Come and join us for a friendly gathering and open discussion to share and make new connections with other like minded mama’s.
Our gatherings  are on the last Tuesday’s of each month! It is a FREE EVENT ♥ Everyone is welcome, Mothers, Babies, Toddlers, Grandmothers, Sisters, Birth Support People, Birth workers!

Our Topic this month: Baby Sign Language

Babies communicate from day one, how they develop their communication skills is up to us. Ideally, they will learn that we are listening to their little efforts, or they’ll MAKE you listen by screaming and crying, or worse still they’ll simply stop trying to get you to understand their needs.

If we see babies’ movements, gestures and sounds as simply ‘random’ then we are often missing their early attempts at communicating. Our reaction to our babies attempts at communication determines whether that connection in the brain is reinforced or not.

Sign Language with Babies ordinarily use gestures to communicate, such as turning towards a person, leaning in, smiling, waving, nodding or shaking their head. Baby signing can be thought of as an enhancement of what comes naturally to babies. Signing by babies supports what they do naturally when developing their communication skills, that the benefits extend into childhood and the relationships between baby and adults are enhanced.

Meet our Speaker: 

Andi Pannell

She runs Shine www.shine4kids.com which provides enrichment classes for children of all ages.  Shine Drama and Communication classes are for children age 3+ and provide a fun and nurturing environment for children to build confidence and learn drama and social/public speaking skills.  Shine Happy Baby Classes are designed to provide research-based programs and engagement activities to help parents connect, communicate and bond with their babies and toddlers – particularly in the developmentally crucial first 3 years of their lives.

Andi has 3 young boys aged 6, 10, and 13.  She first trained to become a Certified BabySign Instructor through the Baby Signs Institute in the USA when her first son was born and she saw how beneficial signing was for him.  She also became a Certified Instructor for the Happiest Baby on the Block Program at this time.
​
In 2009 her second son was born 9 weeks early.  After discovering the huge benefits of kangaroo care and nurturing touch for him, she completed the International Association of Infant Massage training course and became an IAIM Certified Instructor.
​
Andi is also a trained facilitator for the ‘Friends for Life’ program which teaches emotional resilience and anxiety management tools for children and adolescents. She is currently studying to complete a Diploma in Child Psychology.

Before she had kids Andi also spent 3 years working for the Starlight Children’s foundation in Australia as ‘Captain Starlight’ entertaining children in hospitals and special schools throughout Australia.

Come along to learn more about these wonderful tools at our next meeting. Please keep an eye out for more information about our beautiful guest speaker, and a more detailed blog post on this topic. ♥