Includes heart warming signing experiences of mums from around the world Diana Siepmann 12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
Mar 28, 2016
Includes heart warming signing
experiences of mums from
around the world
Diana Siepmann
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign
with Your Hearing Child
A big thank you to all mums
who have contributed their wonderful stories to this book.
It is these stories and the feedback I receive from signing mums that keep
fuelling my passion.
Thank you also to Siobhán McGonigle for her contribution to the content, to
Annick Cornu for the wonderful photography and the company Schleich for
the contribution of the animal pictures.
Last but not least thank you
to everyone who supported me with the creation of this book: my husband,
Alison Marks of Six Figure Home Office and my GID class mates with
Luci Gabel in particular.
Acknowledgements
Introduction _____________________________________ 7
12 Good Reasons to Sign with My Baby ______________ 11
Heart Warming Signing Experiences _________________ 19
It’s all about milk _________________________________ 20
All I want is eat ___________________________________ 22
I’m soooo sleepy - I need my bed _____________________ 26
Old Mac Donald had a farm _________________________ 28
The incy wincy spider ______________________________ 32
Discovering shapes ________________________________ 34
I’m all done ______________________________________ 34
Star lights on the Christmas tree _____________________ 35
I need the potty __________________________________ 35
Ball, book, music __________________________________ 36
Train ride ________________________________________ 36
Too much noise to hear your own voice _______________ 37
Welcome to the world little sister ____________________ 38
Signing when speaking is not a good option ____________ 39
Meet Diana ____________________________________ 40
What’s next ____________________________________ 42
Content
Tristan signing ‘milk’
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Imagine …
... your 9-month old daughter quietly asking for her morning milk - no crying, no guessing and a happy face when you come back with the right thing.
... your 12-month old son telling you that he wants to eat, letting you know that he wants more and finally that he has had enough and wants to get down from his chair - no whining, no food on the floor and a fun mealtime experience for both of you.
... your 13-month old daughter telling you about all the exciting things
she sees or hears on your walk: dogs, airplanes, bees, butterflies, flow-
ers and balls - a very big smile on her face because she knows you un-
derstand.
Introduction
Page 8
© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
You are a mum of a baby or toddler and often find yourself wishing that your child could tell you what s/he is thinking?
It’s possible! I can give you the tools so that you can teach your baby to clearly communicate what s/he wants, needs and is interested in. This is not about interpreting different cries or coos but about clear and effective com-munication so that you know what’s going on in your baby’s head. This will help you to become a more confident, relaxed and fun mum - in short you will ROCK for your baby!
Do the following scenarios speak to you?
Your baby is crying (you have checked the most obvious reasons twice already but she is still crying) you feel helpless, upset or frustrated, sometimes you even feel frantic and like a bad mother because you can-not make your daughter feel better
Your toddler throws a temper tantrum and whatever you do or say just seems to make him more angry; his non-verbal anger and the fact that you can’t get through to him makes you feel overwhelmed, frustrated and stressed. When it’s over you feel disappointed or frustrated with yourself because the last time you promised yourself to stay calm when it happens again
Your daughter is whining about something and you are finding yourself in yet another guessing game trying to figure out what she might want or why she is not happy
You wish your daughter could simply tell you when she is hungry, tired, hurt herself or needs a nappy change
You wish your son could share his thoughts, tell you what he likes and what he doesn’t like, what upsets him and what makes him angry, what makes him laugh and what scares him
Introduction
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You wish you had a way to read your baby’s mind not only to avoid frus-tration, stress and guessing games but also to be able to build a strong relationship because you understand
I am a mama of two and have found the time before clear communication was possible very challenging; I remember feeling helpless and overwhelmed many times when my son was a baby and I’m experiencing it again with my daughter who is four months as I’m writing this. Read more about my story on the back cover.
Luckily I know that there is light at the end of the tunnel because babies CAN communicate their thoughts from a very early age. How do we know this? It’s simple: babies of deaf parents have been doing it for decades by speaking with their hands. What they can do, any baby can do.
Studies show that babies start having a con-
scious understanding of language from
about six months and babies of deaf parents
demonstrate that they can communicate
basic wants and needs from about nine
months. Babies of hearing parents can do
this too, they are able to construct language
in their head but they generally have no
means to express themselves as the complex
musculature in the mouth and the control
over the vocal cords need much longer to
develop than the muscles in the hands.
Introduction
Babies can communicate basic wants and needs from about
nine months of age
Tristan signing ‘sleep’
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When parents ask me ‘Why would we sign with our (hearing) baby?’ My
shortest answer is ‘Signing is the shortest way to clearly understanding your
baby’s wants needs and interests and therefore to more confident, relaxed
and fun parenting. It’s easy, doesn’t take much time and it’s lots of fun as
well. So why would you not sign with your baby?’.
It’s this simple, really! The thing is that because signing with babies has had
such amazing anecdotal results, some 30 years of research have gone into it
as well. Most mums get excited about signing with their baby when they hear
the short answer (so did I when I first got into it). The more I got into it, the
more fascinated I became and the more research I did on the subject myself.
I was absolutely delighted to find out there are plenty of other good reasons
Introduction
Signing with your baby helps you to be more confident and relaxed about your parenting
Tristan signing ...
... ‘read’... ... ‘book’... ... ‘again’
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to sign with my baby than just the 4 most obvious, which for me are the fol-
lowing:
Signing ...
1. enables your baby to communicate wants, needs and interests long
before s/he can speak
2. lowers frustration for you and your child, because your baby can com-
municate in a way you can understand
3. gives you an insight into your child’s thoughts, allowing you to form a
stronger bond from an earlier age
4. helps you to be more confident and relaxed about your parenting
Now let’s look at the other eight good reasons to sign with your baby (there
are more but I found these to be the most compelling ones). For those of you
who (like me) like to get into the research behind the following benefits of
signing, I have included a summary of the research results following the list. If
you are more interested in what other mums say about signing jump right
over to page 19.
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
Through signing with your baby you are giving an invaluable gift to your
child
Page 12
© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Eight more good reasons to
sign with your baby
5. faster vocabulary acquisition and
better recall
6. enhanced literacy
7. more interest in learning
8. higher IQ scores
9. increases self-esteem
10. enhances the ability to express
feelings at a very early age
11. benefits linked to exposure to a
second language
(check out the details on this one,
it tidies up with the myths
attached to multilingualism)
12. can be of help to children in bilin-
gual/multilingual families
Isn’t this an amazing list of what you
can give to your child as a by-product
of signing? Just think about how
much easier your child might have it
at school as a result. I have not found
any research results back this up,
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
At the age of 18 months my son, Tris-
tan, had a signing vocabulary of over
100 and his spoken vocabulary fol-
lowed suit with about 70 words (a
mixture of German and Dutch). He
soon also developed an impressive
English vocabulary. The average vo-
cabulary of a two year old is 50
words. Tristan was speaking in full
sentences in his primary two lan-
guages when he was two years old.
He knew the alphabet when he was
2.5 years old and was able to sing the
ABC song in English.
Tristan was fascinated with numbers
and was able to count to 10 in Ger-
man, Dutch and English before he
turned three. He started reading the
digital clock and before he was three
he knew that on weekends he had to
stay in his bed until the number 8 was
the first number on the display.
When I slowly give him the numbers
of my parents phone number, he
would dial it by himself. Before he
turned four he knew more than half
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however, I have witnessed my son’s
development which in many areas I
attribute to signing with him.
As promised, here are the details on
the research backing up the men-
tioned benefits:
Faster vocabulary acquisi-
tion and better recall
Children using signs typically have a
larger vocabulary earlier than chil-
dren that only use spoken language,
and maintain such a lead. Signing
also provides an additional tool to
help children remember words and
their meanings.
The table below is based on research
by Dr Marilyn Daniels, professor of
communication arts and sciences at
Pennsylvania State University and
compares vocabulary acquisition in
children using signs and those only
using spoken language:
of their number by heart.
Since he was about 18 months he
enjoyed teaching other people, es-
pecially his granny, how to sign.
What and experience for a toddler to
be able to teach something to a
grown-up. You bet that that really
boost his self-esteem.
Average age
Children using signs Children using only spoken
language
First recognisable sign/word
8.5 months 12 months
Ten-sign/word vocabulary
13 months 15 months
Combining signs/words
17 months 21 months
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
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And what’s more, this type of lead is
typically maintained.
One of Daniels’ studies looked at two
groups of children in their pre-
kindergarten year; one group was
exposed to signing, the other group
not. She found that children who
were signed to developed vocabulary
faster than the children who were
not signed to. Neither group was ex-
posed to singing in their first year of
kindergarten, yet a follow-up study
showed that the children from the
first group had maintained their vo-
cabulary lead (Daniels, 1996).
Daniels explains this by the fact that
signing enhances brain development,
thereby giving a head start to chil-
dren who are exposed to signing. In
her book Dancing with Words: Sign-
ing for Hearing Children's Literacy
(Bergin & Garvey 2001), she states,
that 'babies eyes develop very early
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
Tristan signing ...
… ‘thank you
… ‘please’ and ...
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and when information is taken in
with the eyes the right brain is being
used. All languages are stored in the
left brain, so when babies are ex-
posed to sign and speech, both the
right and left brain are being used.'
She goes on to point out how '… this
is a wonderful advantage because
you are using both hemispheres of
the brain, building more synapses
(junction of two nerve cells) in the
brain.’
Better recall can be attributed to the
fact that each language a person
learns is stored in a different
‘memory store’ in the left hemi-
sphere of the brain. Even at a very
early age, sign language will have a
separate memory store to spoken
language, essentially giving a child
two ‘databases’ to draw from. This
allows a child to, for example, recall
the sign that will support the spoken
word or provide a clue to the mean-
ing of the spoken word, or find the
manual alphabetic letter that will
remind them of how to spell a word.
Daniels also pointed out that the
physical movement required to sign
also seems to trigger a response in
the left hemisphere of the brain and
help to recall words.
Other studies, such as those by Drs
Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn
from the University of Davis in Cali-
fornia showed that babies who were
signed to understood more words
and had larger vocabularies than non
-signing babies (Moore et al, 2001).
Enhanced literacy
Signing develops skills that will form
a solid base for learning to read and
write.
thank you’
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
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Signing the alphabet enables children
to spell words with their fingers (also
called finger spelling). Finger spelling
helps children recognise letter shapes
and sounds. Being able to recognise
letter shapes and letter sounds, to-
gether with understanding the mean-
ing of the words formed by the
letters, is the basis for reading.
Furthermore, the hand movements
needed for sign language give young
children a unique opportunity to
practice moving individual fingers,
bringing fingers into exact positions
and practicing wrist movement. All of
this can have a positive impact on
writing skills when the child is older,
as fine motor skills are important for
holding a pencil and forming letters*.
More interest in learning
A child’s interest in learning can
typically be enhanced by the use of
sign language*. As children enjoy
learning and using sign language, a
teacher using sign language in the
classroom will automatically get
more attention, as the children are
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
‘eat’ ’more’
‘cracker’
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obliged to focus on the teacher so as
not to miss what is going on.
Higher IQ scores
Drs Linda Acredolo and Susan
Goodwyn followed up on their origi-
nal research into vocabulary acquisi-
tion by comparing the IQs of children
who were exposed to signing as ba-
bies and those who were not. In IQ
tests carried out on both groups at
the age eight, the first group had an
average IQ of 114, compared to only
102 for children who were not ex-
posed to signing (Acredolo and
Goodwyn, 2000).
Increased self-esteem
Children generally enjoy learning
how to sign. Because it gives them a
skill that not everyone has, they have
the feeling that they can do some-
thing special. Children also enjoy
sharing their knowledge and teaching
siblings, parents and friends. Being
able to teach signs to someone else is
a boost to their self esteem*.
Enhanced ability to express
feelings at a very early age
Most of the signs for emotions are
iconic (e.g. sad, angry, scared, shy,
brave), which helps children under-
stand and express them.
Being able to express feelings is criti-
cal to a child’s emotional develop-
ment. Experience with signing chil-
dren shows that in moments of dis-
tress, a child more often chooses the
sign rather than the spoken word to
express what is going on, even if they
can already speak*. This may be be-
cause signing feels ‘heartfelt’ and
expressive, and in sensitive situa-
tions, might seem more private as it
can be done discreetly and cannot be
overheard.
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
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Benefits linked to exposure
to a second language
Learning a second language at any
age is an enriching experience, but
early exposure gives children the
widest possible set of advantages
and opportunities.
In an article published in Children in
Scotland magazine, Antonella Sorace,
Professor of Developmental Linguis-
tics at the University of Edinburgh,
gave an insight into some of the ben-
efits of learning a second language at
an early age. She said that bilingual
children seem to:
be better at selectively paying
attention, at inhibiting irrelevant in-
formation, and at switching between
alternative solutions to a problem;
be able to multi-task more easily;
have a higher awareness of lan-
guage and a greater ability to think
and talk about it;
develop reading skills earlier than
monolingual children; and
have an enhanced ‘awareness of the
other’, i.e. an earlier understanding
of the fact that other people may
have beliefs, desires and intentions
different from their own.
Help to children in bilingual
families
Sign language can effectively build a
bridge between the various spoken
languages used in the family. For ex-
ample, when both parents use stand-
ard signs consistently, the child can
understand via the gesture even if
he/she doesn’t yet know the spoken
word in that language.
* Based on research conducted by Mari-
lyn Daniels, professor of communication
arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State
University - www.marilyndaniels.com
12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child
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Heart Warming Signing Experiences
Tristan signing ‘daddy’
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Diana,
mum of
Tristan
(9 months)
German
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
When Tristan was still a baby, the weekend morning
routine was as follows: After waking up in his cot, we
would let him play in our bed. After a while of playing
happily, Tristan would start crying for his milk. One
Sunday morning, he started crying as so many other
mornings but then he stopped and looked at me, I could
almost see him thinking ‘hang on a minute, there was
something else I can do’ and he started signing ‘milk’
first with one hand and then very excitedly with both
hands. My husband and I looked at him just as excited
and I said, ‘you want your milk, sweetheart. I’ll get you
your milk, I’ll be back in a moment’. Even when I was in
the kitchen preparing his milk, I did not hear him cry.
When I came back with the milk, Tristan had a great big
smile in his face. I’ll never forget this moment: having
my 9 month old son tell me that that he wants his milk
and then seeing the proud smile in his face when I gave
him what he asked for.
Nia, mum of
Ari
(11 months)
American
Ari did his first sign today: 'milk' . He did it once this morn-
ing as we woke up, again before his nap and again this
evening SEVERAL times in a row before bed. My husband
was there to witness the last time. He was very impressed
and proud and now he really wants to learn more about
the whole process. We're all very excited and curious to
see how he catches onto more signs.
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It’s all
about milk …. … and the wonderful
feeling to understand
Cristin,
mum of
Annalissa
(9 months)
American
I breastfed my daughter, Annalissa, and she started
signing for milk when she was 9 months old. It was
wonderful to see her communicating like that! A few
weeks later, she started signing 'all done' when she had
enough milk. Since I was breastfeeding her, it felt like
she was all 'all done' with me. So, I suggested to her to
use the sign for 'thank you' after 'all done'. That was
better! How precious to have signs to communicate with
her -- and to teach her gratitude so early!
Tristan signing ‘milk’
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
Page 22
© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
All I
want ...
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
When Tristan was a baby he loved crackers. He
loved them so much that he could master an
approximation of the sign for ‘cracker’ and say
the word at 12 months. One day, he desper-
ately wanted to get up onto the sofa, signing
and saying ‘up’ and getting frustrated about
the fact that no one helped him up quickly
enough. Finally on the sofa, he pointed to a
plate with crackers on the coffee table fol-
lowed by signing ‘eat’ and ‘cracker’.
I managed to get all of this on video. I put the
camera down to give him a cracker so unfortu-
nately you can not see the smile on his face
when he had finally gotten what he really
wanted.
Diana, mum of Tristan (12 months)
www.ourmamasrock.com/determination-at-12-months
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“I love
crackers”
… is eat!
Tristan signing ‘cracker’
Once when we had guests, Tristan’s big brother, Stijn, car-
ried him into the kitchen where I was preparing drinks for
our guests. Stijn asked me, ‘is it possible that Tristan is
hungry’? He’s been doing this (Stijn showed me the sign for
‘eat’) for a while.’ I looked at the time and realised that
indeed I had forgotten his four o’clock snack. I had not
heard Tristan whine at all, he simply asked for something
to eat. I felt bad for forgetting and at the same time I felt
so proud of my little boy. Needless to say, I got big smiles
when I offered him a cracker as I was getting some fruit
ready for him.
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
I want to eat too
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
After a signing class with Diana, I waited for
her to lock the door and we started
chatting. My son Byron was sitting in his
stroller behind me. After about two minutes
Byron started whining. I said to Diana, ‘I
guess he’s getting tiered, we better go’. I
turned around to look at Byron and before I
could tell him that we are leaving, he excit-
edly signed ‘eat’ and pointed down the
street. It was then that I remembered that I
had promised him that we’d buy croissants
after the signing class. I said, ‘of course, By-
ron, I promised you a croissant, sorry that I
forgot. We’ll go right away, a promise is a
promise.’ Hearing that put a big smile in his
face and we waved good bye to Diana.
Babette, mum of Byron (18 months)
German
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Heart Warming Signing Experiences
… and I’m all done!
I breast fed Tristan exclusively for 6 months and when I in-
troduced him to solid food, he was definitely ready to eat
from a spoon. As long as he was hungry, food would go into
his mouth and only very little to none would go anywhere
else until the moment he had enough. When Tristan decid-
ed that he was done with eating he would forcefully hit the
spoon away from his mouth distributing food all over the
place. Numerous times I ended up getting changed and
cleaning the carpet.
The day Tristan mastered the sign for ‘all done’ he never hit
the spoon again. I respected his sign and we were both hap-
py. After signing ‘all done’ he then usually signed ‘down’
and I released him from his chair. The few signs for ‘eat’,
‘more’, ‘all done’ and ‘down’ made meal times a very pleas-
ant experience for both of us.
Diana, mum of Tristan (12 months)
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
One day when Tristan and I were out and about in the
morning we had so much fun with friends that I left it far
too late for getting back home in time for Tristan’s lunch
and more importantly for his lunch time nap. When we
were in the car I successfully managed to keep him awake. I
was planning to give him some fruit to save time to heat
something up. Tristan decided differently. As soon as we got
home, he signed ‘sleep’ and quickly crawled to the stairs in
the direction of his bed. He was so tired that food was not
important.
Diana, mum of Tristan (14 months)
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
I’m soooo sleepy
Tristan signing ‘sleep’ ...
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When I was bringing Edie to bed one night she signed "no bath, no book, no milk....BED." She was so tired she wanted to eschew the nightly ritual and just go to sleep. Sign allowed my little daughter to take control of her body and the situation. It's no wonder she rarely cried.
Julie, mum of Edie (18 months)
Canadian
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
I need my bed
… and ‘bed’
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Old MacDonald … ...
Tristan signing ‘dog’
All children love
animals
Tristan used to sit on my lap for his evening
milk just before going to bed; a very quiet
time for both of us. I remember my mind quite
often drifting away, thinking about what we
had done that day or what I still needed to
do. On several occasions Tristan brought me
back to the present by signing ‘dog’ while
contently continuing to drink his milk – and
sure enough, the neighbour’s dog was bark-
ing.
Diana, mum of Tristan (10 months)
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
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… ... had a farm … and on his farm
he had a dog
One day when I took Tristan on a walk with the stroller, he
started signing ‘dog’ with a big smile on his face. I looked
around but could not see or hear a dog anywhere. So I
said, ‘I don’t see a dog, where is it?’. Tristan excitedly
pointed in the direction of someone’s garden and indeed
there was a stone statue of a dog. ‘You are right, there is a
dog in that garden, well done for spotting it.’. Of course I
got an even bigger smile now. Once again Tristan was
able to communicate that he saw something that took his
interest and loved the fact that he was able to share it
with me.
First two-sign sentence at 12 months
During a visit at my parents’ house, Tristan wanted to play
with their dog, Nemo. When he approached the dog Tris-
tan realised that he was sleeping. Nemo was curled up on
the floor next to my mum. Tristan looked at Nemo, then
got his granny’s attention and signed ‘dog / sleep’. My
mum was most impressed. Toddlers generally only start
forming two word sentences from about 18 months.
Diana, mum of Tristan (12 months)
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
… and on that farm
he had a
chicken I regularly took Tristan for walks in the
stroller. On one of our routes we passed some
chickens and Tristan always enjoyed watching
them. One day shortly after we left the house,
Tristan started signing chicken although no
chicken was in sight anywhere. I asked him,
‘Do you want to go and see the chickens?’
With a big smile on his face he started nod-
ding his head. So we went to see the chickens
and I had one little happy boy.
Diana, mum of Tristan (13 months)
Tristan signing ‘chicken’
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Heart Warming Signing Experiences
… he had a bird too
On day trip with Mayah's grandparents, we put Mayah in her stroller. Something seemed to be wrong with the seat. Trying to figure out what the problem was all of our attention was absorbed by the stroller.
All of a sudden Mayah got very excited about some-thing. I thought she’d had enough of all the attention going to her stroller so I said, ‘It’s OK, we are almost done.’
Mayah got more and more excited and started saying ‘there, there’, pointing her finger at something. I turned to look but did not see anything so I asked her, ‘What is it? What do you see?’ Mayah smiled and signed ‘bird, bird’!. We looked again and finally saw what Mayah had seen way before us … a huge stork came from behind the back of the car. Now that I understood what her excitement was about I said, ‘Yes Mayah, that’s a bird, it’s a big bird. Well done for showing it to us!’.
That put an even bigger smile on Mayah’s face and she kept signing ‘bird, bird’!!
Had Mayah not signed what she meant, we probably would not have had a closer look and not seen the bird behind the car.
Judith, mum of Mayah (12.5 months)
Dutch
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
The incy wincy
spider
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
I was looking at an animal book with my daughter Antigone. We saw a bird and she signed ‘bird’, we saw a dog and she signed ‘dog’. On one page we saw a spider and I said to her, ‘We have not learned the sign for spi-der yet honey’. Well that’s what I thought but my daughter had obviously been paying better attention in class than me. She crossed her hands at the wrists and wiggled her fin-gers which is the sign for spider. Boy was she proud to teach me!
Allicia, mum of Antigoni (14 months)
Australian
Tristan signing ‘mouse’
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Heart Warming Signing Experiences
Ready
for
more?
Tristan signing ... ... ‘more’
... ‘bath’
... ‘ball’
... ‘potty’
... ‘shoes’
Page 34
© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Discovering shapes
One morning at my parents’ house, Tristan woke up early and came into
our bed to play for a little while. All of a sudden he started making the
sign for ‘cracker’ which I knew was one of his most favourite first solid
food. Still very tired, I tried to explain to him that crackers were not for
breakfast and that I could get him his milk instead. He continued to sign
‘cracker’ getting more excited (or agitated with me for not understand-
ing?) and at the same time started pointing to something on our duvet.
My husband followed the little finger and found the answer to the ex-
citement: Tristan was pointing to a yellow square on our duvet cover
which indeed looked very much like his favourite crackers. You should
have seen the smile in Tristan’s face when daddy said, ‘Look, Tristan is
telling us that this square looks like a cracker.’
I’m all done
On another visit at my parents’ house, Tristan was practising crawling
up two long flights of stairs. At the top of the second set of stairs, daddy
showed Tristan how to crawl back down safely. Doing really well, Tristan
stopped on the following landing and started signing ‘all done’ and then
‘up’. Daddy understood immediately, ‘Well done Tristan, I’m sure coming
up all the way and coming half way back down must have been very tir-
ing. I will carry you the rest of the way.’
Diana, mum of Tristan (12 months)
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
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Heart Warming Signing Experiences
Star lights on the Christmas tree
My mother-in-law's first encounter with signing was at
Christmas. Edie ran up to her grandmother whilst signing
'stars' then pulled her by the hand to show her the tree
and lights. How heart warming is that?!
Julie, mum of Edie (17 months)
Canadian
I need the potty
Thilo got into signing very quickly. His first sign was
‘more’ and he soon wanted ‘more’ of lots of things:
food, playing, bath time, tickling … At 14 months he
Invented a sign for ‘I need to poo’ , so from then on I
knew when to take him to the potty. It worked every
time. I was amazed that at such a young age he
managed to keep a clean nappy. Fantastic!
Marlene, mum of Thilo (14 months)
Mexican
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Ball, book, music
I first started to learn signing from a book but did not get very far until I
joined a group that Diana taught. Signing with a group of other mums
and babies made it much more fun and increased the motivation to keep
learning new signs. Joel’s signing vocabulary increased rapidly. He loved
signing ‘ball’ whenever he saw one which made it very easy for me to
engage him in playing with a ball. He also loved dancing and often
signed ‘music’ while pointing to the CD player. Another favourite sign
was ‘book’. He loved looking at books with me signing the various things
he saw such as ‘ball’, ‘dog’ and ‘train’. Joel has always been very com-
municative and signing not only allowed him to share his thoughts from
a very early age, it also allowed him to tell me what activities he was
interested in. And because I understood, we were able to avoid
situations which may otherwise have been frustrating for both of us.
Train ride
When Joel was 19 months we took him on a train ride. He had always
enjoyed playing with his toy train and looking at his train book but actu-
ally going to ride on the train was the most exciting thing. He absolutely
loved it and even days after the trip he still told just about anyone we
met about it by signing ‘train, train’. I would never have known how
much of an impression this experience has left, had he not been able to
sign about it long after the fact.
Saskia, mum of Joel (14 - 19 months)
German
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
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Heart Warming Signing Experiences
Too much noise to hear your own voice
We sat at the dinner table with 9 family members and as
you can imagine there was a lot of talking going on.
Tristan started tilting his chair. I quietly asked him 'What
can happen when you do that?' and my voice almost
drowned in the chatter. Tristan decided to respond
without any sound; he signed 'I could fall' to which I re-
sponded 'Yes, and could hurt yourself'. He reacted with
'then I would cry' so I signed 'stop tilting' and he did.
Diana, mum of Tristan (3 years)
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Welcome to the world little sister
I had prepared Tristan as well as I could for the arrival of his sister,
Briana and he seemed very excited about her ‘coming out’ soon. Of
course you never know how an older sibling will react until the moment
of that first encounter arrives. We were quite sure that he would give
her a warm welcome and I was curious to see what he would say or do.
When Tristan walked into the room, seeing his little sister in his dad’s
arms, he decided to greet her with signing ‘brother’; sending shivers of
joy down my spine. I asked him if he remembered the sign for sister
which he didn’t but he wanted me to show him. Then he also signed
‘sister’ to Briana. What a sensitive little boy I thought.
I had explained to him that it will take a while until Briana will be able
to speak. He had not used his signs much since he turned two because
he mastered his two spoken languages well enough by then. Realising
that his sister will not be able to speak, he’s been practicing his signs
again in preparation for the big day. The few days I stayed in the hospi-
tal, Tristan was with his grandparents in Germany teaching his grand-
ma lots of signs to prepare her for ‘baby communication’ as well. It’s
wonderful to see him so involved.
Diana, mum of Tristan (3.5 years)
Heart Warming Signing Experiences
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Heart Warming Signing Experiences
Signing when speaking is not an option
Some time ago I took Tristan to three sessions of physiotherapy. He has
bronchitis and in Belgium it’s very common that the pediatrician pre-
scribes physiotherapy which includes inhaling a salt solution through a
special inhaler that pulses the humid air out at a certain frequency.
Tristan has never had use this type of inhaler before. The therapist
showed the machine to us and explained how it works. He then placed
the mask on Tristan’s face and switched on the machine. I thought
Tristan looked terrified (at least that is what his eyes communicated to
me). I asked him if he was ok. Of course he was not able to speak so I
told him to respond with the signs for ‘yes’ or ‘no’. He signed ‘yes’ and I
felt much better knowing that he was ok. I kept reminding him that he
could communicate with me by using signs.
During the 3rd session, he signed ‘no’ about half way through the
process and I immediately asked the therapist to stop the machine. It
appeared that the therapist had pushed the mask against his face too
hard. Once Tristan had been able to explain that, the therapist applied
less pressure and Tristan was fine to keep going. I’m sure Tristan was
happy that he was able to communicate with me and that we could take
action to make him feel more comfortable immediately.
Diana, mum of Tristan (3.5 years)
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© 2012 Our Mamas Rock
Meet Diana
Hello there, I'm Diana and I'm on a mission
to help mums with babies and toddlers to under-stand what's really going on in their children's heads without interpretation or guessing games so they can feel more confident and relaxed in their parenting.
In short: I help mums to be fun mums who ROCK for their babies!
How did I get here?
I am a mama of two wonderful children and lack of sleep and crying for no obvious reason have made me feel helpless and totally overwhelmed many times. When my daughter cries, I also catch myself shouting at my son be-cause my tolerance level seems to shrivel to zero when she cries and I can't figure out why.
I am a marketing communications specialist by education and had worked in several marketing communications positions in various companies for over 10 years when my son was born in 2008. My communication skills did not get me very far with connecting with my baby. So many times I wished that he could tell me what made him cry, so I could make him feel better and feel safe quickly. I also wished that he could share what was going on in his head so I could feel more connected; feel more part how he experienced the world.
Not only did I feel my communication skills being challenged, in my new role as a mum I also felt the strong desire to find a more meaningful path professionally. Something that would allow me to make a difference while still having the time and flexibility to be the mum I wanted to be. That's when I found out about baby signing. Already as a teenager I was fasci-nated with sign language but never had a reason to learn it. Now I had found a wonderful reason: it would help me understand my son!
www.ourmamasrock.com Page 41
Despite my husband's initial scepticism, there was no stopping me in giving it a try. We started when Tristan was eight months old and at only nine months he started asking for his milk without crying. What an emotional moment, it almost made me cry with joy: this was the proof that it's working. This first experience also converted my husband into a believer. Signs for 'eat', 'more', 'all done' and 'down' followed quickly all of which helped make meal time a very pleasant experience for both of us. Once Tristan had realised that he was able to express his wants and needs, he soon added signs that allowed him to simply share his thoughts, these were signs for 'dog', 'bird', 'airplane', 'flower', 'bee', 'chicken', 'ball', 'book', etc.
By the time he was just over 12 months, Tristan had developed a vocabulary of 32 signs and 6 spoken words. I stopped counting before he turned 18 months as his sign vocabulary had exceeded 100 and his spoken vocabulary followed suit with about 70 words (a mix of German and Dutch). The aver-age vocabulary of a two year old is 50 words. From the age of two years, Tris-tan spoke his two primary languages in full sentences, and he soon developed quite an impressive English vocabulary as well.
I was so enchanted with how signing impacted our communication and emo-tional bonding not to mention the fact that it helped reduce frustration for both of us in so many instances that I decided to share this magical experi-ence with other families by teaching baby signing courses (www.bizzybee.eu). Requests from mums who were not able to make it to live classes and the birth of my daughter have triggered the idea for Our Mamas Rock online courses.
During my quest for a more meaningful professional path, I also trained as a Montessori teacher for children from birth to three years and qualified as a children's yoga teacher. Skills I developed through both of these trainings have not only benefited my son, they have also been invaluable for the crea-tion of my signing programmes and material.
Diana Siepmann - uncovering your MAMA-ROCK factor
Meet Diana
What’s next?
This is Tristan and I signing ‘I love
you’. We still quietly sign ‘I love you’
when I drop him off at school and he
is waiting in line to go inside. Tristan
is four now and might get embar-
rassed with me saying ‘I love you’ any
other way when he is with his friends
from school. I’m loving it! - Diana
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