Signing With Toddlers Creates Happier Kids
Amelia Cerling
If you’ve ever felt the frustration of not knowing what your baby or toddler is trying to tell you, some day care centers are trying to help.
Over the past few years teaching babies and toddlers sign language has really caught on, with many day care centers making it a part of every day instruction. Parents like Kristin Berg say signing has made their lives easier, and their children much less frustrated with trying to communicate.
When Berg’s 2-year-old son Dylan was younger, he seemed to have his own little language, words said with conviction, but not understood by anyone, including mom and dad. Berg says, “He was getting really frustrated with us, because we weren’t able to understand what it was that he wanted to tell us, he knew obviously, but some kids point, but he was never one of those kids.â€
Then, about the time he was 9 months old-Dylan’s daycare started teaching him some simple signs. Berg says it was, “Things like all done, more and please, he would also do thank you.â€
That’s when life in the berg house started to change. Berg says, “He really seemed to pick up on it very quickly and it was a really big help for us, because they were really basic eating signs. It really helped us to be able to understand are you really done or are you just playing.â€
And one person making moms’ lives easier is Chetek High School senior Hannah Lambert.
Lambert has a personal connection with signing, born with Aspergers Disease, she communicated solely through American Sign Language. She says, “It was actually the first language I learned when I was younger, because I couldn’t talk when I was little, so I learned sign language.â€
And now, Lambert has returned to her first language, by teaching it to toddlers. She says, “A lot of times when kids misbehave, a lot of times it’s because they can’t express themselves very well and sign language makes it easier to express yourself very well.â€
Lambert says teaching toddlers signing helps build their self esteem, just as it did for her. She says learning and teaching sign language has become her passion through the past few years, and hopes to one day make it her career.
Program Director Becky Albricht, at day care provider Brighter Beginnings in Eau Claire says toddler sign language has been a part of its program for the past five years, and she encourages all parents to sign with their children.