Progress Report on the Experimental Use of Baby Signing

I have experimented and adapted the use of Baby Signing for 4 of the kids under our care and from zero speech and advanced speech delay, all 4 are showing progress in not just signing but also speech. Case 1 who is already age 8 years old is finally using his voice although more of guttural sound with clear intonation to indicate "I want..." and words like "banana/nana" , "cereal", 'gimme' to name a few started to come out more consistently. Case 2 who is about 6 years old is finally using the gestures but a lot more impromptu utterances come out like 'food' etc. Case 3 who is about 3 years old who had never used his voice is starting to vocalize even more. Case 4 is 5 years old with Down Syndrome who took up signing easily. His speech is mostly one word and selective. For each of the cases, the accompaniment of gesture and verbal is expected and when the words is expressed more and more, no expectations of gestures are used. These children seem to calm down better when an outlet is provided for them to express themselves. We still have a long way to go but the journey itself is already interesting and exciting.

The feeling that my staff and I have when these kids and others get to use their voice to express their desire and needs is unmentionable. It has been a challenging journey but at times we have to always think out of the box for progress to happen.

Sign, Say and Play with Dr. Norizan in March - May 2010

Date: 13^th March, 2010 Time : 2:30- 3:30pm

Duration: 6 weeks of Baby Signs (R) themes, each week 45 minutes session.

For : Parents and infants age 6 months onto 2 years old. (Each child + parent = per pair)

Venue : 9-2B Jalan Boling Padang G13/G, Section 13, Shah Alam ( Behind Tesco Extra by Stadium Malawati)

Fees: Workshop RM225/pair plus Materials RM275 =RM500

Those who signs up at our promotional booth is entitled to 20% discount.

The package would include the following materials:

The whole schedule would be :

Themes	Time and Dates
Week 1: Intro and Mealtime	13th March 2:30pm
Week 2: Bedtime	20th March 2:30pm
Week 3: Bath time	10th April 2:30pm
Week 4: My pet	17th April 2:30pm
Week 5: Getting dressed	24th April 2:30pm
Week 6: My park	1st May 2:30pm

To register, please call 03-55111362 and sign up with Ms. Sindhu or email us at urbaneethos@yahoo.com. Deposits for materials need to be made to our account so that we can pre-order the materials from our main office.

Baby Signing Promotion at Tropicana Mall 5th, 6th and 7thMarch 2010

Baby Signs Malaysia will have a promotional booth at Tropicana Mall from 10am - 10pm on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of March. There will be some nice discounts for classes and merchandise sold. Do make us part of your weekend as you find ways to stimulate the development of your infants and toddlers.

Baby Signs Malaysia Promotional Booth -- FREE PARENTING WORKSHOP

DATE: 6th February 2010, 10am to 6pm, Rain or Shine

VENUE: Fabulous Mom® Boutique, 136B, Jln Burhanuddin Helmi, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur


Do come and join us at the Baby Signs Promotional Booth and get to join our Parenting Workshop for Baby Signs - FREE! I will post up pictures of the event to share with the rest.

At Urbane Ethos, our classes every Saturdays in March and April 2010:

JOIN OUR BABY SIGNS PROGRAM WITH DR NORIZAN RAJAK

Sign, Say and Play -- Saturdays 11:30am- 12:30pm
MORE Sign, Say and Play - Saturdays 1pm-2pm
Parenting Workshop - Saturdays 2:30 - 3:30pm

Call Ms Sindhu at 03-55111362 to make inquiries and register and allow your babies/ toddlers the language stimulation that they need.

Hi everyone,

This is my first official blog on baby signing and speech! I am not used to blogging but I do feel that at least this is a good platform to share with everyone the progress I am making with Baby Signs program at Urbane Ethos Language Enrichment and Stimulation Center in Shah Alam, Selangor. I do look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Although babies only begin 1 word speech generally at the age of 12 month, cognitive and speech stimulation needs to be done during the initial 1 year period. One of the best ways to encourage cognitive and speech development of the babies would be to follow the BabySignsMalaysia program at www.babysignsmalaysia.com. In this program, infants and parents are taught in a playgroup using songs and repeated basic gestures associated with it.

Parents will then be taught how to apply these gestures with speech stimulus at home during daily interactions with child. This is great as new and even old parents, we are unequipped in our understanding of how to stimulate our child's speech! Yes, our babies need our time but how do we engage our child. What do we do? I do understand your frustrations. But not knowing is not a good excuse if we want what is best for our child. Therefore, it is important that parents learn the development that a child needs to go through and how programs such as this can help them and their child along.

Do know that even though babies cannot vocalize their needs, their feelings and needs are very real. If they have a way to communicate their feelings and needs, it would lessen their frustrations. Less tantrums, less crying is wonderful and we can understand what they need. Providing a way for babies to do this and to initiate early communication between parents and baby will be a great stepping stone towards early speech and learning development of the child.

As I also work with babies, toddlers and children with special needs; I have started to apply baby signing with speech to some of our down syndrome babies and toddlers as they would start using their gestures to indicate what they want. It is easier than using picture cards as some of them are on the move a lot or are just not inclined to picture cards. It seems to be working alright since I have started to implement the baby signing practices for 2-3months now and as I also expect speech for them, the child will imitate the signing and the word associated with them.

With the new year 2010 arriving soon, I am sure we can embark together on this journey of stimulating the minds and language of our child early. I look forward to sharing with each and everyone of you.

NR