Dr_Steph's Full Review: W. Joseph Garcia - Sign With Your Baby: How to Com...
This is book is a "MUST HAVE" for new parents, in my opinion. The author, Joseph Garcia, provides a very useful illustrated guide for using sign language with your baby. Children are limited in their ability to communicate in the first two years of life by the physical difficulty of learning how to speak. However, Garcia points out that children are actually capable of effectively communicating some of their basic needs much earlier than they can use spoken language.
His book takes parents through some simple signs that they can use with their baby, starting around 8 months of age. He suggests that parents start with a few basic signs, like "milk", "more", and "eat" and then gradually add more signs as their child becomes comfortable and proficient at using these. A total of 144 signs are illustrated in the book, including signs for "book", "help", "hurt", "diaper change", "earache", etc. The potential benefits of having a baby learn these signs is obvious to any parent who has been frustrated and befuddled in their attempts to understand their baby's wants and needs.
The book can be purchased alone ($14.95) or it can be purchased as part of a "Complete Learning Kit" which includes an hour long instructional video and a quick reference guide ($49.95 for the kit). The video is extremely well done and helpful. If a parent can afford it, I would suggest getting the entire kit. However, for those on a limited budget, the book is all you really need to get started in signing with your baby.
The idea of signing with a baby appeals to me professionally in my role as a developmental psychologist. It completely blows Piaget's theory out of the water that says that babies can't mentally represent symbols until they are almost two and therefore can't learn to talk until then. Ha! It's the fine motor skills that are lacking in young infants, not the conceptual ability to understand and use language.
The greatest appeal of this book for me is personal, though. We were familiar with Garcia's work with signing from his earlier book "Toddler Talk" when my daughter was an infant. We casually taught her to sign "More", not really expecting much from it. Much to our surprise, she started to sign "More" around 10 months of age and did it appropriately and consistently in many different contexts (more food, more tickles, more swinging, etc.). The spoken word "More" soon followed - it was one of her first spoken words, in fact. Now we are working on teaching our infant son the first three signs that Garcia recommends. We started using these signs with him around 7 months old. Right before he turned 8 months he started to spontaneously use the "Milk" sign when he wanted to nurse. Our baby is talking to us!! We are VERY excited about teaching him more signs.
I know that some people are concerned that they need to learn an entirely new language to use this method. Actually, all they need to learn is a few simple signs. If they want to learn more, they can. If they don't, they still have the benefit of the basic initial signs. Others are concerned that teaching a baby to sign will slow down their acquisition of spoken language. All the evidence suggest that the opposite is true - kids start speaking earlier, especially on the words they have learned to sign. Of course, we always say the spoken word when we sign it so that helps the child make the connection.
Get this book - it will be one of the best investments that you make in your child's learning.
From the Publisher: Babies have control over their hands long before they develop the fine motor skills required for speech. By teaching their infants...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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