Communication is something that is part of our essence as human beings. We need to be in constant contact with the people we meet every day, the people we speak to by circumstance or even because we have to ask for something. It's all part of it and we know that this skill is encouraged from a very early age.
To do this, we'll have to start at the beginning. Little ones are at that stage of discovering how to start communicating and, throughout this learning process, children use the simplest forms to tell their parents how they feel, what they want or just to say how much they love their parents. Until it's time to say their first word, babies use sign language.
If we go back a few posts here on the blog, with the post ‘Talking to our babies’, we can already see that the moment of saying the first word is the culmination of the baby's attempts to communicate and the parents' attempts to understand. One of these attempts, which becomes normal for them, is to use gestures that are familiar and that mum and dad will know what the little one is saying.
But an important question arises - how do we understand a baby's sign language?
In the early days, we believe that we may not immediately understand a particular gesture that a baby makes, because we're not used to it or, sometimes, the little one is saying something that turns out to be different from what we would expect their gesture to mean.
Well, we've realised that it can be difficult for babies to express themselves fully, or at least to feel limited with just sign language. For the parents, however, it's a real challenge, as they can interpret well or they can misunderstand and create some discomfort for the baby and the parents.
Don't worry, parents! Today in this post, we want to talk about the importance of sign language in babies. To do this, we've tried to understand some expressions that can be associated with a baby's well-being, their needs or even their state of mind.
From birth, babies begin to express everything they feel and need. Gestures like rubbing their eyes because they're tired can be one of a thousand and one ways of telling their parents what they're feeling. Since we can see that the range of gestures can be quite vast, to help you understand your little one's sign language, here are a few to start memorising.
- Signs that your little one is happy - that typical little angel face smiling non-stop;
- From the moment your baby learns to point, it will be a good help to know if they need something and it's great for giving directions;
- During playtime, the gesture of hiding the face behind the hands is perfect for starting our hide-and-seek moment;
- At this stage, babies are learning and chatting regularly is their way of just wanting to have a conversation with their parents;
- One gesture that babies quickly learn is to raise their arms to ask to be held;
- Sometimes babies can be frightened, so they can express this feeling just by being suddenly still;
- When they are hungry, babies may seek out the breast, suck their thumb, their parents' shoulder or sometimes their nose or chin;
- The feeling of being ignored can cause the baby to start screaming;
- If he gets angry, he may start crying at the same time as his face turns red;
- Regular periods of crying and screaming in the late afternoon or at night could be colic. In addition, the baby may have a flushed face, clench his fists, arch his back or pull his knees to his stomach;
- We should pay attention if the baby shows a slow intensification of crying, is grumpy or rubs their eyes, as this could be a sign of tiredness on the part of the little one;
- A high-pitched cry or deep breathing may be the baby's way of conveying that they are in pain.
These were some of the gestures we found in our research. However, we think there are many more, because after all, we're talking about the particular way each baby communicates with their parents, even though they haven't yet started to use speech.
It's a very funny topic, because we realise that the little ones have their own ways of communicating what they feel, what they want or what they need and, to this end, they see sign language as the perfect opportunity to get in touch with their parents, where they say what they feel and their parents already know what they want to say.
What about you? What gesture would you add to this list we've shared with you? What is the gesture most used by your little one? How important do you think sign language is for babies? We want to know your experience. We want to know your opinion.
