EXCLUSIVE: Nyle DiMarco Talks 'Meaningful' Sign Language Video He Gifted 'DWTS' Partner Peta Murgatroyd
Nyle DiMarco is giving Peta Murgatroyd the gift of sign language!
The 27-year-old model gifted his former Dancing With the Stars partner quite the unique gift to congratulate her on the birth of her son, Shai -- a video teaching the new mom helpful signs she can use with her baby.
EXCLUSIVE: Nyle DiMarco and Mother Donna Open Up About Emotional 'Dancing With the Stars' Victory
"Hello, before we begin, I wanted to actually give a gift to you, my Peta. First off, congratulations on becoming a mother. Your baby is so fortunate to have you and Maks [Chmerkovskiy]. I love that I knew that your baby was also dancing in your tummy while the two of us were dancing to our final freestyle," DiMarco's translator spoke in the video, while he signed.
"Why would you teach your baby signs? Did you know that research has proven that if you teach your baby sign, that would improve their cognitive and emotional development. You teaching your baby how to sign will also increase the rate of verbal development. And at the same time, it also will help you to bond, and make that bond even strong. So now, let's begin," he says, before teaching viewers a variety of signs for words such as "Mom," "Dad," "Bottle," "Sorry," "Home," "Read," and "Cuddle."
RELATED: 'Dancing With the Stars' Champ Nyle DiMarco Reads to Two Deaf Kids in Heartwarming Video
Shortly after releasing the video, DiMarco opened up to ET about his sweet, "meaningful" gift.
"I wanted to gift her something that is truly personal and that she would cherish forever with her newborn Shai," he explained.
"Since there are a lot of parents learning and teaching baby sign language from day one of birth, most were from sign language books. I decided that gifting Peta a video version especially from me would make it so much more meaningful, let alone more efficient to learn and teach!" DiMarco said. "Needless to say, research has proven that teaching baby signs improves cognitive and emotional development, increases the rate of verbal development, and at the same time increases the parent/child bond."
"It's hard to learn sign language from a book that is one dimension," he added. "Sign Language (and baby signs) is not one dimension. Videos are two dimensions so it is much more easier understanding how the hands move."
WATCH: Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd Celebrate Their Baby Shower -- See the Adorable Pics!
While DiMarco hasn't met baby Shai, but "would love to when they [the happy parents] are ready. " He also revealed that he and Murgatroyd talked about the benefits of teaching babies sign language early on in her pregnancy.
"We had this conversation during DWTS and she's very much aware that parents teach newborns baby signs. Now that she is a mother, it is completely up to her to do whatever she wishes to raise her own child," he said, adding that Murgatroyd herself picked up sign language easily.
"She was very quick to learn and was very motivated to learn more sign language. I saw her two months after winning DWTS and the first thing she signed was, 'How are you?' That melted my heart, knowing it's easy to forget after weeks of no use!"
See more on Murgatroyd and Chmerkovkskiy's bundle of joy in the video below.
Reporting by Brendon Geoffrion.