Signing With Your Baby: Open a Window to Baby's Mind

Open a Window to Baby's Mind:
Engaging Video for Infants, Toddlers Teaches Families to "Talk" about Their World with American Sign Language (ASL)

by Michelle Anthony, M.A., Ph.D., and Reyna Lindert, Ph.D.

If you haven't seen it yet, you haven't been watching closely. Babies across America are "talking" with their parents in sign language. During their first year, babies' vocal cords typically aren't developed enough to speak, but their minds are observing their surroundings, and their little bodies are eager and physically trying to make requests. At just eight months, babies' motor skills are developed enough to learn to communicate with signs.

Michelle Anthony, M.A., Ph.D., and Reyna Lindert, Ph.D., child development experts and moms of young children, have spent the last few years teaching hearing babies and their parents how to establish more meaningful communication using American Sign Language. Inspired by the enthusiasm of their students and the signing trend they have helped to fuel among parents nationwide, the two have created a unique video for children 3 to 36 months entitled The Treasure Chest: Toys and Signs.

"The Treasure Chest uses a completely different approach from the other children’s videos that exist today," said Anthony. "It's the first-ever tool for parents and young children to use together that provides the context and motivation for really communicating. It engages infants and toddlers, and gets them excited to "talk" about what they've seen; then it intersperses ASL signs to give them the means to talk about what they've seen."

Why sign?

Parents of young children who use signs report*:

They have a window into their child's mind
They have a more intimate connection with their child
Their child is less frustrated and has fewer tantrums
Their child can tell them what he or she wants or needs
Signs are quick and easy for both parent and child to learn; they can learn as few or any many signs as they want
Communicating with signs facilitates their child's spoken language development and cognition
Signing increases their baby’s interest in reading books and learning about his environment
Communicating through signs increases both the child's and the parent's feelings of success
Signing increases family fun by allowing the family to understand and explore their baby's interests

About The Treasure Chest: Toys and Signs

A magical journey of discovery for very young children and their parents, The Treasure Chest is a 30-minute video that leads parents and children through a treasure trove of toys, songs, play, and signs.
Visually engaging images and themes are designed to cater to the interests of hearing infants and toddlers 3-36 months.
The video also offers a 5-minute parent-strategy section at the end. This section includes useful tips about getting started signing with hearing babies, modifying signs so children see them, and making signing a natural part of everyday interactions with children.

Now available at the Signing Baby Shop!

About Wide-Eyed Learning, LLC

Wide-Eyed Learning, LLC is an organization dedicated to helping parents and professionals facilitate development in young children.
It blends the passions and intellect of Drs. Anthony and Lindert, two mothers of young children and experts in child development. They met while pursuing their doctorates in Developmental Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and went on to create the Signing SmartÔ learning curricula and programs for families with young children.
With a combined total of more than 25 years of study and work experience in the field of early language development, both are certified in ASL and have used signing extensively to facilitate early communication and learning with typical and developmentally delayed children and their families. As mothers who introduced signing to their own young children, they know first-hand the richness, intimacy, and wonder that signing can bring to a family.
In addition to developing programs and products for young families, Dr. Anthony and Dr. Lindert teach popular Signing SmartTM sign language play classes and workshops for infants, toddlers, and their parents in their respective areas. Last year alone, more than 1000 children under the age of two and their families learned to sign in Dr. Anthony's and Dr. Lindert's classes.
Play classes that use the Signing SmartTM program have now started in other regions of the country, including San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, and Cleveland, OH, with more classes in the works in Chicago, IL, Phoenix, AZ, and Houston, TX.

The Signing SmartTM program has been featured on the Discovery Health Channel and in other national and local newspaper and TV shows.

In addition to their work on signing with young children, both are frequent speakers on broad topics of interest to young families. For example, they have offered lectures and workshops that discuss language learning and literacy, developmental phases that lead to parenting challenges, the importance of respectful communication for effective discipline, and fostering sibling and peer relationships.

*From end-of-session surveys given to parents of babies and toddlers in Anthony's and Lindert's Signing SmartTM play classes in the last 18 months.

For more information about The Treasure Chest video, or Signing SmartTM and related programs and products, visit www.WideEyedLearning.com.