Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi. This is Bill White with Happy Baby Signs.
Today, I wanted to talk about what
scientists call "joint attention" and "gaze
shifting." Joint attention is when you and
your baby look down at the same object
and look back at each other. As you look
at the object, you're focused on the same
thing. Your baby might be gazing around
the room and they'll engage you.
That's called a "mutual gaze." Then,
quite often, they'll look down at an
object and then back at you. So if you
and the baby look down at that object,
that's joint attention. That is the
fundamentals of language. It's the
building blocks of communication and
it's a wonderful opportunity to teach
him some sign language. If they happen to
look at a little toy cow and back at you
you can sign "cow." And quite often if
you're signing cow, they'll be looking at
you but not the cow or they're looking
at the cow and not you. So what you need
to do is connect with that child and the
best way to do that is to get down on their
same eye level and sign cow and play
with a cow. The baby will look at the
cow, look at you, and then they'll look up
at your hands on top of your head. And
now they've got the sign for cow. It's a
great way to bond with your child.
Eye contact is bonding and it's the
fundamentals of language. When you're
signing, you're engaging your child in a
game and you're talking with your child, as well.
As they get older, you can play
more sophisticated games like "I Spy."
I spy with my little eye... The sign for "me"
and "I." You just point to yourself.
The sign for "see." It's your gaze going
out like this. And when you sign "see" -
"what do you see?" - move your hand to the side so
that they can see your face and your eyes.
I see or I spy with my little ... oh did you
see how my shoulders and my neck got all
scrunchy? My eyes got all scrunchy? Sign
language isn't just your hands making
motions. Sign language is everything that
happens from your waist up. Your body,
your face, your eyes... So when you sign
"little," get your body
into it, your eyes into it. My little eye...
Anatomy - you just point at your shoulder
for the sign for shoulder. You point at
your nose for the sign for nose. My eye.
And what could you spy? Maybe I spy with
my little eye a book. The sign for book,
you open the book. And speaking about the
book, I'm happy to say that it is
shipping now. So the best way to order
the book is go to our website click on
book and it gives you the opportunity to
fill out a little form so that we can
send you a freebie. The freebie is a
little booklet with 30 basic signs with
images, real photographs like is in the
back of our book which has over a
hundred signs with real people. You
can get this freebie sent to you and
also be entered in a drawing to win a
one-on-one online workshop with me or
you might opt to have three coaching
sessions with my wife Kathleen Harper
co-author of the book signs of a happy
baby. Even if you've already
ordered the book, you've got the
book in your hot little hand, you can
still go to our website and get the
freebie and be entered in the drawing
which is happening May 23rd. So between
now and May 23rd get on our website and
get that freebie and be entered in a
drawing for a one-on-one workshop with
me or three coaching parenting coaching
sessions with Kathleen Harper. Thank you
very much and I'll see you with another
video next Tuesday. happybabysigns.com/book