We all know how difficult listening to a baby crying can be.
- It’s heart-breaking
- It’s frustrating
- And it’s LOUD.
Why do they cry about everything?
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It sometimes seems that we can’t make it stop; even when we’ve tried everything! Have you ever taken the time to listen? I know it may sound crazy, listening closely to a baby crying, but you might just learn something new.
If you listen closely to a baby’s cry, you will find that they are telling you exactly what’s wrong with them. For babies under three months, there is a method to their madness; or should I say sadness.
Babies have different cries that mean different things.
As I was starting to make my second Baby Sign video, I started wondering why babies aren’t just born with a language of some kind. Then, I remembered hearing something about a way of differentiating what their cries meant. With a quick search, I found the 2006 Oprah interview that brought the whole concept back to my mind. I can’t believe I almost forgot about this! What a life saver this 9 minute video can be!
The Secret Language of Babies
- “Neh“: hungry
- “Eh“: burb
- “Owh“: sleeping
- “Heh“: discomfort
- “Eairh“: gas in the lower
While these cry cues are great for understanding your baby under the age of four months, they don’t always mean the same things later on. When that starts happening, your next easiest and quickest form of communication with your little one will be sign language.
The best way to communicate with a baby after three months is sign language!
Babies typically start recognizing and connecting meaning to signs between three and five months. So, it’s important to start teaching them early. You can expect to see them sign back to you around seven months.
My first baby sign video did so great (over 71,000 views and 160,000 impressions on Pinterest), I decided to start a series of them!
Check out our first Baby Sign video to get started teaching your kiddos the basics!
One question I got a lot with my first video was,
“How do you teach your baby? Am I just supposed to do it a lot?”.
Yes!
Repetition is key! Use the signs you’ve learned as often as you say the word.
In my experience, the best way to teach babies sign is the “I do, We do, You do” method of teaching. I do this by signing the word and pointing to what I’m talking about. Then, I sign it again, saying what it is, with their hands, on their body. I repeat these everytime I use a word that we are learning the sign for. Soon, they will be able to sign it themselves.
