HomeCome and sign with your baby at Early Signs
I run groups in Walkley which consist of singing with your baby to familiar and new songs, whilst learning new signs which help you to communicate effectively with your baby. The signs you learn are all related to routine, things you do and encounter in your daily life.
All the sessions have a theme which is typically something related to things you would do with your baby. These themes include Food, Out and About and Bath & Bed. You will learn songs which you can sing with your baby at these times, which help them to associate the actual thing with the “Symbolic Gesture” or sign.
Babies really love the routine of the session, and quickly become familiar with how it works, and the songs that we sing each week. This helps them to feel comfortable when encountering new songs and signs (and it often helps the you too!!)
Baby signing helps babies with their language development, as they learn to understand that symbols, both talk and gestures, can represent real things, especially when they encounter them regularly. As we always sign together with saying the words, it does not hamper their speech development.
I place a great emphasis on the promotion of rhythm and rhythmic activities, as developing a sense of rhythm is a fantastic way of promoting all round development. Rhythm is an important aspect of all of our lives, just think about how we talk, walk and go about our days. Rhythm infiltrates it all.
Helping babies and young children to have an inner rhythm will help them in all their learning and developing. Try it at home, put on a tune you enjoy which has a pronounced rhythm to it, do this regularly, each day if you can, and see how quickly your little one can pick up the beat.
Research suggests that having a good sense of rhythm or beat helps children to learn to read and write. This is because the excellent listening skills they have developed through hearing and responding to a beat work to help them to hear and understand the different parts of speech, break them down and in turn, read or write part of and then all of a word.
As a mum myself, I know the value in finding fun, interesting and stimulating activities to do with our babies. It can be so rewarding for babies to spend a bit of time with each other in a safe environment. It can also be equally rewarding to find a welcoming place where you can chat with other parents about your children or simply about life in general. For that reason, after the singing part of the session, I set aside time where the little ones can play with the assortment of toys I bring along, and you can chat to your friends and watch with delight at the next astounding thing your little one achieves.