Baby Sign Language Ideas for Winter 2022
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Winter is a season that is often hard to keep our little ones busy without going stir crazy when it’s just too cold to spend much time outside. The winter holidays keep us busy, but there is still much of this season to explore either outside or inside. Our little ones are eager to explore these unique winter experiences whether it’s the cold temperatures, ice and (faux) snow, winter clothing, snowmen, or arctic animals.
These experiences, whether you experience them outside or bring create an inside substitute, 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 develop. Use these baby sign language ideas this winter!
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What are the best signs for toddlers?
Finding yourself a bit limited by the "starter" signs? Using motivational signs with your little one may be just what you need to keep the communication ball rolling. Here’s why:
Functional vocabulary can be used across a wide variety of settings and contexts (ex: more, help, go). High interest vocabulary is very specific to your child's activities and interests (ex: outside, snowman, penguin)
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Using both may allow your toddler to communicate MORE about their immediate needs while also communicating about what highly motivates and brings them the greatest joy with higher confidence, too!
A good comparison is mixing baking soda and vinegar. On their own, they serve their own purpose but together, they explode and where the MAGIC happens!
Want to use sign language with your little one?
Sign Through the Seasons: Winter 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 holiday and winter months! Learn more about this seasonal e-course here.
Get Started Now with 10 functional ASL signs to start using with your baby or toddler right away. Learn 3 tips to ensure you are using signs correctly and with realistic expectations. Whether you have already started signing, or just warming up to the idea, this free guide will take you one step closer to your goal!
Check out my online resources for parents! Browse my current offerings.
Baby ASL for the Winter
Winter clothing is very unique to this season, and using these signs while getting dressed and exploring more about them through books and play (keep reading for recommendations) can be very helpful when our little ones are hesitant about getting bundled up.
COAT/JACKET: this ASL sign is interchangeable for coats and jackets alike. Reminder tip: it’s like you’re putting it on when getting dressed.
HAT: there are so many different types of winter hats, and this sign will help your little one being to understand that while they may look different, they are part of the same category.
MITTENS: this will be very beneficial for your little one to learn so they can communicate when their hands are getting too cold and need to
Winter 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.
Baby Loves Winter is a fantastic book for babies and the 1+ year olds. This lift-a-flap style book uncovers many winter related items, including snow, deer, and a snowman. You can also use the ASL signs for winter clothing that you see baby and mommy wearing in the pictures.
The Jacket I Wear in the Snow is one of my favorites when I taught Deaf students. Toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy the rhyming nature of the book as each clothing layer is added and then removed in the opposite order. The ASL signs and rhymes can easily be applied when dressing your little one in their winter clothes (and hopefully will make it a more enjoyable process for everyone involved).
Froggy Gets Dressed is a winter story about the favorite (and silly) character of many 2-6 year olds. Not only are the fun sound effects “zoop, zut, zat, zwuit, zum!” entertaining, but your child will enjoy the comical scene as Froggy’s mother makes sure he has all of the proper clothing to go outside in the snow.
When to use sign language during the winter
Continue to explore and talk about winter with a these activity ideas:
Insta-snow is a super popular sensory material. While there are a variety of ways to make it yourself, you can easily grab some at Target, craft stores, or here on Amazon.
Put some in a bag with pom poms, small toys, google eyes, buttons, or anything you have lying around for a contained sensory experience for the babies or when it's not a good day to go outside.
Throw some into a bin with arctic animal figures, Christmas figures, nativity scene figures, or other fun items and let your little one have open-ended play with fine motor tools.
For a super simple activity idea, pull out the family’s winter clothes and let your little one go to town matching and sorting them! Put all the jackets in a pile, match gloves/mittens with their pair, match by color, or even sort by the owner of the clothes.
A sticky wall with contact paper has many uses! Babies and toddlers can stick cotton balls to make a snowman and preschoolers can design a winter sweater.
Older toddlers and preschoolers may enjoy this sweater decorating activity or creating a scarf, mitten, or hat. Using divided trays (like this one) are such a wonderful way to present the various materials and tools for this age group and letting their imagination take flight.
