Amazon.com editorial descriptions of this work:
Product Description: "This book provides a remarkably simple, intuitively pleasing, yet fascinating way to enhance communication, social interaction, and the sharing of inner worlds between parents and infants before they can talk." -- Daniel N. Stern, MD Author of Diary of a Baby "This delightfully written book provides parents and caregivers alike a step-by-step approach to encouraging the use of Baby Signs for objects, events, and needs. Opening up this nonverbal channel for communication helps both adult and child through that difficult stage when the desire to communicate outstrips the baby's capacity to say words." -- Susan Crockenberg, PhD Professor of Psychology, University of Vermont Have you ever noticed how easily babies learn to wave "bye-bye," or shake their heads for "no," and not for "yes"? These nonverbal gestures, or Baby Signs, enable them to communicate quite effectively before they are actually able to say the words. Unfortunately most parents stop right there, never realizing their baby's potential for learning other gestures--gestures that make it possible for parents to interact with their child in ways that would otherwise have been impossible until their baby could talk. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn have spent more than a decade researching and studying the effects of Baby Signs on infant communication, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. Not only do parents gain a much greater understanding of their children and their needs, but babies also develop skills that actually enrich their comprehension of language. In Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, Acredolo and Goodwyn provide parents with a fun and simple step-by-step program for teaching children Baby Signs at home. This one-of-a-kind book includes easy-to-follow illustrated signs and photos, popular nursery rhymes with signs, parents' questions answered, and Baby Sign stories. Baby Signs allows infants to reach out to others and forge bonds of affection and satisfaction that will last a lifetime. Linda Acredolo, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Davis, and Susan Goodwyn, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at California State University, Stanislaus. They have been teaching Baby Signs to parents, teachers, and pediatricians for the past 10 years.