Baby Signing

Ben and I were reading recently about baby sign-language, and have decided to try it with Joshua although he is still a little young to understand it. The idea is that he will experience less frustration if he is able to sign his thoughts, feelings and requests before he is able to articulate them verbally. We have a friend at church who is studying to be a speech therapist, and she recommends it as an excellent way to communicate as long as we also speak whilst signing.

So I ordered the book pictured above from Amazon, at the bargain price of £2.50 from The Book Depository (who are always very efficient, reliable and reasonably-priced) and it arrived today. I've spent a fair amount of the afternoon memorising as many signs as I can squeeze into my tired brain, and can now convey messages of love, sleep, gratitude and milk, amongst others! I was delighted to see that "cat" was one of the 40 featured words, as will Mandu be - the sign involves stroking one's imaginary whiskers! Although Joshua won't understand until he is about 7 months old, he seems to enjoy being told that "Mummy loves Joshua" and giggles in a jolly manner!