Baby Signs® Program Overview
The Baby Signs programme is the original baby sign language programme, based on our founder’s Dr. Acredolo & Goodwyn’s research into using simple signs with babies to communicate with them.
The Baby Signs® Programme teaches babies to use simple, easy-to-learn gestures for communicating with their parents and caregivers. These gestures or “sign” can represent an item or concept, such as “cat,”"eat,” or “all gone.”
Using signs gives babies a way to “talk” with their parents, before they can talk. It gives them an avenue to share the world around them, long before they have mastered their verbal speaking skills!
We have all seen babies wave “bye-bye” or shake their head to say “no.” The Baby Signs® Programme is an extension of that concept. It helps your baby use lots of gestures to communicate just as easily as these more common “signs.” Without realising it you could be using signs already. When you sing your child’s favourite songs and nursery rhymes along with finger or hand movements, you are actually helping your child learn signs that can be useful outside the song.
Where Did The Baby Signs® Programme Come From?
The Baby Signs® Programme comes from the groundbreaking Baby Signs® Research which began an international movement to teach hearing babies to use signs. 20 years of careful study by our founders Drs. Linda Acredolo & Susan Goodwyn, authors of “Baby Signs: How To Talk To Your Baby Before Your Baby Talks” , proved that using the Baby Signs® Programme:
- Reduces frustration and builds trust
- Allows babies to share their worlds
- Strengthens the parent/infant bond
- Reveals how smart babies really are
- Promotes positive emotional development
- Boosts babies’ self-confidence
- Helps babies learn to talk
- Jumpstarts intellectual development
Baby Signs New Zealand offers the full Baby Signs® Programme which includes Parent Workshops, Sign, Say & Play™ Classes and Early Childhood Educator Training to teach parents and caregivers how to use the programme in their babies everyday routines.
To find out more go to:
- The Baby Signs® Story
- Baby Signs® Research
- Baby Signs® Parent Workshop
- Baby Signs® Sign, Say & PlayTM Classes
- Early Childhood Educator Training
