Baby signing?

I am thinking of starting sign language with my DD- she is 9 months. I have heard of it in the past to help language development etc.

Any tips on which to do first?

 

I rented the Baby Einstein "My first signs" DVD from the library, and it was okay. But my SIL is a speech therapist and she was raving about the Signing Times DVDs so I bought Baby Signing Time Volume 1 from Amazon and I think its really good! It just seems more interesting and has these catchy little songs (that will get in your head and possibly grate on your nerves, LOL). But I do think that Signing Times is better than Baby Einstein's signing DVDs. Just my personal preference. I just ordered the Signing Time Volume 4 DVD yesterday which is about "family, feelings, and fun."

Also, I sat beside a mother of 2 year old triplets woah at our last MOMs dinner the other night and she also said their babies loved the Signing Times dvds and that it really helped them communicate and learn to talk. She and I talked about how some people claim that sign language DVDs delay babies speaking, but she thought that was hogwash and said her babies learned to talk right on schedule. And she said when they do start to talk they are hard to understand and that their signs in addition to talking helped her understand them better.

 

I'm another Signing Time junkie! they also have a Baby Signing Time series. I just ordered a 4 dvd set w/4cd that was on sale for a 1 day sale... Mine are now 19 mo. old so I'm not exactly sure why I did that since they should be saying more... but ours don't speak much, so for now I like being able to communicate w/the signs. Its so fun! my ds is pretty good at it, and has picked up things that I don't really even try to accentuate. I don't even have the dvds on much and they pick up so much!

see if your library has any... ours has the whole series, and its been nice to check out different ones. but really to begin with you just need to focus on 1 or 2 themes. good luck!

words they have learned: please, eat, milk, water, more, dog, cat, duck, bird, airplane, fish, shoes.
other words I sign to them, but they haven't signed back: sleep, wait

they don't always tell you what they want, but if I ask do they want to eat or have water, they'll let me know... its pretty cool!

 

p.s. I checked out a couple other dvds from the library too, and wasn't really impressed with them. I love the songs that Rachael sings on the Signing Time series - and yes "its signing time with Alex & Leah"... can drive you crazy... but its cute. my dh called me from work one morning after he'd been listening to it while he was showing it to the kids... he had it going in his head all morning!

 

we LOVE Signing Times, it is what i call 'baby crack' because it has helped us many times when we get ready for bed... helps to settle them while we get their PJs on etc... my DD especially just lights up and smiles so big when she sees Rachel... we started playing the first video for them early around 6 mo, they recognize signs and they are 'saying' the words and 'signing' now for milk, dog, shoes, and more. we now rotate and play the first 3 videos and will soon want more for more exposure.

 

I taught my older son with just the book "babysigns". Right now, I am teaching the babies "all done" because it is the only sign I remember from 5 years ago (I need to brush up). My older son learned "more, all done, milk, airplane (we live near the airport), and probably more that I am forgetting. All I did to teach him was make the sign and repeat the word for him.

 

I used the books, too, and now it's really cute - they "read" the signing books to themselves (and each other!!)and sign the words on each page! I started with eat, more, milk, and sleep and actually had to repeat just those few for quite a long time before they started signing back to me. Now they know at least 20 or more words from the books, although their favorites are the ones for things they request the most, like banana, fish (for goldfish crackers), bubbles (for a bath), book, ball, and car. They really look at the pictures of the kids signing and try to imitate even more than when I sign to them!

I definitely think teaching them to sign was a good thing for us. Once they realized that we understood them, it made them work harder to use the signs we taught them, make up their own "signs" (like pointing to specific areas of their tray for certain foods, etc.), and now that they are combining signs with words, they seem very confident that they can get us to know what they are saying. Of course they overuse signs like ouch sometimes just to get an extra hug, but I don't mind :wub:

 

Baby signing saved my sanity! My DH is...well...let's just say frugal, and the DVD's were not an option for us. I have heard great things about them though. I used online sites to learn a few signs and taught them as needed. We stated with "more" at 9 months but really they didn't use it correctly until 12 months. Every time I said the word, I'd do the sign. Stay consistent and you'll do great. Once they learned a new sign, I'd introduce a new one. We just did more, thank you, please, milk, eat, help, sorry (and I think that is all). My boys still use the sign when they say the words now. I would say that more and help were the best because they eased tantrums substantially.

My favorite site is babystrology. Good luck!

 

Totally that. We started with our 2nd child when he was 18mths as he was insanely frustrated and couldn't talk. He picked up signs VERY quickly and it helped when he had a speech assessment at 24mths - the signs he used went towards comprehension of language. He was a late bloomer and is totally fine now at 5.5yrs of age.

We would just sign all the time, not necessarily concentrate on one word because he was older, and our 3rd child picked it up as he saw the signs done all the time.

My kids STILL sign Thankyou on a regular basis - when they have food in their mouths etc.

We will get back into it in the next few months with the duo.

 

Add me to the signing times group. My girls loved the DVDs and I've just started playing them for the boys. My oldest signed a lot and it was really helpful in terms of communicating with her.

 

Don't introduce more than 3 at a time. More is a great sign to start with. I did *more*, *thank you* and *milk* first. I never did any dvd's. I think it is soo cool to see Evan use the signs.

 

I never did any DVD's either. We just did the basics and they caught on pretty quickly. It really eased the frustration of communication issues. With Leah I also did a Sing and Sign Kindermusik class that she loved.

 

We borrowed the first 2 Baby Signing Time videos from a coworker of DH. I must say, I was a skeptic at first. It seemed to me that by the time kids learned the signs, they were talking anyway. But after we started viewing and using the signs, I totally changed my mind. The boys love the videos and have picked up so many signs! The signing has not limited their verbal speech at all, and they will often say the word and sign it at the same time. This has made it so much easier to tell what they're saying. They say "ba" for "ball", "book", "banana" (Jack says "ba", Nate says "nana"), and sometimes "boat". They know the signs for all of these, so I can tell what "ba" means when they say and sign it. It's also great for words that are very hard for young children to pronounce, like "fish" or "train".

We made Christmas cookies this weekend, and it took them less than 24 hours to learn the sign for "cookie"....