We often take sensory development for granted until our babies show delays on how they perceive the world around them. Teaching our little ones to interpret and properly respond to their surroundings based on what their senses perceive is essential to a healthy development. Baby sign language is a very hands-on process where parents and caregivers get plenty of opportunities to guide how babies perceive the world around them. Take note of the following tips and make it a point to incorporate them to your daily interactions.
Exploring The Sense of Smell
Fragrances, odors, aromas and stenches. Learning to discern the meaning of smells is useful as an early alert for dangers such as fires or food that is no longer safe to eat. As you begin to introduce your baby to signs related to food or outdoor signs like flowers make it a point to engage in the act of smelling. Exaggerating gestures and having an emotional response to smells will help your baby or toddler better understand the concept. It is also useful to contrast fragrances. This can done using food extracts, perfumes and aromatic candles. Here are a few signs you can use to help your baby develop a well-rounded sense of smell: Flower, fire, chocolate, clean.
Learning About Tastes
Food preferences are a great source of joy or stress. Guiding your baby as they explore flavors will help them better voice their choices and in the long-run it will equip them to better accept a variety of flavor profiles. Get started with the basics by giving your baby exposure to sweet, sour, bitter and salty. These concepts are best taught by providing contrast. We love to serve our baby meals in bento boxes that separate each food. By doing this we can talk about the food, do the sign and talk about the flavor profile. Here are a few signs to learn as you and your baby work together in exploring and developing the capacities of their taste buds: Sweets, sour, salt, taste.
Making Sense of Sound
Communication is the very essence of baby sign language. The idea behind it is to create associations between words and concepts and help your pre-verbal child convey a concept with a sign. Keeping in mind that baby sign language is transitional, we need to place a great deal of focus on teaching our little ones about the sounds that surround them. Take time to teach baby to recognize not only words but also the sounds of nature and the sounds that he or she can associate with objects like machines. Let’s consider these signs as we begin exploring the world of sound with our babies: Music, speak, hear, ambulance.
Embracing Shapes, Textures & Temperature Through Touch
The sense of touch will guide us through life in ways that are often overlooked. Setting the stage for your little one to be able to navigate and interpret their environment through touch is essential. Start early by providing your baby with a variety of textures, three-dimensional objects and temperature variations. Here are a few signs you may want to teach your baby as you work together in developing his or her sensorial skills: Hot, cold, big, small, hurt.
Keeping Focused & Using Our Eyes
The eyes are one of the first sources of learning for our little babies. Make it a point to expose them to images, colors and real-life situations such as the sunset or objects of equal shape but different colores. The very act of signing is learned through visual observation, context and sound. Take time to show your baby things that will help them meet basic needs such as food or comfort objects like their blanket. Here are four signs we can learn to further our visual capacity. Color, rainbow, dark, flashlight.
Our baby sign language Ultra Kit includes twelve different resources designed to maximize your baby’s sensorial process. You will find music for sign-alongs, beautiful videos, thick and easy to hold flash cards and storybooks to help you in your baby sign language journey. You can find the kit here.
