Baby Sign Language for Spring 2023
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Spring is an exciting season! After being couped up, you are ready to get outside and explore with our children again. Between perfect patio weather, beautiful florals, and the buzzing of insects around us, our little ones have a lot to explore! These experiences provide many learning opportunities for our littles, and sign language is a wonderful way to help your child communicate about this time of year even more, as their spoken language continues to grow develop. Use these baby sign language ideas this spring!
In this blog post, you will learn why sign language is beneficial to learning and exploring during the spring season. You’ll also learn spring words in sign language, baby and toddler books about spring, as well as spring activities that are very exiciting and motivating to further support their sign language and spoken language development.
If you don’t already, please follow me on Instagram for more about how sign language can be a game charger for your baby / toddler’s early communication skills.
Benefits to multi-sensory experiences & language
When it's activity time in our house, I make sure I'm getting the best bang for my buck:
💥screen free entertainment
💥learning & experiences
💥chance to get something knocked out on my to-do list (if possible, but this isn’t always the case)
Multi-sensory learning is the best bang for your buck for all those reasons plus these benefits:
uses the whole brain
for all learning styles
promotes dual coding
new multisensory associations are formed
new connections made (neural plasticity)
increases concentration & focus
develops critical thinking
promotes relaxation
improves communication & sharing
BEST PART? Sign language is multi-sensory!!
Want to use sign language with your little one?
Sign Through the Seasons: Spring is an all-inclusive activity workshop that equips you to implement meaningful activities, targeted signed vocabulary, and intentional learning for your baby, toddler, or preschooler during the spring months! Learn more about this seasonal e-course here.
Look Who’s Signing Now is my signature four part course that teaches you the exact blueprint I use to teach my own children sign language. Beginning with the foundation of why and when to use baby sign language, how to implement it, and what signs to use. With this self-study e-course, you will have the confidence to sign with your baby and boost their early communication while reducing frustrations, tantrums, and time wasted playing the guessing game.
Check out my online resources for parents! Browse my current offerings.
Baby ASL for Spring
FLOWER: this can be used often; whether you’re picking flowers, doing some gardening, or enjoying a beautiful day. Think of smelling a flower.
BUTTERFLY: yep, just the scene from like Napoleon Dynamite. This one may be a bit tricky because your child’s hands are crossing over each other, but remember that their sign language approximations are appropriate and expected!
RAIN: spring has all sorts of weather, and this is a great one to explore from the windows looking out, or while splashing in puddles!
Spring book recommendations for babies, toddlers, & preschoolers
Reading books about this season will help extend your child’s learning and experiences. Incorporate the signs you know as you read together.
What Is Spring? is a fantastic book for babies and the 1+ year olds. The different shaped pages make for fun pages to flip, and there are lots of spring time fun throughout! There are many opportunities to use the spring ASL signs while reading and looking at the pictures together.
A Little Book About Spring is one that toddlers will adore. The easy to read text and beautiful illustrations will allow you to explore, revisit, and talk about spring together. You’ll be able to connect this book to your spring explorations!
Budding Flowers, Breezy Days is part of the Playing Through the Seasons series that is great for your preschooler. Connect and share experiences together as you read what the father and daughter explore during the spring, with ASL signs to support their learning and language growth.
When to use sign language during the spring
Continue to explore and talk about spring with a these flower themed activity ideas:
Faux flowers are so versatile! You can find these at the Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby, or Target Bullseye section.
Babies will love pulling them out of a plastic collander, toddlers can practice putting them in the holes before taking them out, and preschoolers can add on scissor skills like in this idea.
Create some art using washable paint. Pick some flowers while on a nature walk, and use them as your paintbrush to create process art. You can also save empty toilet paper rolls and cut them to stamp and paint different flowers (as seen here). If that’s too messy, draw a flower on some paper and put it in a ziplock bag with some paint inside. Seal and secure, and let them push and squish the paint in the bag to paint the flower!
Older toddlers and preschoolers love a good science experiment, and parents love easy entertainment. Pick some flowers while on a walk (or use the arrangement from your tablescape before tossing) and freeze them in different containers with water. On your next sunny spring day, let your little one squirt water to melt the ice and free the flowers! See more details on this activity here.
