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Everything you need to know about baby signs {Episode 247}
327 Plays1 year ago
Have you heard of baby signs? Are you curious to learn more? In this episode, Bonnie & Audrey share their experience using baby signs with each of their families. They share when to start baby sign language, the what of baby sign language basics, why to teach baby sign languge, how, tips and benefits of teaching your baby sign language. They also share some their favorite baby sign language video resources. You are not going to want to miss this episode!
Mentioned in this episode:
About Outnumbered the Podcast:
Two moms, parenting a combined total of 19 kids and finding joy in the chaos. Join Audrey and Bonnie as they share real parenting tips for real people through humor, advice and compassion. Whether it's tackling how to teach kids to work or discussing where to turn when you're all out of patience, these two experienced moms are here to offer authentic tips for raising children joyfully.
Schedule a free coaching call with Bonnie.
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Transcript
Introduction to Baby Signs
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, and welcome back to Outnumber the Podcast. We are on episode 247, and we're talking about something that we love baby signs. We are talking about what baby signs are, why to use baby signs, when to start doing them, how to do it, the incredible benefits that come from using baby signs with your baby and toddler, some tips we throw in there, and then examples of how we have used baby signs with our families to
00:00:28
Speaker
great advantage. So let's get started. Hello and welcome to Outnumbered the Podcast. I'm Audrey. And I'm Bonnie. We are experienced moms to a combined total of 19 children. In our weekly episodes, we explore relatable topics using our perspectives of humor and chaos. Tune in for advice and encouragement to gain more joy in your parenting journey.
Listener Engagement and Topic Request
00:01:02
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome back. And we're going to be talking about one of our favorite things, and that is baby signs today. We actually got an episode request for this one. So if you guys have something you want us to talk about, be sure to send us an email, drop us a comment, wherever. We want to talk about what you want us to talk about.
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah, and no request is to, what's the word, specific, I guess. We could talk a half an hour about just about anything. So give us all your weird, super specific requests. Sometimes you have a particular problem you think, nobody else has dealt with this before. We've probably dealt with it. So send us an email. We'd love to chat.
00:01:39
Speaker
Okay.
Understanding Baby Signs
00:01:40
Speaker
So what are baby signs? Let's just jump right into this one. Bonnie and I could probably and will probably through this episode be telling a bunch of funny stories. So we're going to skip this humor segment here. Okay. So baby signs are similar to sign language.
00:01:56
Speaker
It's where a baby communicates with hand signs or signals. Think of a baby learning to wave bye. Bye bye. That's a baby sign. So baby signs take it way farther than just waving bye bye. But oh, side note also, if you are watching us on YouTube, this is an episode to watch on YouTube because we will actually kind of maybe be showing some of these. It's hard to talk about baby signs without using your hands.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yes, that's a good point. This is a YouTube episode for sure. Yeah, I think of waving goodbye. I also think of like come here like the Graspy sign is always a really big one like give me that or come here or even reaching up, arms reaching up to mom is a sign. It's saying I need comfort, I need love, hold me. So many ways that our kids communicate with their hands or with body language, right? This is just kind of another way of taking it a level deeper so we can help them communicate a little bit more effectively.
Cognitive Benefits of Baby Signs
00:02:46
Speaker
So as we know, a baby's brain can understand much more than they can actually verbalize. This is very, very common. And if you've ever learned a foreign language, you know, this goes the same. For some reason, our brain can understand much quicker than it can express. Well, it's actually not a surprise. Like you have to understand before you can express yourself, right?
00:03:04
Speaker
So very often you're understanding what people are saying and you're just halting or trying to get the words out. That's what babies deal with for years, the poor things. So a baby can recognize, look at an animal book and recognize a hippopotamus, probably years before they can ever say hippopotamus. I can't even say it half the time.
00:03:21
Speaker
They're going to recognize images, body language, facial expressions, places they go regularly, things around the house way more often and earlier than they'll ever be able to express it. So science help kind of bridge that gap.
00:03:39
Speaker
Okay, so when can you start doing baby signs with a
When to Start Baby Signs
00:03:42
Speaker
baby? Well, as soon as they can interact, you can start teaching them baby signs. We started probably around four months just starting to use, and we're actually going to talk about methods here, what methods that we use a little bit later on.
00:03:54
Speaker
But we started signing with our babies all around four to six months whenever they started showing an ability to want to interact. You know it when you're playing the who's the baby with them and they're actually kind of responding and giggling. They're interacting and you can start working with them with baby signs at that point. Our youngest baby, our earliest signer did her first sign at six months, which is really early, but it was cool. I'll tell you a little story.
00:04:21
Speaker
Um, so I'd been teaching her the sign for dog and she, I didn't know, like I found this out later with her, but she was afraid of dogs. Um, but a dog, I was getting her out of her car seat and a dog came up behind us and I didn't see it or hear it, but I was six, she was six months old. I was getting her out of car seat and she suddenly did the sign for dog. And I was like, yeah, wow dog. And I turned around and there was a dog there. So it was kind of like this startled reaction thing that pulled this sign out of her. It was so cool.
00:04:53
Speaker
It's so fun when babies start to react and normally we have to wait until one and a half two before they're really communicating. So it's almost like this really inside peak into their brain early on if you can get them to learn signs early on. And so many other benefits. We'll talk about that as well. But you can just, the how of this is you can just do the sign anytime you speak a word.
00:05:15
Speaker
Let me just say that this isn't a difficult thing. We're not asking you to learn a full foreign language, okay? So I had a friend in college who was an interpreter for sign language. It's much more involved than what we're talking about here. We're talking about learning like 10 to 20 signs of typical things your baby might need or ask for and communicating those to your baby. Super simple. So don't get overwhelmed and we'll give you some resources that will make it really easy too.
00:05:38
Speaker
Just start using them. Start using them with your other kids. If you have other children and a baby around, start using them in front of the baby with the other kid and the other kids, the older kids get super involved. It's really fun. They start saying it over and over and over even more often than you're willing to do. The kids will just repeat it ad nauseam so that that baby can.
00:05:55
Speaker
You can pick it up. So every time you say more, you do the sign for more. I would suggest recommend starting with just a handful, no more than five, maybe even just one or two at the beginning and just say it every single time. Milk is another good one because babies need milk from day one, right? So saying milk every time you nurse, give a bottle, whatever, could be a really beneficial way. Bye-bye, more like I said. Let's see, what are some other really early beginning ones you guys do, Audrey?
00:06:24
Speaker
Oh, we do like nurse when they want to nurse. That's just pet in the chest, right? So that like they want to. More is actually a really complicated one for kids to understand the concept of what more means. I mean, if you think about it, it's not a noun. It's something that you're requesting more. And actually, I think a lot of my babies signed more when they meant food. Yes. It's always basically food because that's what they're asking for more, I'm usually.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And we always do like their favorite animals. So dog is just like panting like a dog. Right? That's easy. Whereas the sign language for dog is a snap and a pat of your thigh. Side note, I do sign language interpretation as well. And you're right. Baby signs are so much easier because they're babies. They're for babies. It's just really, really neat when you can get them to communicate with you before they have any vocabulary at all.
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, that reminds me of a funny story with my sister-in-law. My husband has a sister who has Down syndrome, and so she was very late in talking. They had to use a lot of different resources and tools with her to teach her. And one thing that surprised my mother-in-law was that when she first started asking for things, she just kept saying one.
00:07:34
Speaker
One, one. And then she realized that every time she was offering her a cookie or a slice of apple or something, she said, would you like one? Would you like one? So every time food was presented, it was one. So this is kind of a similar concept, which is totally normal. Babies are going to overgeneralize until they understand exactly what that word means. But any hint into what they are requesting can be very helpful for a frustrated parent who doesn't know what the kid needs.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yes, it is so fun. Once they start doing baby signs, you will think your baby is a genius, guaranteed. Okay, so we've talked about the what, the why, the when, and the how.
Reducing Toddler Frustration with Signs
00:08:09
Speaker
We're going to talk about the benefits because you guys, there are so many benefits.
00:08:14
Speaker
Just like, okay, let's just, let's just jump in. Cause it's so cool. The biggest benefit that I found, and this wasn't why I was teaching my kids baby signs. It was for them to be able to communicate with me. Like I've been able, you know, to talk about, but here's what they found that baby signs eliminate or reduce the terrible twos because the child can communicate. And they think a lot of what terrible twos quote unquote, terrible twos are is a kid.
00:08:40
Speaker
can understand so much more than they can verbalize. I mean, let's go back to the word hippopotamus. That takes a long time and a lot of syllables to be able to say that, whereas the baby sign is just a wide open mouth like this.
00:08:54
Speaker
Right. That's so easy. Any baby can do that. Right. So when they can communicate, it doesn't, I mean, I'm sure if you've had a baby, you know what it's like for them to talk, to try to like, you can spend 10 minutes trying to figure out what they want and they're frustrated and they're getting more frustrated. So anyway, that is like one of my favorite benefits is that they can communicate and they don't get so frustrated.
00:09:20
Speaker
Okay, another set of benefits really affects every aspect of life. There are practical benefits, there are emotional benefits, mental benefits. So here is like the official definition of the benefits. Sign language can serve as a visual stimulation of speech and language development, right? So it's using their eyes. So basically when we talk about homeschooling and learning different topics, we're often explaining how to incorporate other senses, right? Visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, whatever.
00:09:49
Speaker
To better learn and more easily absorb the information this is what we're doing with the kids right there they're using eyeballs and their hands to then learn what normally their ears and their mouth only only participate with. It also helps to reduce negative social behaviors right cuz they can communicate much earlier than normal increases social interactions they can interact with people.
00:10:08
Speaker
and develops cognitive structures, which means makes them smarter, right? With early introduction, sign language provides emotional, social, and academic support for language development. So in other words, it helps their brain use more than one area to communicate and it just gives them a head start on talking. So helpful. It is really cool. Like once they started studying, I don't know why they started studying baby signs.
00:10:32
Speaker
Um, but it's really cool. All the things they're finding out. So practical benefits, less fussing from a baby who doesn't want that because they're able to communicate what they want. Like bath is another one, you know, just splashing the water bath. And my kids could communicate that to me. There were some that really liked a bath, better social skills because they're used to interacting and their messages getting across. Right. And understanding what other people are, are communicating to them.
00:10:57
Speaker
a higher self-esteem later in life. Isn't that crazy? They have noticed that on kids that do sign languages, babies. We're calling them babies, but we used these at least through age two until their verbal got ahead of what they could communicate with their hands. And then enhanced memory. Now, that one is something you don't think about, but my goodness, yeah, if they can remember all these signs and these ways to communicate,
00:11:25
Speaker
That would be like we've talked about, building new pathways in the brain. It's just like learning a foreign language builds new pathways in the brain that they can use later in life. So really cool benefit.
00:11:35
Speaker
So I've seen this multiple times in another instance. At our church, when the kids learn little kids songs, church songs, they very often will teach them with signs. Sometimes they're legitimate sign language. Sometimes they're just something that reminds the child of the word. And those kids learn the songs so much faster. This was my assignment once when we lived in our old congregation that I taught the kids the songs. And signs are actually much harder for me. I don't know what it is about it, but I have a harder time remembering them than the words.
00:12:05
Speaker
So, I was always like, oh, we got to do the signs with this because they're going to need help learning. It was harder for me, but they picked it up so quick. Those words just came with the signs because their body was using another form of expression or something, but it really does help the memory. It's amazing.
00:12:20
Speaker
A few more practical benefits include more fun. It's really fun teaching a kid to sign and really fun watching them, especially if you get the whole family involved. They could potentially have a future career in sign language. They've got this early start, right? Or even something like speech language pathology or audiology. My mom is actually a speech language pathologist, so we have many memories of doing signs and many memories of kind of teasing her for how she...
00:12:42
Speaker
talks to kids that can't talk. Side note, there are actually specific signs for sounds, not just words, meaning specifically in the pathology type of things, not in just speaking to someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. And so any child that would struggle to speech, my mom would pull out those signs and show them. It basically helps them articulate the sound within their mouth by watching your hand. It's like magic, but the kid picks it up so quickly. It's really fun to watch.
00:13:12
Speaker
That is really cool. Wow, that's awesome. Okay, so let's go on to emotional benefits. The first thing that they have noticed is that the child has a closer bond with the parent. I mean, it's a trust thing, right? The child somehow connects you understanding what they're trying to communicate with trust and they get closer. It's really special to see. Fewer moments of distress, which helps them regulate and control their emotions and behavior.
00:13:40
Speaker
We all know what it's like to watch a baby or ourselves get out of control because we're not being able to communicate properly. Right. And so that it's really hard. Um, but if you don't ever get like to the edge, it helps can regulate the emotions and the behavior. Super cool.
00:13:58
Speaker
Hey friends, are you struggling in your parenting journey? Did you know that you could schedule a free coaching call with me, Bonnie? Life coaching is how we manage our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, and it can actually help every aspect of our life, including parenting, other relationships, goals, and so much more. So what I can teach you is how to relinquish control of the things that you can't change in your life, so important, and how to be more intentional and approach the things that you can change.
00:14:25
Speaker
Life coaching has helped me learn how to manage my brain and gain the self-confidence I needed to be a better wife and mother. I became empowered when I started listening to life coaching podcasts and it really changed me from a person who was pretty negative into a positive focused person.
00:14:44
Speaker
Yes, exactly. It has changed so much for me too, which is why I decided to become a certified life coach and is one of my favorite ways to help other moms gain more peace and joy in their life, something that all of us want. And I also want to show you how it works with a free session. So check the show notes for a link to my calendar. We'll see you then.
00:15:02
Speaker
I may have shared this before, but my current baby has some developmental delays and when she first started getting really agitated about it, she was such a calm baby for so long. I was like, oh no, she's getting mad at me all the time. And her therapist said, this is perfect. This is exactly what we want. We want her to be agitated enough to make progress in her development. Otherwise, she'll just sit there being happy and sucking her thumb all day long for the rest of her life.
00:15:23
Speaker
It's so good. Side note, I'm coming off of a really bad cold and I was kind of hoarse for a couple of days. I just remember thinking, oh my gosh, I can barely speak. This is so frustrating. I'm used to being able to very easily communicate my needs and very complex ideas. These poor babies are stuck just barely communicating, give me some milk. Eventually, they have the brain power to communicate so much more, but this is so, so, so helpful.
00:15:48
Speaker
A few more emotional benefits are the parent is more in tune to the child's need, right? We've all been there with that guessing game. You want this? You want this? What do you want? I don't get it. Parents can also feel better about themselves, right? A lot more in tune, especially if you're an early parent or a new parent, maybe you've only had one or two children.
00:16:05
Speaker
You can be very frustrated trying to figure out what your child wants if you have less experience, but this will give you the confidence to be able to meet your baby's needs and just more confident overall that you've got things taken care of. Your kid's going to have a tantrum eventually at some point, but you can ward off lots of them by understanding what they need.
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah. I remember as a, as a very young parent, um, feeling like it was helping me become a better parent when I was doing baby signs with my kid, because it was like this special connection that we had, but it was also kind of like, um, like an exclusive thing. Like I am really the only one that understands what my kid is communicating. Um, and.
00:16:45
Speaker
Like, that made me very confident as her mother. Like, I understand what this child, this child needs me. I have this place. I have this job, right? Then become like kind of bringing me into motherhood in a very confident way. Like, this kid needs me. I'm able to meet her needs. You know, you often hear people talk about how a mother can recognize what her baby wants by their cry.
00:17:08
Speaker
Right. But this is like recognizing what your baby wants before they even get to the cry because they're able to communicate it to you and you're able to understand
Impact on Vocabulary Development
00:17:16
Speaker
it. It's just really empowering. It's, it's pretty cool. Okay. Where are we? Mental benefits. Let's talk about some of those. Okay. So we talked about, um, cognitive brain development, but no, really they've actually done scans and watched different areas of the brain be touched and be built by
00:17:34
Speaker
this signing. It's like you said, it's using more than just one part of the brain. A larger speaking vocabulary later in life, isn't that crazy that this early ability to communicate builds their vocabulary when they're not even speaking? Because that is a concern. Some people asked me when they saw us doing baby signs with all our babies, oh, can't your baby communicate? Well, is it going to make them so they don't want to talk? Are they going to be a later talker? No.
00:18:02
Speaker
And not only do they have a larger speaking vocabulary, but they have a better ability to form longer sentences. Like seriously, when they start to talk, I remember counting my kids' sentences. I mean, maybe they're just yucky kids, but I would be like, this kid just said like a nine word sentence, like, and being so proud of them. But apparently that comes with some of this early verbal communication, speech, and language development of doing baby signs. It's, it's kind of crazy.
00:18:31
Speaker
Well, if you think about it, it does make sense. First of all, it triggers that language area of the brain much earlier than usual, right? All they're doing is having auditory receptive language for so many years, but adding another form of communication and allowing them to start expressing early makes sense that it would light up parts of the brain that aren't used to being active until they're a little bit older. And on that note, a couple more mental benefits. They've studied and found that at least a 12-point IQ difference exists in these kids that have
00:19:00
Speaker
studied baby signs. So like, you want a smart kid, do baby signs, right? That's a pretty simple way to do it. I love it. They often learn to read earlier as well. They have a larger reading vocabulary. It makes sense if their speaking vocabulary is larger, the larger their reading will be as well. And of course, better grades in school when they get there.
00:19:18
Speaker
So many awesome benefits. So cool. Okay. So we have some tips for you guys. Um, the first one is stay positive no matter what, no matter what they make baby signs a positive experience for them. So if they're not getting a sign, you want them to learn like more, just skip it for a while, try a different sign and come back to it later. Like nouns and especially things they're very interested in. Usually animals are very easy for them to pick up because
00:19:47
Speaker
because they get it and it's something interesting. More is quite difficult. I mean, they'll get it and use it and you'll be so glad, but that's, you know, if they're not getting a sign, let it go for a couple of weeks and try it again. And sometimes there will have been a pathway built or some cognition jump or something and they'll just get it and it'll be easier later. And you'll have skipped like the two weeks of frustration trying to teach them. Oh, and by the way, expect them to invent their own signs too.
00:20:16
Speaker
Once they learn that they can communicate with you and they can learn signs and use them to communicate with you, you better expect that they're going to invent their own signs and you're going to have to learn what their signs mean too. It's easy. It's fun. And it's so cool.
00:20:30
Speaker
Yeah, it is really fun to see them create their own little language. And think about how empowering that is. Like, oh, well, I'm going to show my mom what I need and I'm going to use this funky thing because that makes sense to me. It's so, so, so fun. And on that note, the first sign is going to take some time. OK, so don't think you're going to just sign it the first time a couple of times and they're going to pick it right up, especially because this is a new thing for them, for their brain to be processing things in this way.
00:20:54
Speaker
it will take them a while to understand what it is, and then it will take them also another little while to communicate, especially if they have any other delays. So I have especially done baby signs with my babies that are a little bit later talkers, and it just takes them a little bit of time to figure it out. But once they get the hang of it, they sign just fast and furious, and they throw it out there before you can even ask them what they want. Another thing to notice is that those initial signs are not going to look right, quote, unquote, okay? They're going to look kind of silly, but just praise any attempt that they do, right? Anything that they try to do,
00:21:25
Speaker
If you can figure it out or you know that they're at least trying to say, yay, good job. If you can't quite understand what it is, sample a couple. Like, are you trying to say this? Are you trying to say this? And when you do the right one, they will probably give you the right reaction. But just praise any attempt and let them figure it out on their own. They may never get it right. But as long as they're communicating, that's what's important. Yeah, so fun. You know, it will take a while. I told you about our earliest signer that she signed her first sign at six months. She didn't do another sign until she was eight months old.
00:21:55
Speaker
It took two months before another sign came out, um, which was, I was like, Oh, she signed. Maybe it was a mistake, but no, it definitely wasn't a mistake. It just took a while for it to come. Um, and so that was really cool. Okay. So we have done baby signs with all of all nine of our kids. And it was, well, at first it was, um, just kind of like a tool we were using, but then it just got fun. Like you mentioned the older kids and they love, and they decide they're going to teach baby a new sign and they come up and they look, look mom, look, I just taught them the sign for.
00:22:25
Speaker
Um, boat and they'll show it, you know, with the baby or, you know, pacifier, expect them to develop signs for their, like their little levees or their favorite toys or their blankets or whatever they want. Um.
00:22:37
Speaker
pacifier, that kind of thing. They'll develop a sign for it. Um, so we use sign language. I don't remember the specifics on, um, all of my kids, obviously there's nine of them, but I do remember my first one. I told you, she, um, she signed early at six months and then not again, assign until eight months. And by the time she stopped, it was my first child. So I was writing them down and she had over, I think she had over a hundred signs by the time she started to speak.
00:23:07
Speaker
And by the time she stopped signing, so they just kind of let it go once they can communicate, she had over 200 signs that she would use to communicate, which is crazy that many signs. I mean, we were obviously teaching a regular sign language at that point because there's not 200 baby signs even out there, I think. But since I had done some sign language interpretation, I was like, well, she's using it. Let's just teach it to her. So.
00:23:29
Speaker
we would do some for like, this is, this is meeting. This is like, you know, our church service, so meeting. And we would talk about like this. And then we'd talk about socks and shoes and all the signs that, um, you know, now we're getting dressed. Let's put on your shirt and we do that sign and your, your skirt or your dress or whatever. And we do all that and oh, you want to wear a hat? That's an easy one. You just pat the top of your head and all these things. So then of course we were hooked after our first was that prolific with signs and sign language.
00:23:56
Speaker
We did it with all of them. I do have, most of my kids have continued on and have some sign language ability. One of our children does sign language interpretation on a regular basis for our church services, our religious meetings. That's pretty super cool and empowering for her to be able to know that she's getting a message across that somebody probably wouldn't be able to get in that capacity anyway.
00:24:24
Speaker
So anyway, we have had such a positive, neat experience with sign language that we love it and it's been really cool. Those are some of the examples that I can think of.
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah, you guys were ahead of the curve. I think it only became trendy like 20 years ago or so. Good job.
Resources for Learning Baby Signs
00:24:41
Speaker
And one of the benefits to having your own skill as an actual signer, like actually knows ASL. So we started when my oldest two boys were little, and I just started showing them signing time, which is a great resource. We've got that linked in the show notes. Really, really cute, fun videos.
00:25:03
Speaker
created by a mom and her little kids. She had one kid that was hard of hearing and so she kind of breaks these down in really simple, easy ways with fun little songs that my kids loved watching them. What happened with us was that my kids watched them incessantly way more than I did and they knew all the signs and I didn't. So they would be teaching the baby and I'd be like, wait, what's that? Wait, wait, wait, what's that?
00:25:23
Speaker
So, yeah, if you want to know what your kids saying and not just them have a secret language, maybe you should watch them too. But that was really, really fun. Like I said, especially fun watching my big boys teach their little sister, hey, do this, hey, do this. And to that end, she was the one that probably got the most exposure to baby signs. And she is absolutely our earliest talker, absolutely our earliest reader. I mean, is all that from baby signs? Maybe, maybe not. But she definitely had a head start to language in so many forms.
00:25:51
Speaker
And I will also say this, that if this is intimidating to you and you don't know if you can remember all those signs or learn them all, you can also mix them up. It doesn't have to be, but there's nothing magical about these particular signs. It's just the connection of them doing something kinesthetically and seeing it with their eyeballs as an additional way of communicating. So make it up. I mean, half the time, I don't know what the sign is, but I'm like, I really need this kid to know what shoes are, so we're just going to do this for shoe.
00:26:17
Speaker
She goes and gets her shoe, right? Just be consistent. Don't be making up a new one every time that won't work. Pick a sign. Be consistent with it. Let the whole family know. Do it consistently and your kid will learn. And I have had a couple of slower talkers, including my baby right now, and it is magic getting them to finally be able to communicate. My current baby is over two and a half. She can say diddly squat. She can say mom. That is it. But she can sign quite a few things and it is so helpful to know.
00:26:44
Speaker
that you know when she's thirsty and when she's hungry and when she's tired I mean usually she just lays down and closes her eyes because she's that good of a baby but so so so beneficial especially for those kids with some delays or who are just you know having nine older siblings talk for them and they don't see a need but yeah get them motivated by doing it lots and lots and lots be very consistent and you'll see some really great rewards.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah, you guys, my final thought here is, why not? It's fun and it has so many benefits for them. Like I said, as long as it takes for them to get going with their first signs, you won't have any trouble keeping up with them. You can do it. And we have seen all these benefits. I mean, you know, maybe it's parent cheerleader bias here that we see all these benefits in our kids, but I think it really is.
00:27:37
Speaker
There's some great benefits to it. And I would just encourage you if you have any interest at all in trying and you've got a young child, give it a shot. It's kind of fun and worth it.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah, and just remember, this is once again something in parenting that does not have to be perfect to work. You get to just try and maybe even try, if you're worried, maybe even try with somebody else's kid and see if it works
Boosting Parental Confidence
00:28:00
Speaker
well. But I'll tell you that the magic of signs with your baby is the consistency, is being able to know their little magical way of communicating. And every kid is different. And instead of trying to figure out these messed up words they're coming up with, which they will eventually as well,
00:28:15
Speaker
you get to figure out their little messed up signs they're coming up with. And it's a really fun way of bonding. Like you said, it gives you the confidence as a parent to know what your kid needs, even if nobody else can figure it out. And that's really fun.
00:28:28
Speaker
Okay guys, that's it for this week's episode. Let us know what you think. We want to know that there's other people out there that have used baby signs with their kids. And we also have linked some of our favorite resources in the show notes because you're right, I started before it was popular, but now it's very popular and there's way more resources out there that you could ever have time to use. It's easy and it's fun. And the benefits, it's just people want to do it.
Episode Conclusion and Sharing Encouragement
00:28:52
Speaker
There's free resources, there's paid resources, just check them out. So we hope this episode has been
00:28:58
Speaker
Very interesting and fun for you guys. If you know somebody who might benefit from this episode, has a baby who's fussy or not communicating, share this episode with them. We'd love for you to do that. That's it for this week. I'm Audrey. I'm Bonnie, and we're Outnumbered.
00:29:16
Speaker
Thanks for listening friends. Click the link in the show notes to subscribe to our email and never miss another episode. Show us some love by leaving a review on iTunes or sharing the podcast with a friend. Thanks for all your support. We'll talk to you next week.