We discuss

• Signing with toddlers–even if you did not sign with them before
• Getting your baby (and yourself) to sleep well from day one and on with Jami Kent, founder of Burrito Baby, Inc. 

Signing with Toddlers 

We’ve been talking a lot to Stacey who is signing with her son since she is the novice.  Tricia and I are the OLD pros at this.  HA!

But we did not want Shelly to feel left out and she has some questions about signing with her daughter who is 2 ½.  Shelly has noticed that even though they don’t sign, Millie uses her hands to clarify things like if she wants her quesedilla folded or rolled.  There are some great places that Shelly can use signing STILL to help Millie.

POTTY TRAINING and CHANGE
Shelly is working on potty training and has taught Millie CHANGE.  It might help to add in the sign for POTTY and the sign for HURRY and the sign for WET to help her.  Also WASH HANDS is good.

Shelly asked: How can signing help a toddler who may be  falling into this habit (for a toddler that hasn’t previously made  signing a part of their life)? What signs can be helpful in establishing a new pattern of happy communication?

Well, the best signs are always signs related to what she is doing.  So what are 2 year-olds doing most:

• Learning how to interact with the world so manners signs like PLEASE, THANK YOU and SHARE are great as well as STOP and HURT to explain that hitting and other aggressive behaviors are not acceptable.  WAIT is great because they can begin to understand that something might take a while.  All these signs are included in the Sign Babies Family Life Set
• They are exploring new foods so the Learning Hands FOOD FUN set has tons of food signs in them
• Also, they are moving more and more and exploring the motion of their bodies (Learning Hands LET’S GO)
• It is not too early to introduce finger spelling and the alphabet and to start teaching how to spell simple words.  Alex learned to finger spell at 2 ½ and decided to read when he was 3.  He would say, spell it in your hand and I would and then he would repeat it and it helped him have a grasp for the letters in a way that just seeing them doesn’t have.

Shelly asked: What signs are helpful to my toddler to get her needs across when she is already able to say so much?   Sometimes she is trying to communicate something she wants that I  have never known about before so I couldn’t have taught the sign.

When Millie gets frustrated, ask her to tell you with her hands.  Sometimes she can do that better.  Many children cannot talk when they get frustrated and having signs helps them.

Shelly asked: If Millie, or any toddler, gets comfortable with signing and invents her own sign for something (like above) should I correct the sign and  replace it with the standard ASL sign or let it remain?

Yes and No.  It is OK to keep home signs if you are just signing for a short while, but if you are building on a language or want her to be able to sign with others, you want to show her the right signs.  You do it much like you correct her speech.  Don’t say, “That’s Wrong”  Say, “You are signing JUMP, right?”  And then sign the sign correctly to her.  She will see the correct sign and as you continue to sign it correctly, she will sign it correctly too.  Some home signs are so precious that you want to keep them and that is OK.  We have a few of those and we sign them still to this day.

Getting to Sleep! 

Today we are talking about getting babies to sleep.  We have a sleep expert with us today!  This is Jami Kent, founder of Burrito Baby, Inc.  Jami teaches parents how to successfully get their babies to sleep so that parents have less stress and babies have the important sleep they need to thrive.

Studies show that “crying was significantly reduced from 3.79 hours per day to 1.12 hours per day…among infants whose parents received interventions of individualized counseling and education.”

How much sleep does a baby really need? 0-4 months  need 14-18 hours.  4-24 months need 14 hours

When your baby is 0-4 months, how much awake time should they have between sleep periods?  Two hour rule–watch the clock and don’t keep them up longer than 2 hours

When they are 4-12 months how much awake time should they have between sleep periods? Does 2 hour rule apply to older babies? It can but they can go longer.  They generally wake at 6-7am sleep at 8-9 am for 1-2 hours and then take a second nap at 1-2 pm and possibly anther quick nap at 5.  They will go to bed between 6-8 pm and sleep 12 hours at night–This is what you should be working toward and will help your baby be happy and well adjusted.

When is it realistic to expect our babies to sleep through the night? 4 months

NANCY’S SITUATION:  Nancy Explain and discuss where she is at/Jami Tell what to do better.

 

 Toddler Signing and Sleep Solutions [27:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This entry was posted on Friday, April 27th, 2007 at 8:19 am and is filed under Developing Story, Stop Tantrums, Start Conversations, Podcasts/Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.