Sign Language for Babies

I taught both my boys some sign starting at about 6 mo. It was SO helpful! I got a couple books and videos, but think I learned most of it from an article in a Parents magazine! I mostly focused on things like eat, drink, more, milk, etc. My oldest boy who is now 3 1/2 still occasionally uses it (more just to be cute :)), but it's still helpful for my 2 year old to clarify what he's saying. Definetly try it!! Will take a lot of stress off both of you and is so funny to see them do it!!

M.,

I totally believe in teaching sign language to infants. One of the best things to teach them that I have found was the Sing with me website.... www.signwithme.com It has little video's for you to look at & work with them with. My 2 year old was able to tell me that he wanted something to eat or drink very early & that helped alot in my house especially with an older brother. You can also go on the internet & search infant sign language dvd's & it pulls up quite a few. Good luck!!

My daughter is 10 months old and she can sign more and ball and can understand a few more. I think those are two of the easiest ones to learn since it's like clapping with your hands. I personally think it's a wonderful language to learn and although you might not see immediate results, like anything, repetition is the key and they will understand. My daughter is also learning Japanese from her bachan (grandmother) and can say several words in Japanese as well. Babies are like sponges, use this time to teach them as much as you can!

Before you purchase books and videos, there is a program on Channel 13 that is a lot of fun to watch. It's called Signing Time and comes on at 6:30 Sunday mornings. We record it and watch it later. Check it out and see if it might be of interest for you. The program is created by a mother who's daughter is deaf and she created this program to teach others as well. Her daughter and nephew are the children in the program. http://www.signingtime.com/

I worked with our son on eat, drink and more starting at about 5 or 6 months and he picked up “more” very early on. By the time he turned 1 he never picked up eat or drink signs but he had developed verbal ques for those things. All in all he did not pick up many signs at all but his vocabulary is amazing. He is way a head of the curve on speaking and I believe that it was because every time I used a sign I also repeated the word.

Baby sign is really just basic sign language…so you can look up the basic signs on the internet…eat, sleep, drink, more and then modify it to something that is more simple (it is easier for you to learn to). I had a baby sign book but the signs my son did pick up were hardly ever like what the book showed…to me buying a book was a waste of money.

I've used sign language in my daycare for years. I highly recommend "Talking Hands" on VHS or DVD. I purchased it from http://www.mothergoosetime.com ; but you can find it just by searching the name ("Talking Hands"). I start with each child as soon as they are sitting up and continue all the way through to kindergarten. It's so much fun! Responses are different, depending on the child. Some will begin as early as 7 or 8 months, others closer to a year. Good luck...

http://www.missbrenda.com

I hate to rain on your parade, but research and my experience show that baby signs delay speech. All the children I've known whose parents have taught them signs (5 kids from 3 different families) have been very slow to talk. If the child has a way to communicate nonverbally, he or she will not feel driven to learn verbal communication. Sure, baby signs are cute and convenient for the parent because they're easy to teach and interpret, but think about later on when your child is way behind the other kids. Plus, other adults and children don't know baby signs, so think of your child's frustration in trying to communicate with anyone but his/her parents. Why not spend the time it would take teaching signs to your child, talking to him/her instead? Children who are talked to and read to a lot have bigger vocabularies and higher IQs. Besides, if they are old enough to do signs, they are old enough to learn to talk. My son had a 60 word vocab by 1 year old, and now speaks in sentences at 22 months. His friend learned baby signs, is just now starting to talk at the age of 2.

Definitely give it a try! We began signing when our son was 5 months old, mostly to get us in the habit, and on a "dare" from a friend. At nine months, he began repeating 3 signs. He is now 13 months old, and actively uses close to 40 signs. It now takes him less than a day to learn a new one, as he knows that everything has a sign. We did not take a class, primarily pulling resources from the internet. However, if you decide to take a class, I would HIGHLY recommend WEE Hand with Tammy. She is a fantastic teacher, with very realistic expectations. She also uses real American Sign Language signs, not made up or modified. You will be amazed at just how capable babies are! Good luck, and have fun with it!

I took my daughter who was 13 months at the time to a music/sign language class at the rec center in allen, Kindermusic and they signed certain things that you say all the time; i.e: all done, more, thank you and such. I incorporated it in our day to day activities and made sure that my nanny used them as well and she can now say those words at 18 months but still signs them.

M.,
I really believe in sign language for babies. It helps to develop thier vocabulary and language conceptualism at a very early age and cuts down on frustration by giving them a way to communicate desires before they are able to verbalize them. It helps your frustration level also because there is a way to understand and communicate for you as well. We begin here teaching the moms the principals at about 4 months of age. Tammy from Wee Hands does 2 classes per week, 1 for beginners and another for more experienced moms and children. She is affiliated with the company Sign to Me. It takes about 3 months of moms signing to babies before they begin to respond. Tammy explains realistic expectations. Typically the kids are about 8 months old before they respond with basic signs but they seem to build exponentially.
For more information on this and other classes such as musik garden, scrapbooking and mommy and me yoga call The Nesting Place in Grapevine. ###-###-####
K.

I would also highly recommend it. It helped a lot with frustration with both of my kids, especially at daycare since we taught their teachers the basic signs.

As a bonus, it's wonderful to be able to ask your 3 year old if the need to go potty when they're in the top of the McDonalds play structure!

Signingtime.com videos are totally awesome! You can't buy them at the stores but you can get them cheaper on ebay than at their website. Do check out the website though to familiarize yourself on the "sets" they make. besides ebay, I sldo found a "dealer" (another mom) locally who was able to sell me a set I wanted in a hurry (xmas)...she met me same day in town and I got as good a price from her as I had on ebay. I had found her on craigslist searching for signingtime. Her contact info was Tammy ###-###-####. Good luck.

I started signing to my son when he was about 7 months old. He is now catching on. It does take a long time and alot of repeating but it is so worth it. I sign simple thing right now like; eat, more, kiss, and all done. He knows what kiss is and will give me a kiss, and he will tell me when he is done eating. I love the idea and got my signs off of the internet for free, I just did a google search for Infant Sign Language.

Good Luck.