KOLOA — There were no words being spoken, but there was communication between Monika Mira and her 30-month-old son Brayden. Mira was using signs to communicate with her son during their visit to the recent Friends of the Koloa Library
KOLOA — There were no words being spoken, but there was communication between Monika Mira and her 30-month-old son Brayden.
Mira was using signs to communicate with her son during their visit to the recent Friends of the Koloa Library book sale which is held twice a year.
“He’s been signing since he was 6 months old,” Monika said. “Now, he knows more than 100 signs and is learning more.”
Monika, of Blossoming Little Minds, is teaching a class from 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays at Storybook Theater in Hanapepe.
The filled class covers a six-week program covering baby sign language designed to empower infants with the gift of communication and enable families to communicate with their infants before they are able to speak.
During the class, more than 75 signs are covered including some of the most useful signs for everyday needs, Mira said in an e-mail.
Mothers and fathers are taught different way to incorporate sign language in their daily routines, including mealtime, bedtime, story time and music time.
Mira, an author, educator and mom, says baby signing is not a second language, but a means of early communication.
You are enhancing communication skills and giving your baby confidence in its ability to communicate with signs, she states in her Blossoming Little Minds Web site.
Research shows there are numerous benefits to signing with one’s baby, Mira said in her e-mail. Some of these include building stronger bonds and trust between family members, enabling infants to clearly communicate its needs and wants, reducing frustration and tantrums, providing a fun and special time to share with family members, improving self esteem and confidence, increasing vocabulary, and accelerating verbal development.
In a suggestion for doing baby language Hawaiian style, Mira suggests a person do a “shaka” for the baby. Two shaking shakas is the sign for “play” in baby’s mind.
Mira said when her son was an infant, her mother sent her information about baby sign language.
“I started with a few signs when baby was 7 months old, and he started signing back at 10 months,” she said in her Web site. “At that point, I was hooked. At 17 months, he had a 60-sign vocabulary and was learning new signs daily.”
Mira sits on the advisory board as a baby sign language consultant for online children’s site, ziggityzoom.com and is also a baby sign language consultant for local preschools and daycare centers.
Visit www.blossominglittleminds.com for more information.
