As parents we want to make sure our children have the best start in life. But this mom has gone above and beyond by teaching her baby American Sign Language (ASL)
Tabatha Marie has gained a steady following on Instagram by sharing her journey into motherhood with her more than 12.2K followers.
The young mom, who hails from Maryland in the US, has been teaching her toddler, Haven, how to use sign language, and it’s the most beautiful thing to see.
A few days ago, Marie posed a video to Instagram of herself showing Haven how to distinguish between shapes and colours using ASL.
Little Haven quickly cottoned on to the game and picked out the yellow ball when her mom asked her to show her where it was, causing Marie to clap in delight.
Marie is using ASL as a form of language development with the toddler.
Baby sign language has grown in popularity over the years.
A communication tool developed by Dr Joseph Garcia in the 1980s for use with hearing, pre-verbal babies, it involves teaching them keyword signing that they use before they can talk.
It is similar to normal sign language, but simplified, said Yogie Semple who has been using baby sign language at her playschool in Morningside, Durban, for more than 10 years.
US-based parenting expert Monica Beyer has written a number of books on the topic. Her advice? Any age is good, although most parents will only begin to see results when their baby is seven months old.