Some of y’all had questions about teaching Scarlette sign language. I’ve been doing sign language with Scarlette pretty much since she came home from the hospital. One time, I went to sign language camp. Have I ever told y’all the story about how my parents sent me to a different camp pretty much every single summer of my adolescence? I think sign language camp was the year after art camp but before horseback riding camp. I’m far from fluent but I guess I know more signs than the average kid who went to swim camp that summer. Also, I don’t know how to swim so I *think* swim camp would have been a better choice.
Honestly my goal with Scarlette was just to have a stimulating activity to do with her. Being a micro-preemie, there is very little to measure her development against. While the rule of thumb is to adjust her actual age down three and a half months, even that doesn’t give us much to go on since milestones vary wildly depending on the amount of trauma a preemie encountered. One one hand, Scarlette didn’t have a single brain bleed (not even a grade one!) which is incredibly rare for a baby born at 25 weeks. On the other hand, we signed consent forms for certain life-saving treatments that carried a risk of cerebral palsy or autism, in addition to the risks she carries just from being born so prematurely.
So I knew we had no way of knowing what Scarlette’s cognitive development was going to be like for awhile but I just wanted to give her the best start by doing whatever I could to stimulate her mind. I knew she couldn’t really LEARN sign language that early, it was just something she could focus on and track my hands with her eyes. It seems counter intuitive but sign language actually helps to develop verbal language skills. So I would sign as I sang the alphabet and as much as I could while we read books and played with toys.
And to be totally honest, after all that effort what actually made us see progress was the Baby Signing Time DVD*. I didn’t think we really needed it because we were already signing but my friend Erin recommended it and so we decided to try it. Within about two weeks of using it she started signing “milk” and “doggie” consistently, saying “mama” and she’s just started signing “eat.” Scarlette really loves music and so I think combining the signs with song is what helped. I sing the songs from the video now when we’re signing during the day and she seems to be more attentive that way. So basically what I’m saying is: I can’t take credit for it.
I am really happy with our choice to do sign language though. For Scarlette, she wants to do more physically than her body is ready for and you can tell she is easily frustrated by that. So I’m pleased to see her be able to communicate her needs more. Jeff and I watch the videos and do the signs with her and while I know it isn’t for everyone, it really works for us. I hope that answered some of the questions. If you have others, leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them there!
She’s not signing in these pictures. She’s just enamored with her toes.