Sing & Sign

Tuesday 24 January 2017

I love when I come across a course that shares the ethos of what we are about at The Baby Room.  It excites me to meet instructors who share my passion for family well-being, so when I met Jess from Chatter Babies, I knew that she would be a perfect fit for our studio.  Jess teaches a Sing & Sign class, which uses the Makaton language programme.  Makaton uses signs and symbols to help people to communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order.

Chatter Babies Sing & Sign classes are aimed at pre-verbal children, and more specifically those aged between 5 and 15 months.  Typically, babies begin to gesture with waving and pointing, and they begin to use signs that are used consistently with them, asking for “more”, telling you they’ve “finished” and signing things of interest to them such as birds, trees and cars.  The earlier parents start classes, the longer the opportunity for learning.  Classes are run over 6 weeks and are an hour long.  40 minutes is spent singing a series of 30 songs which have all been specifically written to aid the teaching of the signs.  Each week builds on the previous week’s work, building up the number of signs learned.  Class ends with a juice for kids, a cuppa for parents and a chance to chat and forge new friendships.

Some of the benefits of Sing & Sign Classes include improved face to face interactions between parents and baby, reduced frustration for both parent and baby as they discover new ways of understanding and some lovely quality time together – babies love the sound of their parent’s voice so singing to them is extra special.  It’s also a chance to meet other parents and babies of different ages and stages.  Jess says that with signing, the more you put in, the more you get out of it.

Jess is a mum of two smallies and lives in Kilkenny.  She worked in a Children’s Centre in the UK where Makaton signing was used throughout the centre.  She started in day care and then moved into family support, running groups which helped enable families to grow and develop together. One of these groups was a baby signing class.  Jess says that when she had her daughter four years ago, she instinctively started to sign with her.  By the age of 1, she says her daughter had an incredible understanding but no language, however she was able to sign when she was hungry and when she wanted to go out or go to bed.  She could tell Jess that she had sore teeth, that she heard a noise and that she saw an aeroplane flying overhead.  By two years of age she had some words and combined those with her sings and by the age of 2 and a half she was talking in full sentences and hasn’t stopped since!

To find out more about Chatter Babies classes here at The Baby Room, contact Jess directly on 089 2561294 or visit the Chatter Babies Sing & Sign class on Facebook.