Hello, my name is Deirdre McLaughlin. I am married and have 3 children: twins aged 12 and a baby daughter born in October 2006. I live near Crossgar, Co. Down.
 
I am a qualified Social Worker and have worked with young people and families for the past 10 years. I studied Psychology to degree and Masters level at QUB. Since then, I have had varied and interesting experience, from the financial field, residential work with people with disabilites to work with deafblind people. It was while undertaking this work that I began studying BSL. I have completed BSL to stage 1 and 2.
 
I started using signs with my twins, not because I had ever heard of baby signing, but because it made sense to me that it would aid their communication. My friends and family still talk about how they used to display their signing skills!
 
When Cara was born I was delighted to learn that the concept of 'baby signing' had exploded. After doing some research on the internet I was even more convinced about the benefits. I bought the Sign with your Baby pack and have been using it with Cara since she was 4 months old. She did her first signs at 5 1/2 months of age.  By the age of 12 months she had approximately 70 signs and was able to tell us when she was hungry, thirsty, tired, needed her nappy changed, etc. She could also have a 'conversation' with us and take part in reading stories.

I was disappointed, however, to see that the 'baby signing' concept hasn’t really taken off in Northern Ireland. I really am passionate about the benefits and feel that introducing signs to babies will not only help them learn and communicate with others but will also give them an introduction to BSL, the beautiful language of the deaf community in Northern Ireland, used by between 3000 and 4000 people here. For these reasons I started doing a bit of research on 'baby signing' and, even more convinced of the benefits joined the Sign2Me presenters network in May 2007 and 'Sign 2 Music' was born! Sign2Me is an international organisation based on the pioneering research of Dr Joseph Garcia. It has presenters all over the world including the UK and Ireland.

One of the most amazing 'signing' experiences I had was when Cara was almost 9 months old. I had been breastfeeding but was in the process of weaning, so had introduced a bottle/cup. That night I was breast feeding as normal, but had brought some milk in her cup to give her after, as I knew she would need more. She was getting quite upset as I was feeding her. I signed 'milk' and she lifted her head and signed 'no milk'! When I lifted her cup she got excited and signed 'milk' . I couldn't believe it so I repeated this several times with the same result! That was the last time I breastfed Cara, as there was indeed 'no milk'. I think it was totally amazing that a baby at less than 9 months of age could tell me this so clearly herself.