Session #1 taught us how important it is to get face to face. Just as we aren’t comfortable having an adult tower over us or talk from behind us, our babies feel the same way!
Session #2 is about discovering what can motivate our babies to communicate with us. We can promote sign and language development by responding quickly and following your babies’ lead.
Imagine you were in a foreign country and you needed to order food. What are all the ways you would communicate? Would you point? Would you make faces? Would you move your body or pick something up to show someone? Now imagine how do you feel, is it frustrating?
Now imagine how you would feel if someone demanded you to talk or only “use your words”. Would you be able to? Would it depend on the language, or the topic? It would turn the fun and exiting experience of being a new country into something that was stressful and entirely unenjoyable.
Teaching your baby signs can decrease their frustration, if we make sure we keep the communication fun, and meaningful. When we imagine communicating what we want in a foreign country we can imagine the mistakes we would make along the way. Demanding someone to talk when they “couldn’t” would have actually made the situation worse. Instead of this being a fun learning activity it would have been frustrating and even upsetting. The same is true for your baby. NO matter how much we want our baby to say please, or book; if they aren’t motivated or don’t know how to say or sign it yet then we cant expect them to say it. Demanding or pressuring them will make communication unenjoyable and stressful.
For babies to communicate: THEY NEED
1. A REASON to communicate (motivation)
2. A LISTENER a partner to listen to what they say
How do we motivate our baby to communicate?
Its important to think about what signs to teach/focus on because our babies need to be motivated to use them, and we don’t want get stuck in the rut of teaching for our own agenda. We might want our babies to have good manners (please and thank you) but if they said please out of the blue to request something; would we be able to show they we are “listening” and respond to their communication?
Imagine: I Sign ---please…
With no context, or sign to tell you what I’m saying please about, the sign doesn’t communicate enough information you to respond.
Now imagine: I Sign ----more, please----
Do you know what I am requesting?
You mean you still aren’t able to respond?! But I would be so frustrated! I am using 2 signs you told me to use!! You still aren’t listening to me.
Luckily for you I don’t give up because you taught me a meaningful sign that I can use to communicate to you what it is I want.
Imagine: I Sign -----More, Milk, Please----
What was the most meaningful sign? Milk, More or please?
We must think about the words that are the most powerful. In this situation milk, conveys the most meaning. We want to focus on teaching babies signs that can allow them to chose, comment, or request. Most imporantly smile and have fun! I look forward to hearing what signs you decide to teach your baby first and how it goes!
