Baby Sign Language - Denver,CO

She knows more than my 18 months old boy, who actively does two signs (more and milk) but he KNOWS more.than he will actually do. My girl, who is now 2.5, could demonstrate quite a few at 13 months, pbly b/w 8-15 words or so. She is a talker now and doesn't use it as much anymore.

Is your child deaf and is learning sign language as her primary means of communication? If so, you should definitely check with your Pediatrician and Specialists on the standards appropriate for her.

I signed with both my children -- but as a tool to help decrease frustration during their language development. There is absolutely no "standard" on how many words a child should be able to sign by age, especially since people teach signing at varying ages. If this is how you are using sign language communications, you'll want to be concerned with the traditional speech and language developmental milestones. By 18 months, she should be able to say 8 to 10 words, point to an object or picture when it's named, recognize names of familiar people, objects and body parts, and follow simple directions accompanied by gestures. And, as most research has shown, children who learn to sign usually exceed all these milestones!

Hi K,
There are no standards for the number of babysigns a hearing child should know by a certain age. You should be choosing signs for your child which help them to best communicate with you and reduce frustration.

Hopefully, you are also "speaking" the words as you sign them.
t

I think that 8 is great. My son didn't start really getting signs (at daycare) until about 15 months, but he picked them up quickly and he was able to communicate more clearly, even when talking. Words sound so similar sometimes that he could specify which he meant. As long as it is helping her communicate with you, the number of signs aren't important.

We watched the "signing time" videos with both of our girls, and they loved all of them! I rent them from the library because they are expensive to buy, but they really helped my girls sign!

If your child isn't deaf, 8 signs seems fine. Shoot, it's probably fine even if your child is deaf. Lots of kids aren't talking much at 13 months.

My 1st son learned TWO signs. He is now an extremely bright & highly verbal 6 year old. He was just more interested in crawling, climbing, walking, jumping, etc. when he was a toddler.

he knows more than my 2 yr old he is doing good.

Our 6 year old child was considered deaf at birth. He does hear fairly well with aids. Anyways, children who can both hear and see have better sign skills than children who are deaf. More senses are getting stimulated. (This info was given to us by our in-house interventionist). However, it all depends on the kid!! 8 signs is pretty good for a 13 month old. If your child does hear, then it is to eliminate frustrations. So if that is working, then don't worry! And my 3 year old can only seem to sign his name and we use signs all the time!!!

I started Sign Language around a year old. Milk, More, All Done, Please, Thank you, Drink, Help, Stop, No, Yes....are the ones I used the most. We don't sign anymore, now that he talks, but I would randomly add things as he grew...Jump, Walk, Swing, Ball, etc. If she's able to communicate what she wants, then I say she's on track. If she become interested in something then find out the sign for it. If you always serve an apple or banana, teach the sign for commonly eaten foods.

Morning--
At this age it is impossible to tell normal vs advanced vs behind. Every child is different and learns things at different rates. For example, my oldest had around 15 signs at about 15 months and hardly said a word until he was two. My youngest only had one sign ever because rather than signing he just tried to say everything and was speaking in complete five word sentences by the time he was two. However, my oldest taught himself all his phonics at three years old and at 6 has a vocabulary to rival a third grader. So you just never know. The key is to communicate with your child all the time so they can learn. It sounds like you are doing everything right.
J.

We watched the signing times videos and our daughter knew about 75 signs when she was 18 months old, but we used it a lot. Keep it up--anything you teach here is great!

If you are just signing as an addition....I don't think there are any standards.

With DD1 -- I started signing early, around 4-5 months. We loved to watch Signing Time! on PBS and I signed with her all the time. I was also home with her to do such things. At 18 months she knew over 50 signs and was learning them quickly. She has forgotten a bunch since we don't use them. She is also incredibly advanced.

With DD2 -- I sort of started signing around 8 months or so. Mainly more, all done, thank you, please, help. She knows maybe around 15 sings and she is 17 mo. We don't do it with her much...I don't think of it, plus I work and am not home to spend as much time with her. plus they took Signing Time! off our PBS, which SUCKS...its still DD1s favorite show. We have a couple videos, but they are only about 25 min and I forget to put them on and usually dont' like dealing with the hassle of changing them.

Oh, and DD2 is much more middle-of-the-road as far as her skill level, maybe just slightly ahead of average but nothing like DD1. I think it comes down to personality too....DD2 is much more physical and doesn't care much about learning the signs. DD1 loved it and couldn't get enough.

Hope that helps!

I taught my DD sign language at starting about 11 months. We highly recommend the Signing Times series as well. We just got a new one at the library each week. I think the most important thing to do is watch along and learn the signs that way you can show him while doing everyday things. The more your repeat it over and over the better chance your child will want to do it with you. I think she got to about 70-80 signs by the time she was about 15 months old. But once she started talking she pretty much stopped signing. There really is a large range of what is considered normal and I'm sure your DD is right on track. I'm sure you're doing a great job just keep trying.

There is no "track" for baby signing and no typical developmental milestone at all. Baby signing is a way to increase langague access to reduce frustration. It is a very nice way to expose children who are too young to make words with thier voices to using language. She cannot be behind, on track, or advanced, but she is lucky right now that you took the time to do it. It is just one way to enrich a babies environment.

M.

It is about the same amount of signs as vocal words, but each child is different. At 13 months it is one to two words, with meaning. At 18 months it is 5-20 words. For sign it is 10 words by 12 months, 40 words by 18 months. But if she is not deaf then she will be trying to do both which will delay both for a bit but it is still better for her brain to have learned sign and vocal. So don't fret she is doing great! Sign is a bit easier so is it normal to pick it up quicker then words. some times that mouth is hard to get a handle on:)
here is a great site..
http://www.mysmarthands.com/Site/ASL_language_milestones_...
Have fun,
E.