Things to do with kids: Sign language to improve development
Date: 10/03/2010 / Category: School holidays and working parents
Parents who want to improve the development of their babies should try communicating with them using sign language, according to the Economic and Social Research Council.
Professor Karen Pine, from the University of Hertfordshire, claims that hand gestures enable mothers to interact with their babies before they are able to talk.
"We have found that encouraging mothers to use simple hand gestures with their infants can have linguistic and wider non-linguistic benefits for infants," said Ms Pine.
Later this month, an event organised by Ms Pine entitled Communicating with Your Baby will take place in St Albans.
The event hopes to provide parents with ideas of things to do with kids which will improve their mother-baby bonds.
In January, Clare Geldard, director of operations at I CAN, the children's communication charity, said that parents should use every opportunity that they have to speak to, or in front of, their child, as this would aid their speech development.
Parents of older children may want to take their offspring to soft play centres, in which they can develop their motor skills through playing with a variety of objects and improve their communications skills through interacting with other children.
Posted by Lynne Woods
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