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Understanding Little Minds: How You Can Walk the Walk of Baby Talk

After two decades of research at the University of California, we can say with confidence that, just as crawling leads to walking, signing leads to talking. With simple signs, babies around the world can let their parents know if they are hungry, thirsty, happy or sad.

How do I begin?
Teaching your child to sign may seem like a daunting task. However, the process of teaching any sign – whether for “bird” or “eat” or “sad” – is actually no different than what parents do to teach babies to wave “bye-bye.”

Think about what happens when a child learns to wave goodbye:
	First, there’s an event that makes saying “Bye-Bye” appropriate – like Grandma leaving
	Then, as you say the words, “Say BYE-BYE! BYE-BYE Grandma!” with great emphasis, you wave your own hand in an exaggerated manner and perhaps even gently wave the baby’s hand
	Eventually, after the baby has witnessed enough of these episodes, the light bulb comes on and she waves “bye-bye” herself

Day-to-day signing As you can see, signing can come so naturally that it is easy to integrate it into your child’s everyday tasks. Let’s try it out with the sign for “eat”. Here’s the situation: Little Morgan is sitting in her stroller out in the park and starts to whine a bit.

1.	You get down to her level and get her attention.
2.	You say, “Morgan, are you hungry? Would you like something to EAT? Would you like some Cheerios to EAT?”
3.	Every time you say “EAT,” you also model the sign for EAT (fingertips tapping your lips).
4.	You offer her some Cheerios.

Granted, you may or may not have guessed correctly about Morgan feeling hungry. However,
the point is that you have started to teach Morgan that if she is hungry, she can let you know
by tapping her fingers against her lips like you did. Repeat this consistently whenever you say
the word “EAT” to her, and eventually she’ll catch on and use the sign herself to let you know
she’s hungry even before you ask.

	Tips for Signing Success Now that you know how to teach an individual sign, here are three more general tips to help you make the most of your baby’s signing experience:
		Always use the sign and word together. Your ultimate goal is for your child to learn to say words, so it’s very important that a child hear the words that go with the signs. The V. Smile Baby signing segments provide this pairing and so should you.
		Repetition is the key to success. The more frequently a child sees a sign, the more likely he or she is to learn it—and with V. Smile Baby as your partner, you’ll find it easy to provide the kind of repetition that makes learning easy.
		Make learning signs a game, not a chore! Babies who are happy are likely to learn. Babies who feel pressured, tired, or frightened do not. With the V. Smile Baby signing segments designed to entertain as they teach, your baby is bound to find signing fun!
	For More Information Interested in learning more about signing with your baby? For information about additional resources and local classes, visit us at www.babysigns.com. Happy Signing!



	The V.Smile Baby™ Infant Development System helps make baby’s play time matter. Your child learns through a traditional toy combined with the non-traditional element of TV-based play that connects parents with their infants and toddlers as they begin to explore early learning concepts. V.Smile Baby works with age-appropriate Baby Smartridges™ each which includes learning concepts such as colors, numbers, sounds, animals, music, shapes and even baby sign language. “V. Smile Baby signing segments are very helpful in the development of early signing, but as VTech agrees, nothing can take the place of parents who add their own enthusiastic support to their baby’s efforts to learn signs,” said Linda Acredolo, Ph.D.



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How You Can Walk the Walk of Baby Talk!