certainly not the best way to win a baby’s trust!

Baby sign: MORE

2009-07-29T14:30:00.005-05:00

This is the baby sign for More. You can teach your baby to use this sign when they want more milk, more to eat, or more of anything! The sign is performed by tapping your fingertips together several times.

Ready, Set, Sign!

2009-07-29T14:21:00.008-05:00

Wondering when is the best time to start teaching your baby their first signs? Ask yourself these questions to see if your baby is ready to start signing:

• Is your baby beginning to point to things?

• Is your baby bringing toys or objects to you and
looking for a response?

• Is your baby beginning to wave “bye-bye”?

• Is your baby beginning to shake his/her head for
“no” or “yes”?

• Is your baby beginning to take an
interest in picture books?

• Even though your baby knows
some words, are there still
important things your baby
would like to talk about but
can’t?

If the answer to two or more of those questions is Yes, then your baby is definitely ready to begin signing!

Welcome to my new blog!

2009-07-29T14:10:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out my new Baby Sign Language blog! I will be posting baby signing info here, as well as tips on signing with your baby and stories about signing with my daughter Caoimhe. Stay tuned!