Wanna Rock for Your Baby? 12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child

Includes heart warming signing

experiences of mums from

around the world

Diana Siepmann

12 Compelling Reasons to Sign

with Your Hearing Child

A big thank you to all mums

who have contributed their wonderful stories to this book.

It is these stories and the feedback I receive from signing mums that keep

fuelling my passion.

Thank you also to Siobhán McGonigle for her contribution to the content, to

Annick Cornu for the wonderful photography and the company Schleich for

the contribution of the animal pictures.

Last but not least thank you

to everyone who supported me with the creation of this book: my husband,

Alison Marks of Six Figure Home Office and my GID class mates with

Luci Gabel in particular.

Acknowledgements

Introduction _____________________________________ 7

12 Good Reasons to Sign with My Baby ______________ 11

Heart Warming Signing Experiences _________________ 19

It’s all about milk _________________________________ 20

All I want is eat ___________________________________ 22

I’m soooo sleepy - I need my bed _____________________ 26

Old Mac Donald had a farm _________________________ 28

The incy wincy spider ______________________________ 32

Discovering shapes ________________________________ 34

I’m all done ______________________________________ 34

Star lights on the Christmas tree _____________________ 35

I need the potty __________________________________ 35

Ball, book, music __________________________________ 36

Train ride ________________________________________ 36

Too much noise to hear your own voice _______________ 37

Welcome to the world little sister ____________________ 38

Signing when speaking is not a good option ____________ 39

Meet Diana ____________________________________ 40

What’s next ____________________________________ 42

Content

Tristan signing ‘milk’

www.ourmamasrock.com

Imagine …

... your 9-month old daughter quietly asking for her morning milk - no crying, no guessing and a happy face when you come back with the right thing.

... your 12-month old son telling you that he wants to eat, letting you know that he wants more and finally that he has had enough and wants to get down from his chair - no whining, no food on the floor and a fun mealtime experience for both of you.

... your 13-month old daughter telling you about all the exciting things

she sees or hears on your walk: dogs, airplanes, bees, butterflies, flow-

ers and balls - a very big smile on her face because she knows you un-

derstand.

Introduction

http://www.ourmamasrock.com

© 2012 Our Mamas Rock

You are a mum of a baby or toddler and often find yourself wishing that your child could tell you what s/he is thinking?

It’s possible! I can give you the tools so that you can teach your baby to clearly communicate what s/he wants, needs and is interested in. This is not about interpreting different cries or coos but about clear and effective com-munication so that you know what’s going on in your baby’s head. This will help you to become a more confident, relaxed and fun mum - in short you will ROCK for your baby!

Do the following scenarios speak to you?

Your baby is crying (you have checked the most obvious reasons twice already but she is still crying) you feel helpless, upset or frustrated, sometimes you even feel frantic and like a bad mother because you can-not make your daughter feel better

Your toddler throws a temper tantrum and whatever you do or say just seems to make him more angry; his non-verbal anger and the fact that you can’t get through to him makes you feel overwhelmed, frustrated and stressed. When it’s over you feel disappointed or frustrated with yourself because the last time you promised yourself to stay calm when it happens again

Your daughter is whining about something and you are finding yourself in yet another guessing game trying to figure out what she might want or why she is not happy

You wish your daughter could simply tell you when she is hungry, tired, hurt herself or needs a nappy change

You wish your son could share his thoughts, tell you what he likes and what he doesn’t like, what upsets him and what makes him angry, what makes him laugh and what scares him

Introduction


You wish you had a way to read your baby’s mind not only to avoid frus-tration, stress and guessing games but also to be able to build a strong relationship because you understand

I am a mama of two and have found the time before clear communication was possible very challenging; I remember feeling helpless and overwhelmed many times when my son was a baby and I’m experiencing it again with my daughter who is four months as I’m writing this. Read more about my story on the back cover.

Luckily I know that there is light at the end of the tunnel because babies CAN communicate their thoughts from a very early age. How do we know this? It’s simple: babies of deaf parents have been doing it for decades by speaking with their hands. What they can do, any baby can do.

Studies show that babies start having a con-

scious understanding of language from

about six months and babies of deaf parents

demonstrate that they can communicate

basic wants and needs from about nine

months. Babies of hearing parents can do

this too, they are able to construct language

in their head but they generally have no

means to express themselves as the complex

musculature in the mouth and the control

over the vocal cords need much longer to

develop than the muscles in the hands.

Introduction

Babies can communicate basic wants and needs from about

nine months of age

Tristan signing ‘sleep’



When parents ask me ‘Why would we sign with our (hearing) baby?’ My

shortest answer is ‘Signing is the shortest way to clearly understanding your

baby’s wants needs and interests and therefore to more confident, relaxed

and fun parenting. It’s easy, doesn’t take much time and it’s lots of fun as

well. So why would you not sign with your baby?’.

It’s this simple, really! The thing is that because signing with babies has had

such amazing anecdotal results, some 30 years of research have gone into it

as well. Most mums get excited about signing with their baby when they hear

the short answer (so did I when I first got into it). The more I got into it, the

more fascinated I became and the more research I did on the subject myself.

I was absolutely delighted to find out there are plenty of other good reasons

Introduction

Signing with your baby helps you to be more confident and relaxed about your parenting

Tristan signing ...

... ‘read’... ... ‘book’... ... ‘again’


to sign with my baby than just the 4 most obvious, which for me are the fol-

lowing:

Signing ...

1. enables your baby to communicate wants, needs and interests long

before s/he can speak

2. lowers frustration for you and your child, because your baby can com-

municate in a way you can understand

3. gives you an insight into your child’s thoughts, allowing you to form a

stronger bond from an earlier age

4. helps you to be more confident and relaxed about your parenting

Now let’s look at the other eight good reasons to sign with your baby (there

are more but I found these to be the most compelling ones). For those of you

who (like me) like to get into the research behind the following benefits of

signing, I have included a summary of the research results following the list. If

you are more interested in what other mums say about signing jump right

over to page 19.

12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child

Through signing with your baby you are giving an invaluable gift to your

child



Eight more good reasons to

sign with your baby

5. faster vocabulary acquisition and

better recall

6. enhanced literacy

7. more interest in learning

8. higher IQ scores

9. increases self-esteem

10. enhances the ability to express

feelings at a very early age

11. benefits linked to exposure to a

second language

(check out the details on this one,

it tidies up with the myths

attached to multilingualism)

12. can be of help to children in bilin-

gual/multilingual families

Isn’t this an amazing list of what you

can give to your child as a by-product

of signing? Just think about how

much easier your child might have it

at school as a result. I have not found

any research results back this up,


At the age of 18 months my son, Tris-

tan, had a signing vocabulary of over

100 and his spoken vocabulary fol-

lowed suit with about 70 words (a

mixture of German and Dutch). He

soon also developed an impressive

English vocabulary. The average vo-

cabulary of a two year old is 50

words. Tristan was speaking in full

sentences in his primary two lan-

guages when he was two years old.

He knew the alphabet when he was

2.5 years old and was able to sing the

ABC song in English.

Tristan was fascinated with numbers

and was able to count to 10 in Ger-

man, Dutch and English before he

turned three. He started reading the

digital clock and before he was three

he knew that on weekends he had to

stay in his bed until the number 8 was

the first number on the display.

When I slowly give him the numbers

of my parents phone number, he

would dial it by himself. Before he

turned four he knew more than half


however, I have witnessed my son’s

development which in many areas I

attribute to signing with him.

As promised, here are the details on

the research backing up the men-

tioned benefits:

Faster vocabulary acquisi-

tion and better recall

Children using signs typically have a

larger vocabulary earlier than chil-

dren that only use spoken language,

and maintain such a lead. Signing

also provides an additional tool to

help children remember words and

their meanings.

The table below is based on research

by Dr Marilyn Daniels, professor of

communication arts and sciences at

Pennsylvania State University and

compares vocabulary acquisition in

children using signs and those only

using spoken language:

of their number by heart.

Since he was about 18 months he

enjoyed teaching other people, es-

pecially his granny, how to sign.

What and experience for a toddler to

be able to teach something to a

grown-up. You bet that that really

boost his self-esteem.

Average age

Children using signs Children using only spoken

language

First recognisable sign/word

8.5 months 12 months

Ten-sign/word vocabulary

13 months 15 months

Combining signs/words

17 months 21 months




And what’s more, this type of lead is

typically maintained.

One of Daniels’ studies looked at two

groups of children in their pre-

kindergarten year; one group was

exposed to signing, the other group

not. She found that children who

were signed to developed vocabulary

faster than the children who were

not signed to. Neither group was ex-

posed to singing in their first year of

kindergarten, yet a follow-up study

showed that the children from the

first group had maintained their vo-

cabulary lead (Daniels, 1996).

Daniels explains this by the fact that

signing enhances brain development,

thereby giving a head start to chil-

dren who are exposed to signing. In

her book Dancing with Words: Sign-

ing for Hearing Children's Literacy

(Bergin & Garvey 2001), she states,

that 'babies eyes develop very early


Tristan signing ...

… ‘thank you

… ‘please’ and ...


and when information is taken in

with the eyes the right brain is being

used. All languages are stored in the

left brain, so when babies are ex-

posed to sign and speech, both the

right and left brain are being used.'

She goes on to point out how '… this

is a wonderful advantage because

you are using both hemispheres of

the brain, building more synapses

(junction of two nerve cells) in the

brain.’

Better recall can be attributed to the

fact that each language a person

learns is stored in a different

‘memory store’ in the left hemi-

sphere of the brain. Even at a very

early age, sign language will have a

separate memory store to spoken

language, essentially giving a child

two ‘databases’ to draw from. This

allows a child to, for example, recall

the sign that will support the spoken

word or provide a clue to the mean-

ing of the spoken word, or find the

manual alphabetic letter that will

remind them of how to spell a word.

Daniels also pointed out that the

physical movement required to sign

also seems to trigger a response in

the left hemisphere of the brain and

help to recall words.

Other studies, such as those by Drs

Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn

from the University of Davis in Cali-

fornia showed that babies who were

signed to understood more words

and had larger vocabularies than non

-signing babies (Moore et al, 2001).

Enhanced literacy

Signing develops skills that will form

a solid base for learning to read and

write.

thank you’




Signing the alphabet enables children

to spell words with their fingers (also

called finger spelling). Finger spelling

helps children recognise letter shapes

and sounds. Being able to recognise

letter shapes and letter sounds, to-

gether with understanding the mean-

ing of the words formed by the

letters, is the basis for reading.

Furthermore, the hand movements

needed for sign language give young

children a unique opportunity to

practice moving individual fingers,

bringing fingers into exact positions

and practicing wrist movement. All of

this can have a positive impact on

writing skills when the child is older,

as fine motor skills are important for

holding a pencil and forming letters*.

More interest in learning

A child’s interest in learning can

typically be enhanced by the use of

sign language*. As children enjoy

learning and using sign language, a

teacher using sign language in the

classroom will automatically get

more attention, as the children are


‘eat’ ’more’

‘cracker’


obliged to focus on the teacher so as

not to miss what is going on.

Higher IQ scores

Drs Linda Acredolo and Susan

Goodwyn followed up on their origi-

nal research into vocabulary acquisi-

tion by comparing the IQs of children

who were exposed to signing as ba-

bies and those who were not. In IQ

tests carried out on both groups at

the age eight, the first group had an

average IQ of 114, compared to only

102 for children who were not ex-

posed to signing (Acredolo and

Goodwyn, 2000).

Increased self-esteem

Children generally enjoy learning

how to sign. Because it gives them a

skill that not everyone has, they have

the feeling that they can do some-

thing special. Children also enjoy

sharing their knowledge and teaching

siblings, parents and friends. Being

able to teach signs to someone else is

a boost to their self esteem*.

Enhanced ability to express

feelings at a very early age

Most of the signs for emotions are

iconic (e.g. sad, angry, scared, shy,

brave), which helps children under-

stand and express them.

Being able to express feelings is criti-

cal to a child’s emotional develop-

ment. Experience with signing chil-

dren shows that in moments of dis-

tress, a child more often chooses the

sign rather than the spoken word to

express what is going on, even if they

can already speak*. This may be be-

cause signing feels ‘heartfelt’ and

expressive, and in sensitive situa-

tions, might seem more private as it

can be done discreetly and cannot be

overheard.




Benefits linked to exposure

to a second language

Learning a second language at any

age is an enriching experience, but

early exposure gives children the

widest possible set of advantages

and opportunities.

In an article published in Children in

Scotland magazine, Antonella Sorace,

Professor of Developmental Linguis-

tics at the University of Edinburgh,

gave an insight into some of the ben-

efits of learning a second language at

an early age. She said that bilingual

children seem to:

be better at selectively paying

attention, at inhibiting irrelevant in-

formation, and at switching between

alternative solutions to a problem;

be able to multi-task more easily;

have a higher awareness of lan-

guage and a greater ability to think

and talk about it;

develop reading skills earlier than

monolingual children; and

have an enhanced ‘awareness of the

other’, i.e. an earlier understanding

of the fact that other people may

have beliefs, desires and intentions

different from their own.

Help to children in bilingual

families

Sign language can effectively build a

bridge between the various spoken

languages used in the family. For ex-

ample, when both parents use stand-

ard signs consistently, the child can

understand via the gesture even if

he/she doesn’t yet know the spoken

word in that language.

* Based on research conducted by Mari-

lyn Daniels, professor of communication

arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State

University - www.marilyndaniels.com


http://ourmamasrock.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Two-are-better-than-one.pdf

http://ourmamasrock.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Two-are-better-than-one.pdf

http://www.marilyndaniels.com


Heart Warming Signing Experiences

Tristan signing ‘daddy’




Diana,

mum of

Tristan

(9 months)

German


When Tristan was still a baby, the weekend morning

routine was as follows: After waking up in his cot, we

would let him play in our bed. After a while of playing

happily, Tristan would start crying for his milk. One

Sunday morning, he started crying as so many other

mornings but then he stopped and looked at me, I could

almost see him thinking ‘hang on a minute, there was

something else I can do’ and he started signing ‘milk’

first with one hand and then very excitedly with both

hands. My husband and I looked at him just as excited

and I said, ‘you want your milk, sweetheart. I’ll get you

your milk, I’ll be back in a moment’. Even when I was in

the kitchen preparing his milk, I did not hear him cry.

When I came back with the milk, Tristan had a great big

smile in his face. I’ll never forget this moment: having

my 9 month old son tell me that that he wants his milk

and then seeing the proud smile in his face when I gave

him what he asked for.

Nia, mum of

Ari

(11 months)

American

Ari did his first sign today: 'milk' . He did it once this morn-

ing as we woke up, again before his nap and again this

evening SEVERAL times in a row before bed. My husband

was there to witness the last time. He was very impressed

and proud and now he really wants to learn more about

the whole process. We're all very excited and curious to

see how he catches onto more signs.


It’s all

about milk …. … and the wonderful

feeling to understand

Cristin,

mum of

Annalissa

(9 months)

American

I breastfed my daughter, Annalissa, and she started

signing for milk when she was 9 months old. It was

wonderful to see her communicating like that! A few

weeks later, she started signing 'all done' when she had

enough milk. Since I was breastfeeding her, it felt like

she was all 'all done' with me. So, I suggested to her to

use the sign for 'thank you' after 'all done'. That was

better! How precious to have signs to communicate with

her -- and to teach her gratitude so early!

Tristan signing ‘milk’




All I

want ...


When Tristan was a baby he loved crackers. He

loved them so much that he could master an

approximation of the sign for ‘cracker’ and say

the word at 12 months. One day, he desper-

ately wanted to get up onto the sofa, signing

and saying ‘up’ and getting frustrated about

the fact that no one helped him up quickly

enough. Finally on the sofa, he pointed to a

plate with crackers on the coffee table fol-

lowed by signing ‘eat’ and ‘cracker’.

I managed to get all of this on video. I put the

camera down to give him a cracker so unfortu-

nately you can not see the smile on his face

when he had finally gotten what he really

wanted.

Diana, mum of Tristan (12 months)

www.ourmamasrock.com/determination-at-12-months

http://ourmamasrock.com/determination-at-12-months/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQqFiY0sFio&list=UUZNGQ5NVupKIM711eQpVOMg&index=10&feature=plcp


“I love

crackers”

… is eat!

Tristan signing ‘cracker’

Once when we had guests, Tristan’s big brother, Stijn, car-

ried him into the kitchen where I was preparing drinks for

our guests. Stijn asked me, ‘is it possible that Tristan is

hungry’? He’s been doing this (Stijn showed me the sign for

‘eat’) for a while.’ I looked at the time and realised that

indeed I had forgotten his four o’clock snack. I had not

heard Tristan whine at all, he simply asked for something

to eat. I felt bad for forgetting and at the same time I felt

so proud of my little boy. Needless to say, I got big smiles

when I offered him a cracker as I was getting some fruit

ready for him.




I want to eat too


After a signing class with Diana, I waited for

her to lock the door and we started

chatting. My son Byron was sitting in his

stroller behind me. After about two minutes

Byron started whining. I said to Diana, ‘I

guess he’s getting tiered, we better go’. I

turned around to look at Byron and before I

could tell him that we are leaving, he excit-

edly signed ‘eat’ and pointed down the

street. It was then that I remembered that I

had promised him that we’d buy croissants

after the signing class. I said, ‘of course, By-

ron, I promised you a croissant, sorry that I

forgot. We’ll go right away, a promise is a

promise.’ Hearing that put a big smile in his

face and we waved good bye to Diana.

Babette, mum of Byron (18 months)

German



… and I’m all done!

I breast fed Tristan exclusively for 6 months and when I in-

troduced him to solid food, he was definitely ready to eat

from a spoon. As long as he was hungry, food would go into

his mouth and only very little to none would go anywhere

else until the moment he had enough. When Tristan decid-

ed that he was done with eating he would forcefully hit the

spoon away from his mouth distributing food all over the

place. Numerous times I ended up getting changed and

cleaning the carpet.

The day Tristan mastered the sign for ‘all done’ he never hit

the spoon again. I respected his sign and we were both hap-

py. After signing ‘all done’ he then usually signed ‘down’

and I released him from his chair. The few signs for ‘eat’,

‘more’, ‘all done’ and ‘down’ made meal times a very pleas-

ant experience for both of us.


www.ourmamasrock.com/finally-sitting-up


http://ourmamasrock.com/finally-sitting-up/

ww.ourmamasrock.com/finally-sitting-up


One day when Tristan and I were out and about in the

morning we had so much fun with friends that I left it far

too late for getting back home in time for Tristan’s lunch

and more importantly for his lunch time nap. When we

were in the car I successfully managed to keep him awake. I

was planning to give him some fruit to save time to heat

something up. Tristan decided differently. As soon as we got

home, he signed ‘sleep’ and quickly crawled to the stairs in

the direction of his bed. He was so tired that food was not

important.



I’m soooo sleepy

Tristan signing ‘sleep’ ...


When I was bringing Edie to bed one night she signed "no bath, no book, no milk....BED." She was so tired she wanted to eschew the nightly ritual and just go to sleep. Sign allowed my little daughter to take control of her body and the situation. It's no wonder she rarely cried.

Julie, mum of Edie (18 months)

Canadian


I need my bed

… and ‘bed’



Old MacDonald … ...

Tristan signing ‘dog’

All children love

animals

Tristan used to sit on my lap for his evening

milk just before going to bed; a very quiet

time for both of us. I remember my mind quite

often drifting away, thinking about what we

had done that day or what I still needed to

do. On several occasions Tristan brought me

back to the present by signing ‘dog’ while

contently continuing to drink his milk – and

sure enough, the neighbour’s dog was bark-

ing.




… ... had a farm … and on his farm

he had a dog

One day when I took Tristan on a walk with the stroller, he

started signing ‘dog’ with a big smile on his face. I looked

around but could not see or hear a dog anywhere. So I

said, ‘I don’t see a dog, where is it?’. Tristan excitedly

pointed in the direction of someone’s garden and indeed

there was a stone statue of a dog. ‘You are right, there is a

dog in that garden, well done for spotting it.’. Of course I

got an even bigger smile now. Once again Tristan was

able to communicate that he saw something that took his

interest and loved the fact that he was able to share it

with me.

First two-sign sentence at 12 months

During a visit at my parents’ house, Tristan wanted to play

with their dog, Nemo. When he approached the dog Tris-

tan realised that he was sleeping. Nemo was curled up on

the floor next to my mum. Tristan looked at Nemo, then

got his granny’s attention and signed ‘dog / sleep’. My

mum was most impressed. Toddlers generally only start

forming two word sentences from about 18 months.






… and on that farm

he had a

chicken I regularly took Tristan for walks in the

stroller. On one of our routes we passed some

chickens and Tristan always enjoyed watching

them. One day shortly after we left the house,

Tristan started signing chicken although no

chicken was in sight anywhere. I asked him,

‘Do you want to go and see the chickens?’

With a big smile on his face he started nod-

ding his head. So we went to see the chickens

and I had one little happy boy.


Tristan signing ‘chicken’



… he had a bird too

On day trip with Mayah's grandparents, we put Mayah in her stroller. Something seemed to be wrong with the seat. Trying to figure out what the problem was all of our attention was absorbed by the stroller.

All of a sudden Mayah got very excited about some-thing. I thought she’d had enough of all the attention going to her stroller so I said, ‘It’s OK, we are almost done.’

Mayah got more and more excited and started saying ‘there, there’, pointing her finger at something. I turned to look but did not see anything so I asked her, ‘What is it? What do you see?’ Mayah smiled and signed ‘bird, bird’!. We looked again and finally saw what Mayah had seen way before us … a huge stork came from behind the back of the car. Now that I understood what her excitement was about I said, ‘Yes Mayah, that’s a bird, it’s a big bird. Well done for showing it to us!’.

That put an even bigger smile on Mayah’s face and she kept signing ‘bird, bird’!!

Had Mayah not signed what she meant, we probably would not have had a closer look and not seen the bird behind the car.

Judith, mum of Mayah (12.5 months)

Dutch



The incy wincy

spider


I was looking at an animal book with my daughter Antigone. We saw a bird and she signed ‘bird’, we saw a dog and she signed ‘dog’. On one page we saw a spider and I said to her, ‘We have not learned the sign for spi-der yet honey’. Well that’s what I thought but my daughter had obviously been paying better attention in class than me. She crossed her hands at the wrists and wiggled her fin-gers which is the sign for spider. Boy was she proud to teach me!

Allicia, mum of Antigoni (14 months)

Australian

Tristan signing ‘mouse’



Ready

for

more?

Tristan signing ... ... ‘more’

... ‘bath’

... ‘ball’

... ‘potty’

... ‘shoes’



Discovering shapes

One morning at my parents’ house, Tristan woke up early and came into

our bed to play for a little while. All of a sudden he started making the

sign for ‘cracker’ which I knew was one of his most favourite first solid

food. Still very tired, I tried to explain to him that crackers were not for

breakfast and that I could get him his milk instead. He continued to sign

‘cracker’ getting more excited (or agitated with me for not understand-

ing?) and at the same time started pointing to something on our duvet.

My husband followed the little finger and found the answer to the ex-

citement: Tristan was pointing to a yellow square on our duvet cover

which indeed looked very much like his favourite crackers. You should

have seen the smile in Tristan’s face when daddy said, ‘Look, Tristan is

telling us that this square looks like a cracker.’

I’m all done

On another visit at my parents’ house, Tristan was practising crawling

up two long flights of stairs. At the top of the second set of stairs, daddy

showed Tristan how to crawl back down safely. Doing really well, Tristan

stopped on the following landing and started signing ‘all done’ and then

‘up’. Daddy understood immediately, ‘Well done Tristan, I’m sure coming

up all the way and coming half way back down must have been very tir-

ing. I will carry you the rest of the way.’





Star lights on the Christmas tree

My mother-in-law's first encounter with signing was at

Christmas. Edie ran up to her grandmother whilst signing

'stars' then pulled her by the hand to show her the tree

and lights. How heart warming is that?!

Julie, mum of Edie (17 months)

Canadian

I need the potty

Thilo got into signing very quickly. His first sign was

‘more’ and he soon wanted ‘more’ of lots of things:

food, playing, bath time, tickling … At 14 months he

Invented a sign for ‘I need to poo’ , so from then on I

knew when to take him to the potty. It worked every

time. I was amazed that at such a young age he

managed to keep a clean nappy. Fantastic!

Marlene, mum of Thilo (14 months)

Mexican



Ball, book, music

I first started to learn signing from a book but did not get very far until I

joined a group that Diana taught. Signing with a group of other mums

and babies made it much more fun and increased the motivation to keep

learning new signs. Joel’s signing vocabulary increased rapidly. He loved

signing ‘ball’ whenever he saw one which made it very easy for me to

engage him in playing with a ball. He also loved dancing and often

signed ‘music’ while pointing to the CD player. Another favourite sign

was ‘book’. He loved looking at books with me signing the various things

he saw such as ‘ball’, ‘dog’ and ‘train’. Joel has always been very com-

municative and signing not only allowed him to share his thoughts from

a very early age, it also allowed him to tell me what activities he was

interested in. And because I understood, we were able to avoid

situations which may otherwise have been frustrating for both of us.

Train ride

When Joel was 19 months we took him on a train ride. He had always

enjoyed playing with his toy train and looking at his train book but actu-

ally going to ride on the train was the most exciting thing. He absolutely

loved it and even days after the trip he still told just about anyone we

met about it by signing ‘train, train’. I would never have known how

much of an impression this experience has left, had he not been able to

sign about it long after the fact.

Saskia, mum of Joel (14 - 19 months)

German




Too much noise to hear your own voice

We sat at the dinner table with 9 family members and as

you can imagine there was a lot of talking going on.

Tristan started tilting his chair. I quietly asked him 'What

can happen when you do that?' and my voice almost

drowned in the chatter. Tristan decided to respond

without any sound; he signed 'I could fall' to which I re-

sponded 'Yes, and could hurt yourself'. He reacted with

'then I would cry' so I signed 'stop tilting' and he did.

Diana, mum of Tristan (3 years)



Welcome to the world little sister

I had prepared Tristan as well as I could for the arrival of his sister,

Briana and he seemed very excited about her ‘coming out’ soon. Of

course you never know how an older sibling will react until the moment

of that first encounter arrives. We were quite sure that he would give

her a warm welcome and I was curious to see what he would say or do.

When Tristan walked into the room, seeing his little sister in his dad’s

arms, he decided to greet her with signing ‘brother’; sending shivers of

joy down my spine. I asked him if he remembered the sign for sister

which he didn’t but he wanted me to show him. Then he also signed

‘sister’ to Briana. What a sensitive little boy I thought.

I had explained to him that it will take a while until Briana will be able

to speak. He had not used his signs much since he turned two because

he mastered his two spoken languages well enough by then. Realising

that his sister will not be able to speak, he’s been practicing his signs

again in preparation for the big day. The few days I stayed in the hospi-

tal, Tristan was with his grandparents in Germany teaching his grand-

ma lots of signs to prepare her for ‘baby communication’ as well. It’s

wonderful to see him so involved.

Diana, mum of Tristan (3.5 years)




Signing when speaking is not an option

Some time ago I took Tristan to three sessions of physiotherapy. He has

bronchitis and in Belgium it’s very common that the pediatrician pre-

scribes physiotherapy which includes inhaling a salt solution through a

special inhaler that pulses the humid air out at a certain frequency.

Tristan has never had use this type of inhaler before. The therapist

showed the machine to us and explained how it works. He then placed

the mask on Tristan’s face and switched on the machine. I thought

Tristan looked terrified (at least that is what his eyes communicated to

me). I asked him if he was ok. Of course he was not able to speak so I

told him to respond with the signs for ‘yes’ or ‘no’. He signed ‘yes’ and I

felt much better knowing that he was ok. I kept reminding him that he

could communicate with me by using signs.

During the 3rd session, he signed ‘no’ about half way through the

process and I immediately asked the therapist to stop the machine. It

appeared that the therapist had pushed the mask against his face too

hard. Once Tristan had been able to explain that, the therapist applied

less pressure and Tristan was fine to keep going. I’m sure Tristan was

happy that he was able to communicate with me and that we could take

action to make him feel more comfortable immediately.

Diana, mum of Tristan (3.5 years)



Meet Diana

Hello there, I'm Diana and I'm on a mission

to help mums with babies and toddlers to under-stand what's really going on in their children's heads without interpretation or guessing games so they can feel more confident and relaxed in their parenting.

In short: I help mums to be fun mums who ROCK for their babies!

How did I get here?

I am a mama of two wonderful children and lack of sleep and crying for no obvious reason have made me feel helpless and totally overwhelmed many times. When my daughter cries, I also catch myself shouting at my son be-cause my tolerance level seems to shrivel to zero when she cries and I can't figure out why.

I am a marketing communications specialist by education and had worked in several marketing communications positions in various companies for over 10 years when my son was born in 2008. My communication skills did not get me very far with connecting with my baby. So many times I wished that he could tell me what made him cry, so I could make him feel better and feel safe quickly. I also wished that he could share what was going on in his head so I could feel more connected; feel more part how he experienced the world.

Not only did I feel my communication skills being challenged, in my new role as a mum I also felt the strong desire to find a more meaningful path professionally. Something that would allow me to make a difference while still having the time and flexibility to be the mum I wanted to be. That's when I found out about baby signing. Already as a teenager I was fasci-nated with sign language but never had a reason to learn it. Now I had found a wonderful reason: it would help me understand my son!


Despite my husband's initial scepticism, there was no stopping me in giving it a try. We started when Tristan was eight months old and at only nine months he started asking for his milk without crying. What an emotional moment, it almost made me cry with joy: this was the proof that it's working. This first experience also converted my husband into a believer. Signs for 'eat', 'more', 'all done' and 'down' followed quickly all of which helped make meal time a very pleasant experience for both of us. Once Tristan had realised that he was able to express his wants and needs, he soon added signs that allowed him to simply share his thoughts, these were signs for 'dog', 'bird', 'airplane', 'flower', 'bee', 'chicken', 'ball', 'book', etc.

By the time he was just over 12 months, Tristan had developed a vocabulary of 32 signs and 6 spoken words. I stopped counting before he turned 18 months as his sign vocabulary had exceeded 100 and his spoken vocabulary followed suit with about 70 words (a mix of German and Dutch). The aver-age vocabulary of a two year old is 50 words. From the age of two years, Tris-tan spoke his two primary languages in full sentences, and he soon developed quite an impressive English vocabulary as well.

I was so enchanted with how signing impacted our communication and emo-tional bonding not to mention the fact that it helped reduce frustration for both of us in so many instances that I decided to share this magical experi-ence with other families by teaching baby signing courses (www.bizzybee.eu). Requests from mums who were not able to make it to live classes and the birth of my daughter have triggered the idea for Our Mamas Rock online courses.

During my quest for a more meaningful professional path, I also trained as a Montessori teacher for children from birth to three years and qualified as a children's yoga teacher. Skills I developed through both of these trainings have not only benefited my son, they have also been invaluable for the crea-tion of my signing programmes and material.

Diana Siepmann - uncovering your MAMA-ROCK factor

Meet Diana


http://bizzybee.eu

What’s next?

This is Tristan and I signing ‘I love

you’. We still quietly sign ‘I love you’

when I drop him off at school and he

is waiting in line to go inside. Tristan

is four now and might get embar-

rassed with me saying ‘I love you’ any

other way when he is with his friends

from school. I’m loving it! - Diana

You like what you read and want to join the circle of Mamas who ROCK?

Check out my website for course information and be sure to leave your name and email address to receive Our Mamas Rock news.


Wanna Rock for Your Baby? 12 Compelling Reasons to Sign with Your Hearing Child

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