Baby Sign Language: A Boon to Multilingual Classrooms

Last week I wrote about how children being raised in bilingual households benefit from having signs added to the mix. As I pointed out, the logic is simple: When the baby, as an example, hears “leche” from Mom and “milk” from Dad and both parents pair the word they say with the MILK sign, the parents are making the job of understanding the equivalence of the two words much easier. Far from increasing a child’s confusion, it decreases confusion, thereby making the child’s task of conquering the individual languages easier.

Of course, signing has another advantage in multilingual settings, especially in child care classrooms where teachers and families speak different languages: The signs provide a common language so that toddlers who are learning the family language can still make themselves understood. Just such a situation exists at the Center for Child and Family Studies at the University of California, Davis, where graduate students from all over the world routinely enroll their infants and toddlers. In the 22 years since the Baby Signs® Program was first introduced, teachers and parents alike have been amazed at how much more smoothly daily life in the classroom proceeds. The signs have enable children who speak different languages to communicate with their teachers and each other. In one case, for example, a toddler from Israel and a toddler from Taiwan were observed reading a picture book together—with the first girl turning the pages and pointing at objects while the second girl made the appropriate signs!

Bottom line? Signing is clearly a boon to children facing the challenge of hearing multiple languages—an increasingly common occurrence these days—whether at home or in the classroom.

Visit www.babysigns.com for more information about Baby Signs® resources to help you and your baby enjoy all the benefits that signing can bring.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Baby Sign Language—A Boon to Multilingual Households

One of the most frequent questions I get is the following: “My baby is exposed to two languages at home. Won’t adding the Baby Signs® Program just make her task more complicated by adding a third?”

The answer is a strong and resounding “No!” The truth is that, no matter what form bilingual input takes, adding signing to the mix actually makes the child’s job easier, not harder. Here’s why.

In a bilingual household, babies hear two words being used to label objects, and what they need to figure out is that both words are equally valid—in other words, that they mean the same thing. For example, if babies hear both the word “leche” and the word “milk,” they need to understand that the words are equivalent.

And that’s where signing becomes helpful. Quite simply, signs act as mediators between the languages, making the equivalence of words obvious to the baby. For example, when the baby hears “leche” from Mom and “milk” from Dad and both parents pair the word they say with the MILK sign, the parents are making the job of connecting the object with the meanings of both words much easier for babies.

In other words, rather than confusing children in bilingual families, signs help smooth the road to understanding and speaking both languages.

Happy Signing

(and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Sign Time, Rhyme Time #2

About a month ago I used this blog to post some of the little rhymes that appeared in the first 2 editions of my book with Dr. Susan Goodwyn, Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk. These rhymes, which we created ourselves, were designed so that parents could accompany them with signs, thereby making it fun and easy for their baby to learn them.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t include them in the third and most recent edition of the book, but that doesn’t mean they don’t work. So below are a few more of our favorites.

Farmer in the Dell (can be sung)
The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Heigh-ho the derry-oh
The farmer in the dell
The farmer reads a book (BOOK)
The farmer reads a book (BOOK)
Heigh-ho the derry-oh
The farmer reads a book. (BOOK)
(Repeat with the following--)
The farmer drives a car (CAR) . . .
The farmer eats a snack (EAT) . . .
The farmer asks for more (MORE) . . .
The farmer buys a bird (BIRD) . . .
The farmer pets a cat (CAT) . . .
Etc….

When the Stars are Out
When the stars are out (STARS)
And the moon is bright—(MOON)
Blow out your candle (CANDLE—Blow finger tip)
And say, “Sleep tight!” (SLEEP)

All Gone
Into the clouds—
All gone plane. (ALL GONE, AIRPLANE)
Into the tunnel—
All gone train (ALL GONE, TRAIN)
Water in the bathtub (WATER)
All gone down the drain! (ALL GONE, DOWN).

As you may have noticed for yourself, it’s not hard to come up with simple rhymes like these—or to add signs to traditional rhymes (e.g., Jack & Jill). So, get creative yourself!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Everyone Benefits from Signing with Babies!

Before I retired from UC Davis, I was lucky enough to have a graduate student who fell in love with the research Dr. Susan Goodwyn and I had been doing for so long on the effects of signing with hearing babies. Her name is Dr. Claire Vallotton, and she is now an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University continuing her (and our) research on the topic.

I just heard from Claire the good news that one of her studies has just appeared in the professional journal, Early Childhood Research Quarterly (2012, Volume 27, pps. 401-415). The results are exciting and worth sharing here because they extend the benefits of signing beyond just middle-class families to low-income families enrolled in an Early Head Start Program in Northern California.

Why is this important? We all know that parents who have the luxury of higher education, access to parenting books and mommy-and-me classes, and progressive child care programs are eager to pursue anything that holds the promise of benefitting their kids. And this certainly includes the Baby Signs® Program. What’s more, they usually have the time and energy to follow-though on the information they receive. As a result, middle-class babies all over the world are enjoying the many benefits that signing has been proven to bring.

But what about parents who are less likely to be aware of signing and it’s benefits and less likely to have the time and energy to implement the program. Unfortunately, many low-income families fall into this category.

What Claire has done is demonstrate--with an experimental study comparing EHS families whose Home Visitors encouraged them to sign with families whose Home Visitors did not—that Early Head Start parents can be effective teachers and that both parents and children do benefit from the experience. Her specific goal, unlike the emphasis in our own research on verbal language development, was to see how signing would affect the intricacies of parent-child interactions.

So what did she find? She found that moms in the signing group were more attuned to changes in their children’s emotions and more responsive to their distress cues. In addition, the signing moms also viewed their children more positively, a benefit that reduced perceived stress. All these positive changes are important because they are critical components of a healthy “attachment” relationship—which, in turn, is a predictor of positive emotional development long term.

I can’t say that we’re surprised by these findings. In fact, we would have been surprised if she hadn’t found them. But we are definitely pleased to have them in print for the world, including policy makers, to see!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

2-Month-Old Problem Solvers!

I’m taking a detour from talking about baby sign language to describe one of my favorite findings from the research literature on infant development.

Did you know that even 2-month-old babies are eager “problem solvers?” This posting provides two examples of how psychologists have determined this is so.

One way is illustrated in the photo above of my grandson, Nate, who quickly figured out that he could make the bells over his head ring by shaking his hand. He then did so purposefully and repeatedly.

Here’s another example. In a classic study, a Hungarian researcher named Hanus Papousek challenged 2-month-olds to figure out how to get a red light to come on. The babies learned the answer quickly. All it took was a slight turn of their head to the right. But that was far from the whole story.

The babies seemed thrilled at first, enthusiastically turning their heads to the right and watching the light appear. But it didn’t take long before the babies began to grow bored. At this point they slowed down, turning their heads only every now and then, as if checking to see if they were still in control of the light.

Having observed this periodic checking, Papousek surreptitiously changed the “rule” so that suddenly the babies had to turn their heads to the left to get the light to come on. As soon as one of those periodic checks revealed that a head turn to the right wouldn’t work anymore, the babies knuckled dlown and figured out the new solution to the problem. But once they had discovered that turning to the left was now the key, and once they had practiced it a number of times, they started to lose interest again.

At this point, Papousek challenged them once again, surreptitiously changing the rule again to require a head turn to the right followed by a head turn to the left. No problem! A bit of trial and error and the babies figured it out, repeated it a number of times, and then got bored again.

Here’s the point. What was actually motivating these babies to work so hard? It obviously wasn’t fascination with the red light itself or they wouldn’t have grown bored so easily. No, what kept these babies involved—even at the tender age of 2 month—was the challenge of figuring out how to get the light to come on! They truly were enjoying the experience of solving a problem and the feeling of having control over at least a tiny portion of their world!
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Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

Thank Goodness for Early Potty Training!

One of the things I’m most proud of is my development, with Dr. Susan Goodwyn, of the Baby Signs® Potty Training Program. The whole goal of the program is to (a) convince parents to potty training earlier than is typical today, and (b) to provide materials for both them and their toddlers to help make it happen. And, just recently I witnessed for myself exactly why training early is such a good idea. Here’s what happened.

It was 2 weeks ago that my husband and I accompanied my step-son, daughter-in-law, and twin grandchildren on their first ever camping trip. The twins, just a bit over 3 years old, were like whirling dervishes—running, jumping, and even somersaulting as they explored the tent, air-mattresses, and the great outdoors. Lay down for the usual afternoon nap? Are you kidding, Grandma?! Don’t throw the sand or the stones? Are you kidding, Grandpa?! Come eat food not cooked or served in the usual way. No way, Mom! Or more accurately, “Noooooooooooo!”

Don’t get me wrong: The twins are wonderful kids—but they are also typical 3-year-olds who have developed what psychologists call a “sense of self,” meaning that they are, for the first time, able to think of themselves as independent beings who can have their own thoughts and can express (loudly!!) their own opinions. This major advance typically begins around age 2 but is in full blossom by age 3—and stays that way until reason begins to reign around age 4 and 5. The achievement of a sense of self is a wonderful and necessary milestone, but it is also one that carries with it the inevitable consequence of tantrums, stubborn refusals, and the increasingly frequent use of the word “no.”

Back to the campsite: Despite all the feverish exploration, uncontrollable energy, and battles of will over many things, both twins went potty predictably and happily in their portable potty chairs time after time after time! What made this happy situation possible was the fact that the twins had already been potty trained for over 8 months. For them, using the potty was just a fact of life, not a novel skill to be learned—or, as is all too frequent with older toddlers, resisted.

And I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Mom and Dad, in describing difficulties their friends with older toddlers were having, said more than once what a nightmare it could have been had they waited. At least in this one important arena, the word “Nooooooo!” was not a problem!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

When Washing a Car is More than Just Getting it Clean

Suggest to a teenager that he or she should wash Mom’s car and you can just imagine the reply, with pursed lips, eye-rolling, and heavy-hearted harrumphing. Suggest the same to a toddler—as I did the other day while babysitting my twin grandchildren—and the result is excited compliance. The contrast is enough to make one wonder why something that is so clearly unwanted work at one age is such a delight at another. The former is too complex for a simple blog entry, so let’s focus on the latter.

The reason lies in the fact that (a) the human ability to imitate is deeply ingrained and (b) meeting challenges at any age brings a sense of well-being. Let’s address them in order. Even 1-day-old human babies are capable of imitating simple facial gestures they see Mom or Dad make—like sticking out one’s tongue or pursing one’s lips. This ability is astonishing given that babies this young have never even seen their own tongues or lips! How do they do it? Neuroscientists have discovered over the last decade that we are all born with a type of cell in the brain called a “mirror neuron,” a cell whose job it is to both register what we see others do and then mirror those actions. Voila! Imitation!

And what a handy tool imitation is. From the very earliest years, children learn tons and tons of important skills by engaging the ability to imitate---including how to feed themselves, use signs to communicate, learn words, sing songs, put on their own clothes, throw balls—and on and on and on.

What about “b,” the satisfaction of a job well-done. Again, this is something humans are born with. Even very young babies work hard to reach goals—whether it’s successfully getting spoon to mouth, communicating with signs or words, singing songs, getting dressed, or throwing a ball. In other words, the ability to imitate and the desire to meet a challenge work in tandem to help each of us develop the skills we need to survive in complex human culture.

This brings us back to why washing Mom’s car was so exciting to my twin toddler grandchildren, Nate and Olivia. Quite simply, they were reveling in the opportunity to imitate something they’d seen grown-ups do and in the fact that doing so provided them with a sense of being a bit more grown up themselves. They had a “job” to do and doing it was satisfying!

Now, if only we could get our teenagers to feel the same way…..

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, The Baby Signs® Program

A Story Illustrates an Important Advantage of Signing

One of my favorite personal Baby Signs® stories involves my son, Kai (who you see in the photo below with me way back in 1987 doing his sign for airplane--an indication of how long I've been involved with signing). We were in the mall; he was 12 months old and in his stroller as we passed by store after store. Suddenly, he turned around in his stroller, smiled, and did his sign for “crocodile” – clapping his palms together like the jaws of a crocodile. “You see a crocodile—in the mall?” I asked, looking around in vain for such a critter. I knew to trust him, though. He clearly was trying to tell me about something he saw. I let him out of his stroller, and he immediately toddled over to the window of the store we had just passed—a men’s store with racks of men’s shirts in the window. Where was the crocodile? You probably guessed it! The IZOD insignia on the shirts!

I’m telling this story to illustrate a point about why signing with babies speeds up language development.

Imagine yourself in my situation. Do you think I just calmly said “Oh yeah, that’s a crocodile,” plopped him back in his stroller, and went on my merry way? No! I was flabbergasted that he had seen those crocs from his stroller and thrilled that he wanted to tell me about them—so I excitedly flooded him with words like: “You’re right! Those are crocodiles! There are lots of crocodiles! They’re like the crocodile in your book! You are the smartest baby in the world!” (Probably not my exact words, but close enough.)

His use of the sign resulted in him hearing lots and lots of words that he otherwise would not have heard—and who picked the topic? He did! Think about it. We all pay more attention to things we are personally interested in, and that’s true for babies and toddlers, too. When we join them in attending to what they are focused on, chances are much greater that they will listen closely to what we’re saying—and learn! In fact, we know from research done at Emory University that this is true for verbal words even when signs are not involved: children are more likely to learn words they hear while the parent is talking about something the children have chosen.

The magic thing about signs is that it enables babies to pick the topic so much earlier than if they had to wait for words to come along. We shouldn’t be surprised, therefore, that signing gives babies such a lovely jumpstart in learning to understand words and to talk.

Happy Signing

(and don’t forget to visit us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis
and
Co-Founder, Baby Signs Program

Keeping Mom No. 1

I remember vividly when my daughter-in-law called me in tears, worried that her then 10-month-old twins would end up loving their child care provider more than they loved her. I assured her that this anxiety is typical of moms who have to have their children in child care, and I shared some tips with her. The basic one is the following:

Create fun routines that involve activities that are unlikely to be part of child care. Because they are only done at home, they will stick out in the child’s mind. Children find routines of any kind comforting and these home-only routines will become special times with mom and/or dad that your child can look forward to. Here are some possibilities:

Bath time. Almost all kids love to splash in the bath before bedtime. Instead of thinking of this as one more chore to get through, appreciate it as an opportunity to share a fun experience with your child with which child care can’t compete. Bath time also has the advantage of being a chance to relate to more than one child at a time.

Singing. Choose specific songs that only you sing to your child—maybe one for first thing in the morning, one for bedtime, and one for riding in the car. It’s not unusual for grown children to speak nostalgically about such songs and even repeat them with their own kids.

Dancing. I’ve never met a baby or toddler who didn’t like to be held in Mom’s or Dad’s arms and jiggled up, down, and around in time to a favorite CD song. This might be a great routine for when you reunite.

Watching a DVD together. Many child care providers avoid DVDs and yet, cuddling once a day with a child in front of an appropriate DVD can be an intimate and cozy experience (being sure to talk about what’s on the screen—and, whatever you do, not using DVDs in place of books!). For example, my daughter-in-law used the Baby Signs My Bedtime Signs DVD to cuddle and wind the twins down at night before book time, each one clutching his or her own Baby BeeBo.

(By the way, it took only one bad cold during which the twins stuck to her like glue to convince her she had nothing to worry about in the attachment domain!)

Have fun!
Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D. .
Co-Founder the Baby Signs Program and
Professor Emeritus, University of California

The iPad Generation? What’s a Parent to Do?

It was just a few years ago that all parents had to worry about was whether or not their young child was watching too much TV and/or too many DVDs. Now, however, fundamentally different media experiences have been added to the mix. I’m talking about the interactive platforms provided by smart phones (e.g., the iPhone) and tablets (e.g., the iPad). As the photo above of my twin grandchildren, Nathan and Olivia, indicates, the pros and cons of time with these platforms is an issue even in our family.

How prevalent are these items these days? A recent Wall Street Journal article, citing a survey from last year by a non-profit group called Common Sense Media, reported that 39% of 2-to-4-year-olds and 52% of 5-to-8-year-olds have used some form of touch screen platform. Given that the popularity of such devices seems to be growing by the proverbial leaps and bounds, I would bet those percentages are even higher now!

On the plus side, the educational games available as “Apps” are, for the most part, interactive—meaning that they enable even toddlers to make decisions and effect changes by simply touching the screen. This is very different from the primarily passive experiences that TV and DVDs typically provide. And the small amount of research that does exist suggests that well designed games do promote learning.

On the negative side--as anyone who’s tried to wrest an iPad out of the hands of a child can attest to—these devices could be called, as one parent described them to me, “crack for kids.” In other words, kids love themn and don’t want to stop playing with them. The concern is that time spent playing with them is time not spent romping around with other kids, building with legos, nurturing one’s imagination through pretend play, or having conversations with the big people who love them.

So what’s a parent to do? Until we have more research, my best advice is “all things in moderation.” What this means is setting consistent, logical limits by saying “No, enough is enough” and taking the device away. In fact, think of this as an opportunity to get some really helpful practice setting limits—a skill that, trust me, will continue to come in handy until your child leaves home. With short term or long term limits in place that your child can come to understand and anticipate, this will also be a valuable lesson for her as well.

Visit us on Facebook and tell us what you think? What have you tried with your kids that might work for others. This is definitely a discussion worth having!

Happy Signing (and don't forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs Program

and

Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

How to Make the Most of Book-Reading

In last week’s blog, I talked about how signing spurs language development by increasing a baby’s enjoyment of books. Part of the explanation that I gave for this positive relationship between books and language development involved something researchers call “Dialogic Reading” Quite simply, this term means engaging your child in a conversation about what’s on the page rather than just reading the text and moving on. What I want to do today is provide some specific tips for how to get such conversations going.

• Instead of only asking for labels (like “What’s that?”), ask questions that require some thought to answer (“Where do you think Goldilocks is running to?”) In general, good openers include “Why….?” “How….?” “Where…?” You’ll find you naturally expand on whatever answer your child provides, thus providing more words for your baby to ponder—and learn (e.g., “Too big? Yes, Goldilocks was too big. She was just too heavy for that little bitty chair.”).

• Ask about things that are more abstract, like feelings or predictions about the future. “How do you think Goldilocks felt when…?” “What do you think Goldilocks told her mommy when she got home?” Parents really underestimate children’s ability to think about such things. What’s more, helping your child identify a character’s feelings will indirectly help her identify her own.

• Ask questions that relate the book’s events to your child’s own life. “Have you ever seen a bear?” “What would you do if you woke up and saw three bears?” Like the rest of the human race, babies are more interested in things that have direct relevance to their own lives.

• Relax, laugh a lot, and “go with the flow.” Don’t worry if your child gives the wrong answer—or no answer at all! The point is to make talking fun. A child who genuinely enjoys such give and take will be motivated to get better at participating. A child who doesn’t, who feels “interrogated” and put on the spot, will emotionally withdraw and see book-reading as aversive. In other words, “Dialogic Reading” is not—I repeat—is not an IQ test! It’s just a simple way to enrich the experience of cuddling up with Mom or Dad and a good book.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program

and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

How Long From Sign to Word? It all depends….

A question I often get from parents—and from my professional colleagues interested in language development in general as well as baby sign language in particular—is how soon after a baby learns a sign will he or she start trying to say the word? The answer, as usual, is that it all depends. If the sign is substituting for a relatively easy word like ‘ball” or “more,” the word may appear quickly. On the other hand, if the word is long and complicated, like “elephant” or “butterfly,” the sign is likely to stick around longer.

But it also depends on a baby’s choice of strategy. Some children use signs to free them up to work on learning words for other things. These babies tend to hold on to their signs for quite a while, using them to increase the total number of things they can talk about. Other babies seem to use signs to speed up learning the word that a specific sign stands for. In these cases, the word appears relatively quickly. The logic lies in the fact that the more frequently a baby uses a specific sign, the more often adults respond by saying that specific word, thereby providing more opportunities for the child to learn it.

And, of course, some babies use both strategies. All this variety is what makes studying babies so fascinating! Can you figure out what your baby is doing?

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Let’s Hear it for Being Shy!

A wonderful new book has come out that I think everyone, parents and non-parents alike, should read. It’s called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. As the title suggests, the author is on a crusade to extol the virtues of a personality tendency our society too often thinks of as a disability—something to be ‘fixed.”

When I read the book myself, I immediately saw the connection to a section in my book (with Dr. Susan Goodwyn) called Baby Hearts from which I took an excerpt to use for this blog a full year ago. Obviously, the points are important and, I believe, worth repeating. So, here you are:

Do you have a “shy” child? I have two! Both my son and daughter come by their shyness honestly because neither one of their parents could be called extroverted! In fact, learning to overcome my inherently introverted personality in order to stand up in front of large classes of undergraduates required years of patience and practice.

Oh dear! Even in this opening paragraph I’ve fallen victim to a reaction to shyness typical of Western culture. Because Western cultures tend to value assertiveness and sociability, parents of shy children often worry that their child is at a disadvantage. If you find yourself in this category, it may help you deal with your anxiety to realize that being shy usually comes with some very nice side benefits. In fact, the human race probably wouldn’t still be here were it not for the talents that shy people tend to development. Here are some examples:

Shy Children Tend to be Keen Observers: Because they are so concerned about what other people think about them, shy children work harder than most children at being able to read subtle emotional cues in other people’s behavior and expressions. This is a skill that serves them well in any interactions they have.

Shy Children Tend to be Natural Empathizers: Because they are keen observers and know all too well what it is like to suffer, shy children often develop greater empathy for others than their comparably aged peers.

Shy Children Tend to be Good Imaginers: Because they spend more time on their own, shy children often create inner worlds of great richness. And having a vivid and creative imagination can be enormously useful, helping them excel in many fields.

Shy Children Tend to be Loyal Friends: Because they sometimes have trouble making friends, once they have one, shy children are incredibly loyal. They understand how precious a good friend truly is and go to great lengths to be the very best friend they can be.

So, the next time you begin to worry about your “shy” child, remember that being shy isn’t the huge disadvantage that it’s sometimes made out to be. There are, in fact, many silver linings to be treasured!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

How Would You Feel If. . . .

Once again, I’m detouring from my usual discussion of signing with babies to some parenting advice drawn from my book with Dr. Susan Goodwyn entitled Baby Hearts: A Guide to Giving Your Child an Emotional Head Start.

“I’m so disappointed in you! Go to your room and think about what you did!”

These two sentences are hardly rare. Most parents probably have uttered them at one time or another. However, just because they are typical doesn’t mean they are a good idea! In addition to implying that love will be withdrawn, these messages leave out at least two very important pieces of information: (1) why what the child did wasn’t a good idea, and (2) what should have been done instead. The words succeed in making the child feel bad, but they don’t teach her how to be better in the future.

How would you feel if the same message was addressed to you? Suppose you had just gotten off the phone with a very disagreeable customer whose outrageous accusations caused your own temper to flare. Now suppose your boss, overhearing your end of the conversation, steps into your office and says, “I’m so disappointed in you. Go home and think about what you did.”

Can you see how unhelpful that is? You probably already know that you didn’t handle the situation well; what you don’t know is how you should have handled it: Called on your boss to take the call? Used some stock phrases to placate the customer? Claimed the call was breaking up and disconnected? Thanks to your boss’ choice of words, you still don’t know and may well find yourself in the same situation tomorrow. And to make matters words, you now feel humiliated as well as angry.

Well, guess what? Young children have the same reaction but with even less ability to think about alternative behaviors even if they wanted to! They need alternatives explained calmly and clearly. Keep this in mind the next time you are tempted to send this message—to anyone.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Working Parents and Signing

Working parents sometimes ask me whether they can take advantage of the Baby Signs® Program because they are away from their baby for a good part of the day. The answer is a resounding “Yes!”

Even children in full-time care spend significantly more time with their parents than with outsiders. Who is it, after all, who provides the evening meal and bath, cuddles to read a bedtime book, responds to middle-of-the-night calls for help, and spends weekends dealing with every kind of need?

In fact, signing is a real gift to working parents because it makes the time you do spend together even more peaceful and satisfying. For example, signs work great during those hectic early-morning dressing and eating routines and can also be particularly helpful at the end of the day to reduce feelings of frustration that can arise so easily when everyone is tired.

Speaking of being tired, don’t forget that the sign for “sleep/bed” can be a huge help by enabling babies to actually let parents know that they are tired and ready for sleep. Being able to communicate such an important message is a real boon to both parent and child because everyone avoids the chaos that often ensues when a child moved into the overtired realm.

In short, by clarifying your baby’s needs, signs help mealtime, bath time, and bedtime routines, as well as middle-of-the-night encounters, go more smoothly. They help you reconnect and share your experiences after a long day apart and help turn typically stressful times into warm and precious moments. Whether you’re a working parent or not, signs make day-to-day life a lot more fun for everyone.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Signing: A Priceless Window into the Infant Mind

Much to my delight, the good news about baby sign language has spread far and wide—especially in contrast to how few people knew anything about it when Dr. Susan Goodwyn and I published our first research article about babies and signing in 1985.

I do find, however, that many parents and child care providers focus almost exclusively on the signs around mealtime—like EAT, DRINK, MILK, MORE, ALL DONE. What a shame! Yes, babies want and need to communicate these things, but many of them are even more interested in communicating about the exciting things they see in the world around them.

Babies want to tell those they love that they see a doggie, a bird, a butterfly, or a truck. They want to request to read a book, blow bubbles, or go outside. Providing babies with signs for these things, as we do in the Baby Signs® Program, gives them a chance to share their worlds with adults—and gives adults an amazing window into the infant mind.

Here’s a story that illustrates just how signing helps babies tell us what’s on their minds. It’s a story that came to us via email from the Netherlands many years ago and is still one of our favorites:

When a man with dreadlocks sat down across from fourteen-month-old Sam and his mother on the bus, Sam turned to her an signed HAT. “Oh honey, I know it looks like a hat, but it’s really hair,” whispered his mother. Sam turned back to the man, stared intently, and very emphatically repeated the HAT sign. Catching on to the situation, the young man invited Sam to feel his dreadlocks for himself. No sooner had Sam’s fingers touched the man’s hair than Sam, his eyes wide with surprise, made the HAIR sign. The message was as clear as if he had spoken the words: “It is hair!”

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

From Sworn Enemies to Bosom Buddies

I’m turning this week from sign language with babies to information drawn from my book with Dr. Susan Goodwyn entitled Baby Hearts: A Guide to Giving Your Child an Emotional Head Start.

It’s not uncommon to hear that violence in the world is inevitable because aggression is built into the human species—that it’s “instinctual”—and, therefore, nothing can be done to change it. A very clever study done way back in 1930 by Z. Y. Kuo provides the perfect retort—and hope for the future.

If there’s one behavior that most of us would agree is instinctual, it’s the tendency for cats to stalk and kill rats. Or is it? Kuo decided to find out. First, he took litters of newborn kittens away from their natural mothers. One-third of these he gave to tried-and-true rat-killing moms to raise. Another third he raised by themselves. And the final third he raised with rats! Then, when the kittens were old enough, he tested to see if they would stalk and kill rats in a natural situation. Here’s what he found.

• The kittens raised with rat-killing moms learned from them, 85 % becoming enthusiastic rat-killers.
• The kittens raised alone split about evenly, with 45% easily persuaded to kill rats.
• But of the kittens raised with rats, only 17% ever killed a rat in all his tests!

What’s the point of all this? Here it is, and it’s important. Even something as arguably instinctual as rat-killing can be changed given the right life history. Create an environment early in life that nurtures love, trust, and familiarity rather than violence and hate, and the result is much more peace and harmony.

So, take Kuo’s results as evidence that the lessons you teach your children about compassion and tolerance are both likely to work and one of the only ways we have to chip away at the violence we see around us.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Some “Nos” are Better than Others

This week I’m taking a break from talking about signing with babies to discuss another issue that faces every parent of a toddler: Noncompliance with requests. We all know there are nice ways and not so nice ways to say “no.” Well, how we as parents say it to our children turns out to have an important influence on how children learn to say it too.

Let’s look first at children’s behavior. Turns out there are individual differences in how toddlers express their unwillingness to cooperate. The strategies fall into two different categories, unskilled and skilled.

• Unskilled: The toddler gives no reason for noncompliance. He or she may simply ignore the parent’s request, angrily defy it (“No!”), or quietly refuse (“No, I play more.”)

• Skilled: The toddler tries to find some “wiggle room” in the parent’s request through negotiations of some kind. In this case, he or she may try for a compromise (“Just one more?”) or attempt to justify noncompliance (“Not done yet.”)

How do toddlers come to favor one type of strategy over another? As in many other domains of development, they model themselves after what they experience their parents doing. Parents who supply explanations, suggest compromises, and consider the child’s feelings when asking for cooperation tend to have children who favor the skilled strategies—even if they choose not to comply.

And why is it important which strategy—skilled or unskilled—a toddler favors? Not only do the unskilled strategies make for more tension between parent and child, but research shows that children who tend toward unskilled strategies as toddlers continue to do so at age five—thereby running the risk of permanent damage to the parent-child relationship.

Of course, all parents would prefer that their young children always comply with their requests. That’s hardly realistic, however. What this research suggest is that even when toddlers don’t comply, there well maybe something in the “how” of their behavior that is worthy of appreciation.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

A Simple Challenge Saves a Rainy Day

It's a very stormy Monday out here in "sunny" northern California, a situation that put me in mind of a tip to share with housebound families. A month or so ago I wrote about how to provide a new landscape for your crawling baby by putting pillows from the sofa or chairs on the floor. Today I want build on that theme with a tip for toddlers. As is true with crawling, when children first begin to walk, they take great pleasure in the act itself. Rather than always moving to get a toy or reach a door, for the newly walking toddler the simple process of getting from here to there is often enough.

The truth of this observation was brought home to me one rainy day when I was babysitting my 18-month-old twin grandchildren, Nate and Olivia. I was just about out of ideas for entertaining them when I happened to spy a folded up card table in the laundry room. Hmmm…what could I do with that? At first I set it up and draped a sheet over it hoping they would be intrigued by a new “cave” to hide in. No luck. For some reason they were scared to go in. (This idea worked great a few months later.)

Feeling disappointed, I collapsed the card table and just left it (top up) on the floor as I went to let the dog out. When I turned back around, much to my delight, I found Nate and Olivia giggling as they stepped up the 1.5 inches to the top of the table, moved around the top a bit, and then gingerly stepped down again! Now, that might not seem all that exciting to you and me, but to a newly walking child, the challenge of stepping up and down this slight rise without losing one’s balance was a source of great satisfaction—and fun. Believe it or not, that card table kept them occupied for nearly 30 minutes!

Sometimes the simplest pleasures give the greatest joy.

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis

Another Cute Signing Story

Over the past 18 months I’ve frequently shared stories about little Julia, baby daughter of Baby Signs® staff member, Bonita. Julia is now 20 months old and her verbal language is bursting out at an amazing rate. But that doesn’t mean she’s given up signing. In fact, her sign vocabulary also continues to grow, now topping 200, spurred on by the fact that her parents both sign fluently in order to communicate with deaf grandparents.

Everyone at Baby Signs, Inc. is delighted that Julia is continuing to sign because she is an unending source of marvelous signing stories. Here’s the latest one.

A month or so ago, Julia and Bonita traveled from California to Virginia to attend a family event. As they were waiting for a flight in the gate area of the airport, a mom strolled up with her own small baby tucked into a front pack so that mom and baby were chest to chest. Julia was clearly fascinated and began looking intently at the pair with a quizzical expression on her face. Exactly why she was puzzled became clear when she began to sign…TURTLE! Yes, as the baby stretched its head up out of the pack and then down again, it did indeed resemble a turtle pulling its head in and out of its shell!

Because of the sign, Bonita knew exactly what Julia was thinking and was able to say, “Yes, you’re right! It does look like a turtle!” Without the sign, Julia would have had no way to let her mom know what she was thinking—and I wouldn’t have had such a cute story to share!

Happy Signing (and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook)!

Linda

Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, the Baby Signs® Program
and
Professor Emeritus, UC Davis