The Baby Signs® Program: An Intervention Before Parents Even Know There is a Need

Over the years Dr. Susan Goodwyn, co-founder with me of the Baby Signs® Program, and I have received emails from Baby Signs® Instructors, from parents, and even from our academic colleagues, all commenting on the potential benefits not just of signing, but specifically of the Baby Signs® Program, for autistic children and urging us to take a closer look. Given the severe problems so many autistic children have with verbal language, we believed they were right, but it was the following email in particular from a Baby Signs® Instructor that caused us to really sit up and take notice. Here’s what she told us:

“I got a call from someone who teaches autistic children. She thanked me for teaching the Baby Signs® Program and shared that she uses signs with the older kids she works with and it really helps them. She went on to say that our teaching signs to parents of babies is a wonderful thing for autistic children because parents often do not get a diagnosis until they are older, so they are getting some intervention before they even know there is a problem.”

What startled us into action was the insight that by teaching young babies to sign, we are providing parents of autistic children “…some intervention before they even know there is a problem.” With this email as the inspiration, we’ve put together a list of research based findings about autism and reasons why we believe the Baby Signs® Program (BSP), including our DVD-based potty training program, holds the promise of being especially beneficial to families with autistic children, both before and after they are diagnosed.

• FINDING: A teaching method in which sign and word are paired together is especially valuable because it provides information that will be needed by autistic children who turn out to be capable of moving on to verbal communication.
BSP: Our program instructs adults to always pair the word with the sign when modeling for children with the goal of fostering verbal language. What’s more, our federally-funded research with non-special-needs children indicates it works.

• FINDING: Research indicates that autistic children do learn important things from video presentations; in fact, some research even suggests they learn more easily from video than from live demonstrations.
BSP: Our program offers a wide variety of extremely high-quality DVDs designed to directly teach important signs while they entertain. Children simply LOVE these DVDs.

• FINDING: Autistic children benefit from repetition and routines.
BSP: Because repetition is the key to success with all young children, our DVDs provide lots of repetition of the signs by real babies and our animated DiaperDoodle characters. The fact that children enjoy them so much that they ask to watch them over and over is an added plus.

• FINDING: Autistic children can be a particular challenge to potty train because they can’t communicate effectively and often aren’t motivated to please their parents or respond to social reinforcement.
BSP: Our potty training DVD is designed specifically to teach the potty routine (which appeals to autistic kids) and 5 potty-time signs (which provides necessary communication) through lots of repetition and modeling by the DiaperDoodles, our animated characters.

• FINDING: When they first hear about signing with children, many adults are intimidated and fear that it will take too much learning on their part.
BSP: Baby Signs® resources and classes make learning easy and fun for parents, teachers, and child care professionals.

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

Making Letter Learning Fun

Today I’m taking a break from talking about baby sign language to provide a simple tip to support the earliest steps in learning to read. Here’s a fun, creative way to help your child begin to recognize the various curves and contours that distinguish the letters of the alphabet from one another. (By the way, this idea comes from my book, with Dr. Susan Goodwyn, called Baby Minds

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Simply start with an uppercase letter. Draw the letter, for example, an A, on a piece of paper, and say something like the following: “Here’s an A. What do you think we could make out of an A?” Be creative and transform the letter into a silly picture—perhaps of a clown as in the drawing included here. Draw it again and transform it into stick-figure person or house. Ask your child for other suggestions.

Begin with about three letters, and play the game for a couple of weeks with only these letters. You can compose many different drawings with each individual letter. Then begin to add a new letter to the familiar set. This is a great game to play while waiting in a restaurant for your food to be served because there will always be lots of napkins or place mats at your disposal.

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

Crafty Ways to Sneak in Math Principles

Today, I'm taking a detour from baby sign language to share some fun information from the book I co-authored with Dr. Susan Goodwyn, Baby Minds.

Given the choice, almost all of us, no matter our age, would choose to play a game or bake cookies or fly a paper airplane rather than sit down in front of a teacher for a formal lesson in math basics. Fortunately, savvy parents can take advantage of these more enjoyable activities—and others—to help their young children start appreciating the principles behind numbers, shapes, and even fractions. Here are some examples:

• Board Games: Old favorites like “Chutes & Ladders” and “Candyland” require children to recognize the number when they spin the pointer and then to count off squares. In doing so, they practice the sequence of number names and get a concrete lesson in the quantity that each number represents. The added benefit is that the child is highly motivated to pay attention, not only to the number squares she moves but also to any mistakes her partner might make. As a result, a single game of Chutes & Ladders can yield a total of 30 or more lessons in number recognition and counting—without your child ever suspecting you had an ulterior motive!

• Card Games: Simple games like “Go Fish” can introduce young children to numbers. Even if they don’t know the number names yet, they can hold up a card that represents what they want (“Do you have any of these?”) and the other player can name it (“Oh, you want to know if I have any 5s.”). “Go Fish” also requires kids to compare cards in their hand in order to put sets down on the table. (Tip: For very young children, limit the deck to cards 1 through 5, gradually increasing the number as they get older.)

• Cooking: Making cookies has the potential to expose kids to lots of important math basics. For example, measuring teaches “more” vs. “less” and fractions. Sorting the cookies into equal numbers to “share” teaches equivalence. Baking teaches about time.

• Paper Folding Activities: Start appreciating the mathematical nature of traditional activities like wrapping presents, making paper airplanes, and cutting snowflakes from folded paper. In each case, your child is being challenged to visualize how a flat piece of paper relates to its folded version.

• Sewing: Simple sewing project (using glue instead of needles and thread) require spatial skill. Pieces of cloth must be measured, cut, and put together correctly. In fact, there’s nothing like discovering that a seam is on the outside instead of the inside to remind you how important it is to think through spatial relationships carefully. For a first project, try the following: Take two equal-sized pieces of cloth, help your child glue them together on 3 sides, fill this “envelope” with stuffing, and glue up the final side. Result? Not only a handmade pillow of which she can be proud, aut also an early lesson in area versus volume!

So, pull out those board games, mixing bowls, and pieces of paper and start sneaking in math knowledge in ways that are fun for everyone!

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