Ten Baby Signs That Can Help Your Baby Make Emotional Connections

When we talk about baby sign language, it is often in light of our pre-verbal child who is hard at work learning to communicate basic needs. We mostly focus our teaching and learning on signs that empower like food or objects that are meaningful to our baby. As our babies grow, in particular when they are approaching the “terrible twos” we may want to shift focus and expand their signing vocabulary in a way that facilitates and encourages emotional connections with those around them.

Emotional connections for babies and toddlers can be achieved when our babies have words or signs that allow them to convey how they feel, as well as signs that equip them to serve, care and encourage others.

Let’s take a look at ten signs that can help your toddler better connect with caregivers, family members, educators and peers:

Afraid

Teaching our toddler to sign afraid will allow him to quickly seek help, comfort and refuge in moments of high stress.

Signing: Afraid starts with your hands by your sides. Then you bring your hands up in front of your body, palms facing inward and fingers spread. The sign looks a lot like you just got a big fright.

You can find the free printable flash card for the sign Afraid here.

Take Turns

Teaching your baby signs that can facilitate effective social interactions often leads to a child that is welcome in a variety of social settings.  The natural drive of a little one is generally aimed at survival making the sign take turns something that we want to teach later rather than earlier.

Signing: To sign take turns your dominant hand forms the letter L with the thumb up and fingers stretched. You start the motion close to your chest and move your hand toward the other party and back to you as if in pointing whose turn it is.

You can find the free printable flash card for the sign Take Turns here.

Listen

The sign for listen works both ways. It allows your toddler to ask for your attention and invites him to focus on others when applicable. For example, you can encourage your toddler to listen to a friend while it is their turn to speak.

Signing: Point at your ear with your index finger. Alternatively, you can cup your hand to your ear as if you are straining to hear.

You can find the free printable flash card for the sign Listen here.

Don’t Hit

This is a sign you may want to introduce only if your child displays aggressive behaviors. By having a code by which you can encourage good behavior without embarrassing your child you give him or her an advantage and the opportunity to quickly correct their behavior and move forward with social interactions in a positive note.

Signing: To sign don’t hit you will punch your index of the non-dominant hand with your dominant fist while moving your head side to side communicating a negation.

You can review a video of the sign for don’t hit here.

Sorry

Showing our babies how to communicate a sense of repentance for something that may have offended or caused pain to a fellow human is essential when building empathy. Because this is a complex concept to grasp we teach it by example and repetition. We express how sorry we are when we realize we have wronged our baby or another person.

Signing: To sign sorry, make your hand into a fist and rub it in a circular motion across your chest. It is like you are rubbing around your heart because you are truly sorry.

You can find the printable flash card for the sign Sorry here.

Now that you have learned the basics let’s add these other emotional and relational signs to our signing repertoire:

Why

I Love You

Share

Kiss

Be Careful

Are you ready to get started? Why not buy the Ultra Baby Sign Language Kit. The kit includes 12 excellent resources that will take your baby from birth until preschool as you explore together the joys of communication.