Learning New Words with Signing Time
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When I first bought Baby Signing Time, the idea was to teach Gavin how to sign so he could communicate with me instead of feeling frustrated whenever I couldn’t understand what he wanted. I was so impressed with the CDs and DVDs that I bought a few more DVDs from the Signing Time collection. It wasn’t long before I went and bought the whole set.
By the time I bought the rest of the DVDs, Gavin was already learning to speak in leaps and bounds (which I think is also partly due to his exposure to Baby Signing Time from the age of 5 months) that it seemed almost pointless to teach him more signs. Since I already had the new DVDs, I played them for him anyway. I was glad to see that Gavin loved watching the new Signing Time DVDs.
He has learned a lot from the Signing Time DVDs, for instance, he learned to say the name and correctly identify the following animals in different contexts (from watching Signing Time Series 1 Volume 9: The Zoo Train): rhinoceros, bat, seal, panda, hippopotamus, zebra, tiger, lion, star fish, shrimp, lobster, crab, octopus, monkey, kangaroo, camel, gorilla, elephant, penguin, and giraffe.
The last time we took Gavin to the zoo was when he was 18 months. At that time, he wasn’t particularly interested in much except for the fish. Now, he can tell us when he sees zoo animals in books or on Animal Planet. The only animals he still gets confused with are the sharks, dolphins and whales, which all look pretty similar to him.
Honestly, if it weren’t for Signing Time, I doubt Gavin would have learned the animals because he wasn’t at all interested in learning about them at all. Yes, I tried. I tried to teach him the names of different animals using flash cards but all he wanted to see were his Thomas and Friends trains and any toy or book related to Thomas or a train. It was only after he started watching The Zoo Train that he started repeating the names of animals he had seen on the DVD. In fact, it was only after watching Signing Time that he started learning about subjects other than trains and Thomas.
It was also because of watching Signing Time that he can now correctly identify the colours: blue, red, green, yellow, black, pink, purple, and orange (from Series 1 Volume 6: My Favourite Things and Series 2 Volume 12: A Box of Crayons). Previously, we taught him blue, red and green because they are the most common colours of the engines on Thomas and Friends. Back then, he only knew the colours by association. For instance, green would be “Percy” because Percy was the green engine, and blue would be “Thomas” because Thomas was blue. Now I can pick up a crayon and ask him the colour and he gets it right.
Here’s a snip from A Box of Crayons -- one of Gavin’s favourite songs:
I was with Gavin in the bookshop recently and another mother of three older boys was observing Gavin. Gavin was busy picking Thomas books off the shelf and sitting on a little step. He would then open the book and start identifying the different trains in the book. The mother asked me how old Gavin was and really impressed with how much he could say after I told her he was nearly 2.
The Signing Time DVDs have also been great for getting Gavin’s cooperation in the carseat because he loves to listen to the songs -- which are available on a separate audio CD. Being already familiar with the songs from watching the DVDs, he keeps asking to listen to them in the car. I’ve also heard him attempt to sing “Colours of the Rainbow” and “ABC”. (HL, I tried to record it on video but he became all shy when he spotted the camera. It is so adorable you’ve got to see it! Don’t worry, I will catch him at it eventually).
I’ve also noticed something about the way Gavin learns. He’ll be really interested in only a few DVDs and want to watch those DVDs over and over again. After a while, he’ll get bored of them and he’ll move on to a new DVD and watch only that one. Once he’s bored of that one, he moves on again. No wonder children learn so quickly -- they have better focus and they concentrate on mastering one skill before they move on.
I know they say that watching TV isn’t very interactive for children and they don’t learn much but I honestly feel that Gavin has learned a lot from watching Signing Time. I really feel it is one of the best educational series I’ve bought for Gavin to date.
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Other posts that might interest you:
- A Special Edition of Baby Signing Time
- Subliminal Learning
- Review: Signing Time Series 1 Volume 1-3
- New Baby Signing Time DVDs
- Learn to Sing with Signing Time
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