As a a preschool teacher something that I love to incorporate into my daily lessons and even with my kids at home is sign language. It’s such a beautiful language and really helps cut down on the frustration kiddos have when they cannot communicate their wants and needs. Here is a quick video on the back story of how ASL came to be!

The beautiful thing about sign language is your child doesn’t need to be deaf in order to learn it. When you teach your baby sign language you are helping them develop strong communication skills before they’re able to talk. Sign language also helps them talk sooner and build their vocabulary. There are so many different benefits to learning sign language as an adult or a child and not a single negative reason. N needed baby sign because she was deaf but we taught my niece K and my other two daughters T and H baby sign as well just for the simple fact that it help reduce temper tantrums and frustration because they were able to communicate what they needed.

There are a ton of resources online to help you learn ASL for free. My favorite site to learn from is lifeprint.com 

Baby sign is so easy to learn and teach your kiddo. Here is a great beginners chart that I found

You can find this chart and so much more over at babysignlanguage.com

Another great place to check is Miss Rachel … I mean come on … who doesn’t already love Miss Rachel but when she helps teach your kiddo to sign as well she is an instant win.

Another great resource is Signing Time!

The top signs that I teach my 2, 3, and 4 year olds in daycare are more, please, no, stop, slow, walk, all done, please, sorry, colors, and milk. We also finger spell the alphabet when we sing our ABC’s. Simply find a sign you want to start with and start to incorporate it into your day. I wish I had learned sign language a lot earlier in life when I had the chance to. Instead I will just keep pushing along and learning a new sign every few weeks or months. It’s such a fun and beautiful language to learn.

Do you know any sign language? Did you teach your kiddos? Let me know!