Signing Training

I was chatting with my friend Marie the other day, who has an 18 month old named Mia. She told me about a DVD that was instrumental for her daughter, before she could speak, but when she needed to communicate. The DVD is called "Baby Signing Time" and apparently, it has won a ton of awards and is very well known. She couldn't say enough good things about it, and convinced me to pick up a copy to see if Ginger would respond. She started showing the DVD to Mia around 5 months, and within just a month or two Mia was using the signs quite well to communicate things like "food, drink, milk, more, dog, diaper, potty," and many more.

I recieived the DVD from Amazon the night before I left for my trip, but the topic was brought up again while I was on the plane coming home. There was a 3 or 4 year old little boy who was having an absolute FIT, and his mother seemed to care less. She let him throw his tantrums, and was completely ambivalant. It was annoying to say the least. While waiting for our baggage, another mom was talking with her, and encouraged her to think about teaching him to sign (the mom said he wasn't speaking yet, which is a whole other topic. Teach your children, people!! You should be able to teach a child basic words by the age of 4!!!)

Anyhow, after seeing that craziness, I came home and popped the DVD in tonight and watched it with Ginger. It was actually pretty catchy- they have real babies signing, along with a lady singing the songs. Ginger laughed a few times at a funny frog cartoon that pops up in between songs, and she watched the babies pretty intently. Marie mentioned that the 30 min DVD might not hold her complete attention the first time through, but it did for Ginger. She loved it! I can't wait to see if this sign language training really works for her. We'll see.