One sunny July day in 2009 a very direct and jolly lady pounced on us as I walked out of my front door into the throngs of Hanover Day festival. ‘Have you thought of baby signing?’. Well, yes we had. My husband works with adults with learning disabilities and he immediately saw the advantage of a pre-speech child being able to communicate with signs. Juliet Frankel, founder of Little Monkey Signers, thrust a leaflet into my hand and I went on my way. A few days later I got a call explaining everything I wanted to know, including the fact she is running the only independent course in Brighton and the classes would be held a few doors up from us. We were sold.

Juliet started the classes after hearing how the craze was spreading across America. She was fascinated that signing was being taught to hearing babies in order to advance communication of fundamentals pre-speech. Already a qualified teacher of the Deaf, she was immersed in that world and culture. With the birth of her son, Joe, not hearing impaired, she started to integrate signing into their every day lives. She proudly declares to the parents at the sessions, Joe is the ‘original’ Monkey Signer. With experience in children’s entertainment, as well as teaching, post-Maternity leave, she devised the Little Monkey Signers programme. The content is based on British Sign Language, the official language of the British Deaf Community and each week has a theme based on practical every day life activities - sleeping, going to the park, birthday parties and even a special Christmas session for that particular term.

I asked Juliet whether there’s a danger signing could delay a child from developing speech as a way of communication. ‘I can understand that this may be concern. However research has shown that babies who sign then go on to develop if anything more advanced speech than non-signing babies.‘ she continues ‘It’s important that parents remember to always use their voices when signing with babies to encourage them to make the link between objects, signs and the spoken words.’ I immediately relate to this as Little L is chattering non-stop but uses the words we learn in signing more frequently in context than other words she picks up. Juliet goes on to reiterate the signing can alleviate a child’s frustration as they try and vocalise particularly tricky words. Her son Joe, for example struggled with the word helicopter but had no trouble signing it.

Aside from the desire by some parents to advance their child‘s development, the classes are FUN! Juliet has invented animal characters from puppets who each have their own theme tune with actions (signs). Parents take part in learning the songs and signing with the song. Watching the children’s faces light up each time a new character comes out to play is a real treat. Some of them immediately launch into the sign for the animal without being prompted by mum or Juliet. At the end of the course, the babies receive a graduation certificate and we had an informal ceremony, complete with the chance to wear a Little Monkey mask - which most of the babies yanked off but the parents got a shot for the ‘family album‘.

I asked Juliet, where do we go from here as a family. ‘Babies and toddlers love to sign so I would hope to extend the classes in the future.’. But in the meantime? ‘Keep signing together, there are plenty of signing books out there. Even better, get into a Level 1 BSL course in your area.’ We have also found some resources on the net, if you want to look up particular signs. Could it be that by the time Little L starts school other hearing kids in her class could still be actively using sign language? ‘That’s a nice idea’ Juliet responds ‘but there are many forms of sign language being taught plus once speech develops most children drop signing.’ Although Little L is a chatterbox, there’s nothing more fun that signing songs with signs. We will be keeping it as part of our communication for as long as she’ll let us.

Watch signing in action:

Holly was 14 months old when this video was taken, her mum reaffirms “Holly is now 22 months and speaking an incredible amount, putting paid to the myth that signing slows things down!"