Christina Barsch sat on the floor with a large stuffed bear - named BeeBo the Baby Signs Bear - on her lap. Her arms were threaded through the sleeves as if her yellow-gloved hands actually belonged to the bear.

She was making a swooping, three-fingered gesture - the hand sign for "airplane."

"Airplane," she said brightly.

But the four tots sitting with her on the floor Tuesday morning weren't paying much attention.

Despite encouragement from his mother, 10-month-old Jordan Michaels was more interested in the toy airplane on the floor. Addyson Allgier, 23 months, wanted to crawl through the toy tunnel in the corner. Seventeen-month-old Leah Hein had her eyes on the visiting photographer. Even Barsch's son, 21-month-old Ezra, was busy trying to claim BeeBo as his own.

However, Christina Barsch was undaunted.

"It's the age group," she said cheerfully after class. "It's kind of hard to get them to focus, sometimes."

An independent certified instructor for the Baby Signs Institute, Barsch is accustomed to teaching sign language to very young children. And very young children sometimes have a very short attention span.

It was only the second session of the six-week Baby Signs sign-language class. After a while, and after seeing their parents use sign language at home, babies will start using sign language as a way to communicate, she said.

During Tuesday's class, when the music started and Barsch and the mothers began to sing - and sign - a song called "Sign, Say and Play," the students settled in. They seem mesmerized by BeeBo's yellow hands.

Barsch conducts her Sign, Sing and Play classes in downtown Rapid City each week. Her business is called Baby Signs By Christina, an affiliate of the Baby Signs Institute.

Baby Signs, Barsch said, is meant to fill the communications gap for babies before they learn to talk. And any frustrated parent who has tried to translate baby talk into English knows the value of communication with babies.

"They can communicate their needs before they can talk," Barsch said.

The vocabulary of Baby Signs is partly American Sign Language, but many words have been adapted for little fingers. And parents and children often make up their own signs, Barsch said.

For instance, for adults, the sign for "cereal" is a scooping motion as if spooning cereal from a bowl. For babies, the gesture more resembles a two-handed pinching motion, because that is the way babies eat cereal.

Christina and her husband, Joshua Barsch, moved to Rapid City from the Phoenix area two years ago. Joshua had gone to high school here, and they wanted to raise their children - daughter Mia, 3-1/2 years, and Ezra, 21 months - in a less urban setting.

Christina developed an interest in Baby Signs after Mia was born. She started signing with her daughter when the child was six months old. Mia started signing back at nine months.

The best age to start learning Baby Signs, she said, is 6 months to 9 months old.

The earlier you start, however, the longer it takes for the baby to respond. It took Mia three months to learn Baby Signs, and she was using them at 9 months. Her son started learning signs at 9 months and was signing back at 10 months.

As their verbal skills improve, children will gradually drop signing in favor of talking, much the way a toddler gives up crawling as he learns to stand and walk. However, Christina's daughter still uses signs to communicate with her little brother.

Barsch does one-day parent workshops, "Sign, Say and Play" sessions for babies, and classes for early-childhood educators. Baby Signs also has a program to help with potty training.

Ruth Hein, mother of 17-month-old Leah Hein, said Barsch helped her get started with signing when Leah was about 6 months old.

"We've been informally working on signing since then," Hein said. Now, Leah knows half a dozen signs, and she is learning more of them. It does help them communicate, Hein said.

"For instance, today I was going to put her down for her nap, but she started signing that she was hungry. I was kind of wondering if she was," Hein said during a recent afternoon interview. "Now she's eating, and it will help her sleep better."

Ruth and Leah Hein like to "chat" while driving around town. And besides, Ruth said, it's nice for stay-at-home moms to get out of the house and spend time with other parents and children.

In addition to bridging the communications gap, Barsch said, the Baby Signs program helps children develop both language and cognitive skills. Research has shown that using signing actually enhances language, cognitive, and social-emotional developmental skills of children. Babies develop speech sooner, and that can translate later on into better grades in school.

For more information about Baby Signs, visit www.babysignsbychristina.com or call 490-2557.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com