Baby Signing for Dummies

Have you thought about signing with your baby or toddler? Parents and caregivers are discovering the benefits of using American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with children long before they can speak. Some studies show that signing babies talk sooner, have larger vocabularies, and have fewer tantrums!

Baby Signing For Dummies gives you the skills to connect in a meaningful way with your hearing baby or toddler. Packed with more than 150 illustrated signs, this friendly, easy-to-follow guide shows you how to use simple hand gestures and baby-specific signing techniques to start interacting with your baby. Every sign is accompanied by step-by-step directions and an illustration―from meeting and greeting, people, and mealtime signs to clothes, animals, outdoor signs, and, of course, bath time and bedtime. You’ll discover how to:

• Introduce signs to your baby
• Incorporate signing into daily life
• Make everyday events easier with signs
• Overcome stumbling blocks
• Decrease fussing and crying through signing
• Help your baby sign combinations of words
• Keep your baby safe with signing
• Get the whole family involved
• Find outside help (Web sites, videos, and signing schools and courses)

Complete with illustrations of the entire ASL alphabet, signing dos and don’ts, and ten songs to sign along with, Baby Signing For Dummies is the key to enhancing communication with your child and increasing his/her intelligence in a simple, fun, and rewarding way!

Jennifer Hill Watson is the mom to three signing children. She began signing with her first daughter when her daughter was about 6 months old. At 41⁄2 years, her oldest now has over 300 signs. Jennifer’s second daughter is nearing 300 signs at age 31⁄2. Her son has 116 signs and 154 words at 19 months.
A former teacher, Jennifer has taught in both private schools and Houston public schools. She teaches signing classes for babies and their parents in the Houston area and helps lead the Houston Signing Babies support group both on the Web and at regular meetings.
Jennifer also speaks at national conferences to teachers on using American Sign Language in the classroom. Jennifer works with McGraw-Hill/Wright Group’s Early Childhood Division as an Early Childhood Consultant and teacher trainer. She volunteers as director of a preschool choir and leads confirmation classes with sixth graders in her church.
She has a bachelor of science from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas. Jennifer and her family currently live in Katy, Texas.