At a free trial class in Lutterworth library, infants as young as six months learnt a
form of sign language which expands on natural gestures babies use to help them communicate more easily with parents and carers.
Sing and Sign teacher Sonia Bellchambers shows the children one gesture at a time, such as 'hungry', 'pain', 'play' or 'more', using songs, music, pictures and speech to reinforce the signs.
From May 5 she will be running ten-week classes in Lutterworth and Broughton Astley for £42 per child.
Mrs Bellchambers, of Hinckley, said: "It's for children who can hear and it's about extending the natural gestures that you would normally use with your children to encourage them to speak, how to say how they feel and what they want."
From the age of six months youngsters can learn a simple form of sign language called Makaton, normally taught to children with speech and language difficulties.
Mrs Bellchambers, who has run such classes for two years, said: "People often say, I know what my child wants, I don't need this.
"There's the old adage, 'mother knows best'.
"But how many times are you sitting down and the baby makes a sound and the mother says 'is it this you want?' or 'is it this you want?' and the baby gets more and more frustrated.
"But with this, every sign is geared around the baby's day – drinking, having a bath, changing a nappy."
Of the 100 signs babies can potentially learn, Mrs Bellchambers said the gesture indicating pain is the most important.
She said: "We do a full week teaching the sign for pain. We have different songs like 'ouch baby' and one 16-month-old baby went home and was doing the pain sign. This went on for a few hours. He was pointing to his ear.
"His mother took him to the doctors. She said, I know it sounds silly but I do baby signing with my son and he says he has a pain in his ear.
"The doctor was a bit unbelieving, but he discovered the child has an ear infection and he was able to get treatment before it really started hurting."
Mrs Bellchambers said teaching Makaton to babies improves language skills, because children quickly learn and use the words for each sign.
She said: "My three-year-old daughter starts playschool after Easter. When she went for her taster session she was more articulate with knowing what she wanted.
"Some children would have difficulties saying certain words. At the end of the day even if some children have done signing, it doesn't mean they are more intelligent when they start school, but hopefully it will make them far more confident in their communication with others."
Lucy Kirk, manager of St Mary's Montessori nursery in Lutterworth, said they teach basic gestures to babies and youngsters as a matter of course.
She said: "We use it so they can express themselves and communicate with us rather than get frustrated because we don't know what they want. Obviously we continue speaking to them, but if they're not ready to speak yet they can still tell us their needs."
Sing and Sign sessions will be held every Friday at Lutterworth Grammar School at 1.30pm from May 5 and Broughton Astley Village Hall from May 1, every Monday at 10.30am.
Call Mrs Bellchambers on 01455 610523 to book a place.