Baby talk's easier with your hands

Here's a scenario parents of babies and toddlers will find familiar:

You're at home with little Johnny when he starts to grizzle. You're not sure if he's grizzly because he's hungry, teething, tired or in pain.

You think to yourself, "Wouldn't it be great if he could talk?"

Mother of two Sarah Turner is helping parents all around the country learn to communicate with their young children before they can talk using a basic form of sign language called Baby Talk.

She says babies as young as 5-months-old can be introduced to the simple gestures and the benefits are huge.

"The child becomes less frustrated because they can be understood and it's less frustrating for parents too as it takes a lot of the guess work out of what the child is trying to tell you."

She has held private workshops in Rotorua and the Bay of Plenty for four years but her service is in such demand, she now employs 10 tutors nationwide.

Courses are only two hours long and parents leave with resources helping them to sign with their child at home.

The work is an extension of her love for sign language. She learnt British sign language as a nurse in the Channel Islands, near France.

She immigrated to New Zealand with her husband to start their family and discovered an Auckland woman had developed the Baby Talk system.

She learnt more about it, using her daughter Sophie as a guinea pig when she was 8-months-old.

"It's child-led so at first you might only introduce two symbols a week, say for milk and food.

"When they show an interest in something, like animals for example, then you might focus on those symbols for a while."

At her peak, Sophie could sign about 300 words. Now 4, she is using less Baby Talk gestures but her parents are slowly introducing her to the basics of New Zealand sign language.

* This is New Zealand Sign Language Week. Mrs Turner will be in Rotorua holding a Baby Talk workshop hosted by Parents Centre at Community House on July 8, starting at 10.30am. For more information phone (07) 345 3111.