Trying to Teach Jameson and Ourselves Baby Sign Language.

Ever since Bea was pregnant we thought about teaching Jameson baby sign language to help us better understand what he wants sometimes. And in the process, we can learn a little sign language as well, cause you never know when you may need it. For those of you that are reading this, and thinking what the heck is baby sign language, it’s simple words and signs for everyday things he wants and needs. And let me tell you it has been a learning experience for us all.

So before we started Bea found this awesome lady by the name of Mary of Instagram. You can see her Instagram page here and find her website here. After browsing through her post Bea found the sign for eating, milk, and more, and those are the signs we started with first, and the ones we use the most. But along with the signing, we also say the words in German, so eat is essenn, milk is milch, and more is mehr. This is also helping me a little with my German since I should be speaking it already.

It took a while, but Jameson does now respond to the signs and he sometimes tries to sign the words himself. Whenever we now ask Jameson if he wants to eat milk he will smile really wide, take his thumb/hands out of his mouth, and will open up wide. Waiting for that food. And if we ask if he wants to eat more, his response is usually some crying, not really sure why, but at least we can understand that.

Now if you want to teach your baby these signs I really suggest giving Mary a follow and make sure you take your time. They will not pick it up right away, but with some patients, your baby can pick the sign language up as well. And as a bonus, there has been some research done that shows that babies that use sign language usually will not only start talking earlier, but they can also have a larger vocabulary. Now, this research hasn’t been done long term, so there is some back and forth with it. But in my opinion, I don’t see how it could hurt. If you want to do some of your own research I suggest starting with this article from Parenting Science.