Bi-Lingual Families & Baby Signing

Will my baby be confused with signs

if we speak more than one

verbal language at home?

The short answer is no. There's no reason to worry that your baby may get confused if you, or other adults who love your baby, speak different languages to them.

Babies are incredible learners and will absolutely soak up everything!

The key to making things as easy as possible for everyone is consistency. Aim to keep the exposure to verbal languages a regular occurrence in your day together.

Essentially, your little one won't be confused by whatever natural ways of speaking are presented to them regularly.

So don't worry about confusing them, just talk! And adding sign language into your conversations will create an even richer experience for your baby to learn verbal speech. Essentially you are adding a visual along with the verbal cues as you speak, act and create context.

For example, if you've chosen MILK, both of you will say and sign MILK in your spoken language every time MILK happens (nursing or bottle).

When consistently presented together, your baby will begin to associate MILK when they see the sign and hear the word. This solidifies things for baby no matter which language is being spoken and allows them to learn more easily.

How do we start signing together

in different languages?

To add signs into the mix, one or both parents can show signs along with your verbal speech. Just choose signs together that you'll *both* use daily to keep things straightforward for everyone. Overall, the visual signs will become an anchor to all the languages baby hears!

Enjoy presenting language together, and be a consistent source of language by saying and signing everything you can to your baby.

______________________________

Welcome to Signing Babies, I’m Lee Ann and I teach families how to tap into their babies’ natural ability to use their bodies to communicate.

Instead of fussing or crying, babies can easily convey their needs with basic American Sign Language.

It's not tricky, it's fun! (that's my specialty, and why over 3,000 families have learned with me in my playful virtual classes on Facebook & Instagram).

Meet me at @signingbabies for helpful strategies and get started without confusion with my guide to 'How and When to Introduce Signs to Your Baby' here.

"Lee Ann's classes are the highlight of our week! ...it's thrilling now at 20 months to see my baby pointing at pictures in books and making the correct signs to tell me what she sees. Her screaming is also eliminated as she is able to tell us what she wants and we can respond!" -mama Kallen