The Baby Sign Factory has launched a brand new range of exciting toys to help parents teach their child Baby Signing. The range will hit shelves in the first quarter of 2010 and carry on from the company’s multi-award winning professional kit.
Developed by experienced speech and language therapists Amanda Rees and Yvonne Miller the Bamba Signing Kits offer one of the first take home baby signing solutions on the market. The pair, disappointed by current offerings on the market decided to develop a product that would make it easy for parents to learn the basic signs of baby sign. And what easier way to learn signs than through play, with a friendly monkey called Bamba to guide you!
Using a range of specially developed soft toys, the Bamba Signing Kits initially introduce six of the most commonly needed signs: Playtime, Bedtime, Food, Drink, Bath time and Look-at-me. A further eight signs are introduced in Bamba Singing Dictionary offering parents the chance to extend their knowledge gradually.
The Bamba toys are presented in five building block gift-boxes or as one complete deluxe kit. These kits offer a step by step guide to baby singing that can be built up day by day, with no classes, no courses, no books… just play!
Discover the techniques used by speech and language therapists to communicate with babies. Bamba was created and developed by experienced Speech and Language therapists to promote early communication skills in all babies without complex learning cycles for their parents.
Suitable for all babies from six months, this award winning premium quality kit contains Bamba, a cuddly monkey and 5 plush toys each one representing baby’s first words.
Why MumKnowsBest Loves it…
Bamba’s Baby Signing Kit is an interactive tool that you can use to communicate with your baby. It teaches the signs for your baby’s most common activites: playing, bathtime, drinking, bedtime, food and awareness of themselves. The kit is designed for ages six to 18 months and is particularly good when babies are showing an interest in the world around them. Within the package comes six soft toy items and a detailed booklet outlining how to use them to stimulate communication with your baby, through play and using sign language. The idea is that this kit will encourage babies to broaden their communication skills, as babies can often communicate with their hands, such as pointing, clapping and waving, long before they develop speech.
What is great about the kit is that it is stimulating for the children and gives us adults some inspiration at playtime when you can sometimes get stuck in the same routine of what you know already works for you and your child. With more than one child, it would be a useful tool for them to interact with one another and promote learning amongst siblings.
Not an essential for your baby’s needs but a great idea for a Christening or first birthday present.
What can I say, Bamba has been a HUGE hit in our house – I have been amazed at how quickly Kai has responded. Not only educational and fun, but a lovely excuse to sit and spend some quality time with your child”.
Buy it online here (Baby Sign Factory)
Price £29.99 *****
Initial thoughts: Kai is now 14 months old and, like a lot of boys, is a little behind with his speech development. ‘Proper’ words are very slow coming but he gestures and mimics actions beautifully and although he is towards the upper age range for teaching baby signing, we thought teaching him some basic signs might be the perfect way to help encourage his communication and speech.
I had heard some very positive things about the Bamba’s First Comforts signing kit and jumped when the chance came up to review it. And the second it arrived and I unwrapped it I knew it was going to be something a bit special. Packaged in a beautiful sturdy gift box with soft yet vibrant colours, Bamba’s First Comforts contains everything you need to help start signing with your little one.
Bamba the monkey has long arms to enable you to make him ‘do’ the signs and is accompanied by five objects representing basic signs – a bottle (drink/milk), spoon (food), blanket (bed), wash mitt (bath) and mirror (look at me!). All are made out of the most gorgeous soft velour making them incredible tactile and inviting to hold and play with. The box also comes with an accompanying booklet introducing the concept of signing with your baby and teaching the basic signs which is very easy to read.
What we liked: Kai was immediately drawn to Bamba the monkey, wanting to hold and cuddle him close and keen to play with the items. I started spending just five or ten minutes a couple of times a day sitting with Kai and teaching him the signs as we played with Bamba. He absolutely loved it, and was soon gesturing for his box of goodies all day long. Within a day he had picked up which signs and words corresponded with each item and delighted me with responding to my signing and saying “Kai… can you give Monkey some food?” to picking up the spoon and role-playing feeding Bamba. He loved to ‘put Monkey to bed’ snuggling him up under the covers and giving him a kiss! This was the first time I had ever seen him ‘pretend’ and was really special.
We weren’t keen on: The only bad thing I have to say about the kit (and this is a very minor point) was the use of a bottle for ‘drink/milk’. Kai has been breastfed so bottles don’t have a lot of meaning to him! Of course, he picked up what it was for quickly once I had shown him, but considering the age that this kit is for (from 6 months), I think a toy beaker might have been more appropriate and not run the risk of making the assumption that a baby’s drinks come from bottles. I also think that the kit would have benefited from a cloth bag of some sort to enable Kai to take his ‘treasures’ out and about for practice on the move.
Overall: What can I say, Bamba has been a HUGE hit in our house. Beautifully made, high quality, and stunning in design, I would recommend this kit to anyone thinking of trying signing with their baby. I just wish we had started earlier! I have been amazed at how quickly Kai has responded to our play sessions – in the last day or two he has already begun to copy signs back to me for ’milk’ and ’night night’, both in play and in context. Not only educational and fun, but a lovely excuse to sit and spend some quality time with your child – I have a feeling that Bamba is going to be a treasured play companion for some time to come.
Don’t expect your baby to produce accurate signs straight away. Accept his version, respond appropriately ie show him ”Bamba” if he roughly signs Bamba correctly, or if he signs “drink” show him the bottle and model the correct version for him.
It may take several weeks or a couple of months for your baby to learn their new signs; don’t give up babies love repetition.
Your baby will gradually stop using signs and use speech only as his verbal communication becomes more proficient. Unless of course there’s a younger sibling when he will start signing to the new baby and then you’ve already got a head start.
When your baby makes the sign praise him and encourage him to make the sign again. Plenty of smiles will help. Let him know you’ve understood for example say okay let’s get you some food and a repeat the sign.
Classes for signing seem to be springing up everywhere. So are they just a fad for pushy parents, or do they sign the way to enhanced parent-children relationships? Should they be part of Surestart provision? Having developed her department’s Accelerating Babies’ Communication Programme, Tania Allen is clear about the route we should take.
As a speech and language therapist with a particular interest in using positive interaction techniques to develop delayed language, I was fascinated when one of the parents attending a parent programme I was running handed me ‘Joseph Garcia’s SIGN with your BABY Complete Kit’ that she had been sent by her brother in America. The pack advocated the introduction of Amercian Sign Language to normally developing, hearing babies as young as 8 months. The idea of introducing signing to babies in the absence of any difficulties or risk of delay was new to me. We have all seen how the introduction of signs has a positive impact on our language delayed population, but what would be the point of signing with pre-verbal infants who were likely to begin to speak within the next 12 to 18 months anyway?
On watching the video the evidence to support such a move was compelling and I was hooked. Onto the screen came baby after baby signing ‘more’, ‘milk’, ‘hurt’ and much more. Here were babies showing that they had thoughts and needs that would previously have gone unexpressed, as their spoken language was simply not yet developed enough. Children able to express themselves at a much earlier age than would be possible with their spoken language meant that parents reported reduced levels of frustration. In addition an intimate bond could be seen between parent and infant as the signs were taught and understood.
Intrigued, I set about finding out more and discovered the original research into the use of baby signing took place in America in the late 1980s. Almost simultaneously research was taking place in two camps, Joseph Garcia in one and Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn in the other. Having worked as an interpreter, Joseph Garcia had a wide network of friends in the deaf community and he had noted how the hearing offspring of signing deaf parents began to use signing long before their spoken language developed. In 1987, Garcia began to research the use of Amercian Sign Language with hearing babies who are exposed to signs regularly and consistently at six to seven months of age can begin expressive communication by their eighth or ninth month.
Drs. Linda acredolo and Susan Goodwyn conducted a longitudinal study funded by the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development. The study showed that signing babies understood more words, had larger vocabularies and engaged in more sophisticated play than non-signing babies. Parents of the signing babies in the study noted decreased frustration, increased communication, and enriched parent-infant bonding. Signing babies also displayed an increased interest in books (Moore et al, 2001).
They revisited the families in the original study when the children were seven and eight years old. The children who signed as babies had a mean IQ of 114 compared to the non-signing control group’s mean of 102 (Acredolo and Goodwyn, 2000).
Garcia, Acredolo and Goodwyn then set about pioneering the use of signing with babies. Joseph Garcia developed the SIGNwith your BABY program and and Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn produced a book called Baby Signs.
The overall message in both is similar, although there is on main difference: Joseph Garcia promotes the use of a standard sign language such as American Sign Language or British Sign Language, whereas Acredolo and Goodwyn advocate parents and infants making uptheir own signs.
Baby signing classes for hearing babies were then introduced in the United States and, due to the success of the programes in America, baby signing is becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom, with advocates for signing appearing on daytime television, news shows and in the press.
Following further research into the field, I contacted Joseph Garcia’s team and registered as a SIGN with your BABY presenter. I initially began running baby signing courses as an independent venture. It seemed to make prefect sense. Teaching signs such as waving ‘bye bye’ and hand rhymes such as ‘Insi Winsey Spider’ is readily acceptable, so why not build up the ability to use hand gestures that appear at a developmentally earlier age than speech?
However, as a consequence of the recent press and television coverage, local interest in baby signing was developing. Surestart workers, parents and health visitors were asking if our speech and language therapy service ran baby signing courses. The time seemed ripe to develop a preventative programme that capitalised on parents’ interest in something new but also ’snuck in’ the positive adult-child interaction techniques to a captive audience that would otherwise have been hard to reach. Subsequently I developed the Accelerating Babies’ Communication programme to address the demand.
Positive interaction strategies The programme runs weekly over four 1 hour sessions and involves showing parents of pre-verbal infants how to introduce British Sign Language, based on Joseph Garcia’s SIGNwith your BABY approach, and demonstrating positive interaction strategies from the TIME to TALK preverbal communication programme, a parent course that colleagues and I had run successfully for many years with parents of children with delayed/disordered language development.
The infants participating in the programme can be as young as 6 months as parents learn the techniques and then introduce the signs at around 8 months. The course objectives are that carers will:
develop a special bond with their infants through excellent communication
be appraised of the delights and benefits of signing with babies
have an initial signing vocabulary of over 30 signs
understand when and how to introduce new signs
be aware of how communication develops and the influences on this
be aware of positive interaction strategies that promote spoken language development.
Care was taken in the development of the programme to address different learning styles and present activities in a fun, interactive way. The course is also designed to be jargon-free with a commonsensical approach, so that it could be run by professionals other than speech and language therapists, such as nursery teachers or health visitors.
The benefits of signing that I have observed whilst running three Accelerating Babies’ Communication programmes are:
1. Signing allows an infant to communicate accurately their thoughts, needs and feelings before they can speak.
2. Signing reduces frustration for babies. The second year of life can be one of great frustration for infants and their carers. One of the major causes of tantrums is the toddler’s inability to communicate.
3. Signing gives a window into the infant’s mind and personality, as they can communicate outside of the here and now.
4. Signing enhances parent-child bonding, facilitating a close relatinship between parent and child.
5. Signing promotes excellent interaction. Why? Because when using signing, parents automatically adopt positive interaction strategies such as following the child’s focus of interest, making eye contact, speaking slowly, and using simple key words (Goodwyn et al, 2000)
6. Signing facilitates an adult’s ability to interpret early attempts at words and to assign meaning to them (e.g. Thomas says ‘ba’ and signs bath, and says ‘ba’ and signs ball. Because he is using signs as well, his dad knows exactly what he wants.
7. Signing children tend to be more interested in books. Using signing alongisde looking at books allows an infant to become an active participant in the story telling and their interest in books soars.
A new client group I’m constantly amazed by at the demand for baby signing in our SureStarts. In Canterbury we had been running a drop-in Language and Play group for preverbal toddlers and attendance was extremely poor – more a case of drag-in than drop-in. However as soon as we advertised the baby signing course we had 25 mums keen to come. We now use the Language and Play group as a follow-on group to keep parents’ interest in communication high. My next goal is to have a couple of the mums who have used baby signing take over the running of the ABC course.
Tania Allen is head of paediatric speech and language therapy with East Kent Coastal Teaching Primary Care Trust, Royal Sea Bathing Hospital, Canterbury Road, Westbrook, Thanet CT55BQ.
An extract from Signing the way?, Tania Allen, Speech & Language Therapy in Practice, Winter 2004.
Don’t expect your baby to produce accurate signs Accept his version, respond appropriately and you might like to model the correct version for him. Follow the signs in Bamba’s booklet or follow the simple diagrams on the box lid.
It may take several weeks or a couple of months for your baby to learn their new signs; don’t give up babies love repetition and will enjoy playing and having your attention.
Remember to use the signs outside of playtime, so for example use baby’s own spoon to remind him of what it represents – food!
Cuddle his blanket as you sign or say “bedtime”. The sign should be used just before and during an activity.
Your baby will now be learning that there is a specific hand movement to represent an important concept and it won’t be long before he will want to try it out for himself.
You can choose your own words to accompany the signs but be consistent, so for example it’s OK to say “num-nums” rather than a more formal (and probably unlikely!) “food time”.
Teach your friends and relatives the signs from Bamba’s book. They can join in.
Try to set aside two 10 minutes sessions a day with your child and Bamba’s First Comforts. Try not to have any background noise for example TV, music, washing machines. Babies will love your undivided attention. Don’t forget to play.
Show your baby a toy a from the box. Make the corresponding sign as you say the word. Allow your baby to choose a toy and again make the sign and say the word. Be guided by your baby’s interest. Try to return the objects to the box at the end of playtime. These are special toys for a special time with your baby.
What is great about the kit is that it is stimulating for the children and gives us adults some inspiration at playtime when you can sometimes get stuck in the same routine of what you know already works for you and your child. With more than one child, it would be a useful tool for them to interact with one another and promote learning amongst siblings.
”I have a feeling that Bamba is going to be a treasured play companion for some time to come.” See the full review at 
Don’t expect your baby to produce accurate signs Accept his version, respond appropriately and you might like to model the correct version for him. Follow the signs in Bamba’s booklet or follow the simple diagrams on the box lid.
Try to return the objects to the box at the end of playtime. These are special toys for a special time with your baby.