Today I am so excited to bring you this guest post from Kristy Davies, MS CCC-SLP. Kristy is a fellow speech language pathologist and is going to share some information on using sing language with babies and toddlers, specifically using American Sign Language to sign with them, something she and I are both very passionate about!

The use of sign language has grown in popularity over the past several years as parents begin to learn the great benefits of signing. Signing with your baby can provide you a new perspective on their thoughts and feelings and build more positive relationships. Signing with your toddler can empower their desire to communicate and be good ol’ fun!

Why sign with your child? Research has shown positive results using sign language with children to:

• reduce frustrations (for both parents and children) & tantrums
• increase social skills
• increase joint attention skills
• promote early communication
• increase vocabulary skills
• increase reading abilities and desire to read
• increase visual attending skills
• increase in cognitive development (higher IQs)
• minimize “terrible two’s”

With that being, there are myths about signing with your infants and toddlers that is important to dismiss. (more…)

I have done American Sign Language with Dakota since she was born. She started signing around 8 months old.

We haven’t done signs in a while so Dakota and I were going over them today. She was a little rusty, she needed help with the words like Sorry, Frog, Mom and Water. I took a video of her signing, of course right before the video she signed everything correctly. But once she sees herself on video, she looses concentration and loves to act goofy! Like a normal 3 year old of course!

So here is the video of Dakota using some signs, check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcTIm2IZqhA