I promised Laura that I would discuss baby signing, today. I also promised my mom that I would shoot for a shorter entry. Overall goal: use less words to promote more words.
I had this great entry planned out in which I sectioned off my four pros to signing and four cons. When I say “planned”, I mean, all typed up and ready to go. I had decided that the effort would be futile and Baby signs were going to fall by the way side.
For those who don’t think that attention deficit disorder is a blessing, I assure you that it is. In the time it took my to write up my list, I managed to check my email, facebook, and three other blogs…all thrice. In doing so, I found the answer to my “should I or shouldn’t I” query regarding signing.
Last night, my mom had emailed me a youtube clip of a “new UU hymn” by one of the women in her congregation. Being a sucker for a new musician, I decided that it was a welcome distraction. After all I had been working for a whole three minutes.
I don’t know what I was expecting. Perhaps organ music or a bit piece similar to the lovely but overused “Come, Come, Whoever You Are”. Of course this wasn’t the case. Amy Carol Webb’s (www.amycarolwebb.com) “Stand” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pizMXBBwUT4) recalls Martin Luther King Jr. with a guitar or Joni Mitchell more politically motivated. It is too early in the morning to admit to tears but ask me later and you may get a more honest assessment of my emotional response to the video.
Fabulous. A welcome distraction for sure but what does it have to do with baby signs, Pam? Well, I will tell you: words.
I love words. Spoken. Written. Sung. Signed.
My earliest memories are of my mother sitting on my bed, singing me to sleep and of my father sitting in the chair beside my bed, reading with the same intent. It dawned on me as I listened to Webb’s words and watched the youtube montage of signs and banners crying for peace and justice, that words are my life.
We rely on a great deal on visual arts to pass on history but interpretation only reaches so far. Words in speech, in song, in document make the very fiber of our traditions. Even if my child is not the next great orator (my dad thought that John Kennedy Stennett would fill out our request for John “K-name” Stennett template) it is, I have decided, quite fitting that my child should be exposed to, if not proficient in as many forms of, communication as possible.
Baby Signing: 1
Pam: 0
3 comments:
Yay, ADD! No really, I have to tell you that Maggie found a renewed interest in learning ASL when we began talking about teaching Sam and I told her many of the words that she regularly used as a baby/ toddler. She, like you, ADORES talking, writing and reading, and does as much as she can. She pondered the ability to express herself with her hands and declared, "I want to learn more sign language." "Great," I excitedly answered (while hurriedly calculating in my head just how long it would be before her thirst for a second language would surpass my shallow well of knowledge on the subject). "That way," Maggie continued, "I can still talk- even when I'm eating."
You may have to give me some pointers on how to deal with this girl as she comes into her own... she sounds an awful lot like someone else I know and love!
This was an awesome piece. If you'll admit your tears, I MAY admit mine- I'm off to listen to "Stand"
Hahah. Wow, that sounds like something I'd have said, the bit about eating. you may have a handful...er...on your hands. But it's a blessing more than a curse. Well, ok that's my personal take on it. :O)
Did you like the song?
I don't have a baby. What is a baby sign? This has been bothering me for like four days.
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