When our babies are born, we are programmed to keep them safe. Their safety is at the front of our minds from before they are born. In today’s blog, I want to talk you though some dos and don’ts for language when teaching your infant to be safe, including how baby sign language can help.

Picture this: You’re in the kitchen, preparing a snack of fruit when your baby crawls over to climb the oven. You know that ovens can burn, and you want your baby to know that too, so you yell “AH, AH! NO! HOT!”

But think about this: your baby is only just learning language, they can’t speak yet and they don’t know what “hot” means, plus the oven wasn’t on. So, you are yelling “NO HOT!” when in fact it wasn’t hot at all. See how that could be confusing for a baby?

So, what do I recommend? Be specific. Teach your baby what a word means.

A strategy that I used for teaching my kids what HOT means, was with my cup of tea. It was still hot, but not so hot that it would burn them. I let them touch the outside of the cup then sign and say: HOT. It was hot enough that they didn’t like the sensation and now won’t touch my cups of tea. Win! This was my step one for safety. Know what the word means.

Now, I only say that the oven is hot, when the oven is actually on and hot. Our oven is obvious when it is on. The light comes on, there is a noisy fan going, and heat is radiating from the door. This provides multiple cues for knowing when the oven is on and therefore a danger.

Have a conversation with your child: Can you see the light on? Can you hear the fan? Can you feel the heat? That means the oven is on. Ovens get very hot and can hurt you.

The importance of this language learning process is that this not only teaches your baby specific words (hot, dangerous, etc.) but also you are teaching them the important skill of doing risk assessments and identifying dangers for themselves. This is what will inevitably keep them safe.

Remi, from about 12 or 13 months old would point to food, or the oven, or my cups of tea and sign “HOT”. So I knew he understood.

Now I acknowledge that there are MANY different ovens, some are obvious when they are on, and some not. So please use your common sense here. This advice should be considered from a language learning perspective only. Always supervise your baby around hot and dangerous items. 

Here’s another common example:

Your baby climbs up onto the couch. You don’t want them to fall, so you say to them: “Be careful!”

But what does “Be careful” mean? For a little person who is just learning language, this very vague phrase gives no information to help them be safe and avoid injury.

So, what do I recommend? Again, be specific. Tell them what they need to do to be safe.

This will vary depending on the situation. But for the example of climbing on the couch, it might simply be something like: “Sit down on the couch. You are up high. You could fall.”

In the early stages of language learning, you will need to show your baby what “sit down” means. Repeatedly. But they will learn quicker than you think.

I also use accidents as a learning opportunity too. When my kids were learning to walk and would fall over. I would comfort them: “Oh, did you fall? Ouch (SIGN OUCH). Are you OK?” This identifies the event for them (that nasty thing that just happened must be called a “fall”), which will allow them to understand when you are giving instructions in the future. Using sign language “OUCH” gives a visual cue for the incident and again, next time they are doing something that could result in a fall or injury, I can say and sign “OUCH” as a cue that what they are doing is dangerous.

What are the key take aways?

1) BE SPECIFIC – avoid using vague or ambiguous language

2) Teach the meaning of words related to your child’s safety

3) Use key word signing to help your baby understand and communicate back with you

Supporting your baby’s language development is of huge benefit for many areas of their learning, but having good language skills really aids your baby in understanding how to be safe as they begin exploring their world.