FAQ'S

Find the answers to the most asked questions below!

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Q What Covid health & safety precautions are you observing?
A. Our indoor classes Triple air filtration & more! Read our precautions here.

Q What’s the best age to start?
A. Please start early! In the first year, babies are focused on developing language and small motor skills, the two main components of sign language. Starting at 6-9 months will give you enough time to get signing well established withing this critical window.
While toddlers are welcome in class, after 12 months, they’ll begin to transition more into large motor skill development, and you’ll find it more challenging to attend classes with them.

Q. How long before my baby begins to sign?
A. On average, if you begin signing when baby is 6-9 months old, they’ll produce first signs within 6- 12 weeks. It is important to note, however, that babies will respond to your signs in other recognizable ways, long before they can actually produce their own signs, such as getting excited when you sign MILK or looking for the family pet when you sign DOG.

Q What kinds of things do babies actually communicate with signs?
A. Babies will sign for anything they want to say. Often the signs they use are for basic needs, like MILK, CHANGE or PAIN but the signs they like the best are those that express things they are happy, excited, or curious about. “I hear an AIRPLANE” or “WHAT’s that?” or “I see a DOGGY!”

Q. Why should I take baby sign before, say baby music or gym class?
A. First and foremost, the first 12 months are critical to language development.
However, Baby Sign Basics is one of the only activities for younger babies that’s perfectly suited to their stage of development.
We focus on maximizing language and small motor skills with everything they love, music, bubbles, stories and simple games, in a safe environment with other little ones of similar age. You’ll have 4 more fun-filled toddler & preschool years for other classes— or you can take other classes on other days of the week.

Q Is it effective to send my baby to class with their nanny?
A. Yes, most definetly! Every in-person series class includes the online version of the class, so parents & other caregivers can follow what’s being learned. It is important to do this little bit of homework, however, if you want to know what baby is signing to you! If nanny is more comfortable with Spanish, please ask for my small “diaper bag verson” of the book in Español!

Q. Is it possible to learn at home? Do you have an online class?
A. Yes— I have a wonderful online class that follows the same curriculum as the in-person class. Each class includes a lesson for parents with ideas for fun activities to do with your baby at home, similar to what we do with the babies in class! You can even add on my book and flash cards, for less than the price of Amazon Prime, to be mailed to your home.

Q. Can’t I just look up signs on my phone?
A. Have you been signing for a while without results? Looking up signs on your phone is a great way to add additional vocabulary, but getting babies to communicate with sign language is about a lot more than the individual signs, and getting the right start is crucial to getting results. By attending a class or reading my book, you’ll avoid wasting time and get your baby signing ASAP.

Q. What if I already know what my baby wants?
A. Babies are born with an effective means of communicating their basic needs—they cry. When your baby cries, you go through a process of elimination: Is she hungry, wet, tired, or in pain? Usually, after a few tries, you’ll hit the right one and she’ll stop crying. This, coupled with a good helping of “parent’s intuition” actually enables you to meet your baby’s basic needs pretty well. So why should you sign? Crying and whining are fine for expressing a few basic needs, but babies have a lot more that they want to express than that. Signing allows babies to communicate specifics, such as “my ear hurts” or “I hear a doggy barking outside” or “I want crackers”

Q. Will my baby continue to use signs as a second language, even after they can speak?
A. Babies will do what the rest of the family does. If you have a family member who needs sign language for communication, baby will follow the rest of the family’s lead, in signing to that person. However, if everyone else in the household communicates by speaking, your baby will naturally transition to speech, dropping signs as they learn to say words, much in the same way as they transition from crawling to walking. However, when you have baby number 2, it tends to come back to them quickly when everyone begins signing with the new sibling— even if it’s been 3 or 4 years since they’ve signed. Babies love when their older sib signs to them!

Q. What’s the point—won’t my baby talk soon anyway?
A. Well, this depends on what you mean by “soon.” Soon can seem like a long time when your child is trying to communicate with you by screaming and whining. In general, most babies don’t even use “Mama” and “Dada” to the right parent until they’re at least 11 months old, and a 12-month-old child who uses two more words besides “Mama” and “Dada” is considered in the advanced minority. Even once your child does begin talking, signing helps fill in gaps and clarify their meaning. A child who says “Da” to mean “dog,” “Daddy,” and “done” can use a sign to help get the point across, until they can pronounce words more clearly.

Q. Do I have to learn a whole new language?
A. Not at all. You can think of “baby sign language” is the “baby talk” version of signing. When starting to sign with your baby, I suggest choosing between six and ten words to start with and adding more as you feel you and your baby are ready, focusing on the individual concepts your baby would most want to say to you.

Q. I've been signing to my baby for several months, and I'm sure he's understanding , but he won't use the signs himself-- what's up?
A. I hear this most often from parents of older babies and toddlers who are focusing only on the signs they think are the "most important"-- usually things their child would typically cry for. The trick is to motivate your child to sign, by including signs for things they’re are happy and excited about— not things they could cry for.
Use about 50% motivating signs (FAN, BALL, DOG, LIGHT, AIRPLANE, KEYS) and 50% routine signs (MILK, MORE, EAT, FINISHED, CHANGE, HELP) and you'll see much faster results.

Q. Will signing inhibit my baby’s language development?
A. Signing won’t inhibit your baby’s language development any more than crawling will inhibit his learning to walk. As a matter of fact, research shows that babies who sign generally talk sooner and build vocabulary more quickly than their non-signing peers. In their long-term study, Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn found that by age 36 months, children who signed as babies were talking at the 47-month age level, putting them nearly a year ahead of their non-signing peers. In fact, Speech Therapists and Pathologists ( SLP’s) actually use signing with children with speech delay because it helps encourage speech development!

Q. Aren’t American Sign Language (ASL) signs too hard for babies to make?
A. Babies have limited small motor coordination, so in the beginning they won’t produce the signs exactly as adults do. Just as your baby hears you say the word water but first only manages to say “wa-wa,” he’ll approximate the gestures he sees you make to the best of his ability. He may, for example, clap, bang fists together, or bring his index finger to his palm in an approximation of the sign MORE, rather than managing the precise handshape. Just as you understand when your baby says “wa-wa,” you’ll also learn to recognize his signed approximations.

Q. We are raising our baby to be billingual. Will adding signs confuse our baby?
A. This is an excellent question, and one that comes up often with families attending my classes. The addition of signing will absolutely not confuse your baby. In fact, signing will do just the opposite—it will act as a language bridge, showing your baby that words mean the same thing in both languages. For example, let’s say mom is offering the baby milk and says ‘leche” (Spanish for “milk”) while making the sign for MILK. Later that day, it’s Dad’s turn to feed the baby. He says “milk” as he signs MILK.Because both parents use the same gesture, the baby learns that “milk” and “leche” both mean the same thing. Research has shown that signing can actually help bilingual babies learn both languages better and faster.

Q. Although we live in the US, I am from Mexico and we speak mostly Spanish at home. Is sign language pretty much a universal language, or is it different for each country and if so, should we be using Spanish sign language when we speak Spanish to our baby?
A. Contrary to popular belief, there is no universal sign language, just as there is no universal spoken language. This is because sign languages evolved independently within the Deaf communities of each country and/or region. Contrary to what many people would assume, American Sign Language is not “Signed English” . In fact, the US, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and S. Africa–  all English-speaking countries– all have their own seperate sign languages, as do the various Spanish-speaking countries. So Spanish Sign Language is only used in Spain, and Mexican Sign Language is used in Mexico. No matter which languages you use at home, you can use the ASL signs with your hearing baby. If your baby is deaf or hard-of-hearing, it’s best to use the local sign language for your region, so they’ll be able to communicate with others from the local Deaf Community where they live.