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I grew up from a big family of which I
have many nieces and nephews. But I never knew how to communicate with
them before they could talk. We normally will just wait till the time
when they are ready to talk to us.
Well, things changed when I gave birth to
my daughter Janelle. I started to feel like I can’t wait for my baby to
talk. So I must say I was very glad when my sister-in-law shared with me
about this fantastic sign language that enabled me to communicate with
my baby before she could talk to me.
I started to communicate with my daughter
with signs since she was 4 months old. We started with the sign “Milk”,
which was the easiest sign for a baby to imitate. You simply squeeze
your fingers like milking a cow. We were so happy when Janelle signed
‘Milk’ to us the first time when she was eight months old! She will
simply sign ‘Milk’ every time she needed milk! She was picking up more
signs very fast from there on.
Due to my busy work schedule, I didn’t
really monitor and teach her much. It was my mum and dad-in-law,
together with the maid who were with her most of the time who taught her
and signed to her more than I did. We also let her watch Signing Time,
which is a series of volumes teaching sign language using songs. Janelle
loved to watch and imitate the children signing in the show!
I didn’t know she could sign so much till
one day, when I was sitting with her watching the CD, that I was so
surprised and touched that my little baby can do so many signs already.
She could even sign before Rachel signed! I was gladly surprised that
she could remember so many of those signs! She was only 11 months old.
I’m sure every mother will feel the
heartache when their baby keep on crying and you don’t know what’s going
on…coz they still can’t talk and tell you. One night when she was about
13 months old, Janelle had cried with much discomfort and vomited. We
managed to settle her to sleep after much commotion. The next day, I
asked her what was wrong with her and why she vomited the night before.
To my amazement, she touched her tummy and signed “Pain” to me!
learnt that I had to be patient if Janelle
didn’t sign back to me immediately sometimes. Her not signing does not
mean she doesn’t know the sign. Like my little girl, I did the “Good
night” sign to her every night but she didn’t sign it back for quite a
long time…till one night I didn’t do the sign and just said good night
to her. That was when she did the “Good night” sign to me! From then on,
we signed and said ‘Good night’ to each other every night!
Some of my friends asked out of concern if
I let my daughter learn sign language, will she just sign and won’t
learn how to speak. Well, my little Janelle is turning 17
months and she can do lots of signs plus saying out the words. Like when
she started to sign “No” to us, she was saying out the word “No”
together with her sign. She’s also saying ‘Night, night’ very clearly
when she signs her ‘Good night’! I was told that she’s speaking so much
earlier than her age.
So, dear mummies, don’t wait till your
baby knows how to talk….start to communicate with them as young as
possible using Sign Language. Babies love to use their hands to ‘talk’!
Trust me, you will love and enjoy this new communication skill.
Cassandra Chin Su Wui, mother of Janelle
Tan (16 months, 3 weeks old!)
28 August 2006
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