Anyone tried baby sign language?

Dh & I got a book on baby signing when I was pregnant. Supposedly it helps with verbalization earlier and better communication. We started signing with the girls a couple things when they were 6 months but stopped for a bit because it was too early. Now we sign several things to them and have been for awhile, it has just become a habit. The other day, Azalea made her first sign! It was so exciting. She signed "thank you" (thats the one we use the most) I couldn't believe it. Since then she has done 3 different signs that I have noticed. Out of the blue she just signed "hungry" and sure enough I gave her a snack and she ate it all. It's just too cool! Does anyone else use baby signs?

 

We learn it through EI. My girls do "more", "please", "thank-you", and are learning "help". Yesterday, I was trying to get Claire to do "please" for more bites of my noodles. She grabbed my hand, put it on her chest, moved it around, and said "please". I was cracking up!

 

We used baby signs with the girls and now Avery has already picked up several signs. We used the "My Baby Can Talk" DVDs for the girls and they LOVED them! Up until after they turned 3, they would still ask to watch their "baby signs" DVD. I can't even list all the ones they ended up using and still remember. Avery won't sit still to watch a DVD, but has learned them from us teaching him what we can remember. He uses please, eat, more, ball, book, and milk on a regular basis. I keep trying to get him to sign thank you, but he won't. He does say "dan doo" every time we give him something or he gives something to us, though. I know people don't think it helps with verbalization, and it may not, but my girls were early talkers and everyone has always remarked about how well they speak. Avery already has several words that he uses (he can say most of what he signs) and I really think the signing helped with that. Or it may just be that they all inherited the gift of gab from Mommy. :laughing:

ETA: I forgot - he also signs "baby" whenever he sees one and he made up a sign for "I love you" that looks like he's hugging himself. :wub:

 

I used it with my girls because we could not get them to talk. I swear by it and think it was the turning point for them. They still use some of the signs and know most of the alphabet. We rarely use it now, but I really believed it helped my girls pick up talking as they were saying very little until we began signing with them.

 

I am not as consistant as I should. I"ve always wanted to learn ASL. I do use a few signs with Evan but he hasn't really picked them up yet. Heck. he doesn't even wave bye bye appropriately yet.

 

With P and P we did quiet a bit of sign language. Dh and I learned most of it along with the kiddos from watching Signing Time videos. My girls enjoyed the songs and learned signs. Once they started speaking they dropped almost all signs.

 

I am still teaching the kiddos signing. I have an uncle who is deaf**. I learned when I was very young (I can't carry a conversation quickly or anything like that, but I know quite a bit) It is fun. My littlest spells her name out loud, but she won't do it with out signing the letters. Just the other night she ask how to spell our neighbors (who were visiting) names and the dog's names. If I say the letter she will sign it. They all want to know what the sign for this or that is. We bought a kids book that has general signs in it. I think for Christmas the ASL book will be a great gift for them all.

It was neat back in February we went to visit my grandparents and my uncle was there. All my kids could sign their names to him and the littlest told him that daddy was working. He was impressed and all the kids were so proud.

**my uncle is not only deaf he also has CP and has a 4th grade learning level (he is 45) so our conversations aren't always fast or the most grammer conscience

 

Cody uses a few. he signs milk, more, cracker, please & working on thank you. We have the signing times video, but Cody won't sit & watch it. I had to watch it & teach him the signs.

 

I took college level ASL classes from September 2008-May of this year and have been signing with my boys since they were about 9 months old. We used the Baby Signing Time series, which is real ASL. I love signing and hope my boys continue it as they get older. They know tons of signs but I don't sign to them in proper ASL grammar so they probably won't ever be "fluent" in the language. I think it definitely helps to reduce tantrums and frustration!

 

I have attempted it... but I really would like to be more gung ho with it... I think we'd see more progress if I did it more...

my son is so cute, he signs milk, but i think he uses it to just say hello! I've also started showing him to wave... so that maybe he'll get the difference between milk & hello! my daughter does a sign that looks like thank you or eat... but isn't really in the right context either... maybe they just think its neat to do?

I do think it will be nice if they know how to express even just 5-10 concepts w/o getting frustrated.

I like the Baby Signing Time and the regular Signing Time series.

 

deleted b/c I guess I hit enter twice! whoops.

 

I haven't used it consistantly yet, but I think it is great as long as they are vocalizing sounds with it! I am excited for you! Yeah for the signing! :clapping:

 

BTW... www.handspeak.com is an awesome place to find signing words. Use the dictionary and it has words a-z! It has each word in video form.

 

We have taught the boys a few signs and our daycare teaches them some, too. They recognize more than they can repeat, but they do a pretty good job with eat, more, milk, banana, all done, and please. They have their own versions of a couple of signs (in other words not really how we do it, but they are very consistent with it so we just go with it). Every once in a while they pull out a new sign that we don't recognize - one that school has taught them or that they have made up themselves. I am not sure if it helps with teaching them to talk as they are both a little behind the curve as far as talking goes.

I do think it helps with the frustration piece of things to be able to communicate their wants and needs. I am really glad we did it with the boys.

 

babysigns don't help with vocalization but they do help ease frustration for them. I think using baby signs is great if you can get them to do it. My son never picked it up. I thought it was more to do with me not being as consisitent as I needed to be, but I've been just as inconsisitent with Daphne & Andrea and now they've got 2 signs down-- "all done" and "more" it's fantastic. and it's primarily when I need them to do signs anyway. a teacher I know (does baby signs) says to be on the lookout for your baby's version of the sign-- might not look exactly like yours.

good stuff!

 

I have been using the Baby Einstein Signing DVD. I am wondering about the other ones mentioned on here. Are they similar to the Baby Einstein one or more in depth? My twins are signing more, please, milk, drink, cereal, and thank you. I get so excited when they do it. Honestly, I think if they signed, can I please have a car, I would get them one?

 

Question for those whose kids are signing "more" what do you use the sign to refer to? I am thinking of teaching this one to them but so far I havent because it seemed too vague. When they sign "more" do you know what they want or are talking about?

 

QUOTE(NicoleLea @ Jun 6 2009, 11:13 PM) [snapback]1344301[/snapback]
Question for those whose kids are signing "more" what do you use the sign to refer to? I am thinking of teaching this one to them but so far I havent because it seemed too vague. When they sign "more" do you know what they want or are talking about?


We used "more" mostly during meals or snacks -- because for the longest time, I doled out only a couple of pieces of food, because my kiddos would make a huge mess if they were given a lot. So, they learned to sign "more" after they'd eaten what was on their trays.

Then, we also used it while reading books -- Karina eventually signed "read" and "book" and "please" in succession -- and then after the first one, she'd bring another one and sign "more."

About signing in general -- yes, it's been fantastic for all three of my kids. I highly recommend the Signing Time videos -- we have nine volumes of the regular ones, not the baby ones. (The baby ones weren't out when Nadia was an infant, but she watched the regular ones starting at 8 months old, and was mesmerized.) Nadia was signing entire sentences at 18 months, which was good because she was a really late talker, and it definitely helped with frustration.

Same with Karina...it was really cute to watch her read a picture book, and sign the objects to herself, instead of saying them. And, Kevan has a speech disorder that causes a significant delay, so the signing has been really great for him. He still only has maybe 4 or 5 words, but he signs many more. According to our speech therapist, signing develops the same part of the brain that speech does, so it's just great all around...