ANYONE walking through Millets Farm yesterday will have seen a lot of babies flailing their arms in the air.

Far from being a call for help, this was a summer party where babies could sing and sign.

The Sing and Sign programme encourages early communication between parent and baby through the use of gestures.

Karen Bisp, co-franchisee of Sign and Sign in Oxfordshire, said: “They pick up the signs from what we do in classes and what their parents do at home.”

“We did some singing and everybody brought a picnic.”

Kathryn Keeping took her 22-month-old son Xander – who has been learning the signs for around a year – to the summer party.

She said: “It was a brilliant day. The children just love going to the lessons.

“The other day Xander got stung by a wasp and he signed to me that he had been stung.”

Anyone interested in joining Sign and Sign classes should visit signandsign.co.uk.