Do you do Baby Signs?

I went to the bookstore this evening while DD1 was at youth group - what a treat that was!

Anyway, was reading the book Baby Signs. It came out a few years after DD1's birth, so I never got into it. I thought it sounded really interesting, and was very impressed by the little anecdotes about babies using signs to communicate with their parents.

Does it work? Is it worth it? Any stories to share? Load of cr@p?
Should I look into this when the kiddos are old enough? When did you start?

Thanks, parents!

 

I'm going to start with my girls very soon. I have talked to many others that had great success and loved it!

 

I used signing with my older dd's and loved (and still do LOVE) it! My oldest talked early, but would sign as she talked (the basics...more, please, thank you, hurt, hungry, thirsty, etc.) My second daughter didn't talk as early (who needed to with an older sister who did ALL the talking! ) so she signed exclusively until about 15 months. Then the words came in fast and furious, along with signs. I think the greatest part of it is that now, as they are getting older, I can give friendly "reminders" of manners to them that don't embarrass them. If they ever forget to thank someone, a quick sign at them will put them right on track. The other thing they love is that they can "read along" at church with the woman who signs the mass for the families in our parish that have hearing difficulties (we have about 4 families that use sign) We continue to learn new signs, and now they are very excited about teaching their brothers to sign as well. I look at it as a "foreign language" that I have the ability to teach them. It can't hurt any to try it out...
Good luck! It's lots of fun once it gets started...especially with the MORE sign!!!

Nicole

 

I've never done this either but I think its a very interesting concept in eliminating a lot of the common communication problems between babies and their parents/caregivers. I wonder if it hinders their regular speech development though.

 

We do Baby Sign with DS and love it. It has made life so much easier, since he has been able to tell us things from a young age. I am anxious for the girls to be old enough to start teaching them.
The only pain is that I have to remember to teach them to anyone that cares for DS otherwise he gets mad if they don't respond to what he is trying to say.

 

I plan to introduce signs to the girls as we go along too. I'm so excited about it and have just started teaching the signs to DH this week. I found this nice little primer website with a baby sign dictionary. I took ASL in college and ever since, I've really missed having sign as a regular part of my life. But that will all change in a few short months!

I do have a question for those who've been there: When did you start introducing signs? Most of what I've found says around 6 months, but it seems like they could be seeing them and remembering them (although probably not doing them) earlier than that.

Laura

 

My kids have never been into baby einstein... but love Signing Time videos. We are definitely using signs as several of my friends have and I love it.

 

We just bought another baby signs video and it came today. My girls are probably getting too old for the videos but still love them. I even ordered the quick glance chart they have and put it up next to the poster of the alphabet I have. I Love baby signs!! It helped so much when my girls where younger, I think it cut back on some of the frustration on not being able to communicate. So its helped all of us. When we have another baby I plan on teaching this one as well. We started teaching them at 9 months. I have even started teaching the 1 year old I babysit and teaching her has actually cut back on the tantrums and boy did this girls throw tantrums.

 

I always knew I wanted to sign with my babies and I especially knew when one of my sons showed very early signs of possible tempers he may throw in the future!!!

We bought the baby signing time videos and at 5 months i put one on and they did not like it.(THey have a favorite video they like to watch.)

So I learned some basic words. Eveytime they are done eating in their high chair, we all do the all done sign with me prompting them. It is amazing to watch!

At PT last week, Seamus was on the excercise ball and did the all done sign (I must admit, it is possible he was just wiggling his finers.

I do a few to them and they usually watch with interest. I think they are taking it in but cant do anything else but all done.

I went to my friends yesterday and I did not know she was signing with her son. He is almost 2 and does not really talk yet. All of a sudden, I saw him do the eat sign. ANd then he did 'drink' and 'more'. You may think 'but he is almost 2, why would I start with babies?'

Well, on the video, they show babies doing the signs. It is so cute. I am going to try the videos with my boys again soon. Other babies I hear just love the videos!

I would get it. I think you will have fun with it!

 

We don't do it yet, but like other posters I plan to introduce it soon. I think it will be fun for us all to learn together and hopefully be able to communicate!!

 

My nephew does it and signs milk, juice, and a few other things....it helps to figure out his needs some. Hes older than my twins and now that he's talking fluently he doesn't do it any more. He learned all of his sign by watching the baby einstein sign video....he just taught himself.

 

I haven't had my babies yet but plan on using baby signs. I taught early childhood sp ed and used sign with all of my students and they loved it. My advice to anyone using it would be not to buy books and videos unless you want your child to watch them. They are all more basic versions of american sign language and you can look up signs online and save money. If your child is old enough to look at a book or video and do it, then go for it, but otherwise save your money.

 

Yes, it is wonderful! All 3 of my girls sign(ed). It's so fun to see their "wires connecting" as they figure out how to communicate. My oldest used 17 signs & now my little ones are learning more & more each day. I highly recommend Baby Signs.
Good luck,

 

I have been thinking about it too but my big concern - does it hinder verbal communication? It seems like it would if they know they can get what they want through signing.

 

I did the basics with my 3 older kids and plan to do the same with the boys. They just turned 7 months, and I have been working on it for about a month. I started with more, please, and all done. They haven't done it on their own, yet, but they laugh when I do it with them. If nothing else, it gives each of them one on one time when you don't really realize it. Also, you'd be surprised how much they learn and how fast.

Nicole, it's supposed to help them talk. You don't not talk when you do it, so they don't sign instead of talking, but will do them both when they do accomplish their verbal skills. And until their verbal skills are there, signing so helps them to communicate.

 

Although the girls already say lots of words we are teaching them signs. The first sign we taught them was down because they would scream when they were ready to get down from their highchairs, this helped alot. The girls now know: down, eat, hungry, all gone, more and some more that I'm probably forgetting. I would start at 6 months or when you start feeding them baby food(if I had it to do over again this is when we would have started, we didn't start until a year). We sign and say the word. There are some words the girls still can'y say but can sign(ex. eat and hungry).

 

quote:
Originally posted by nicolepag:
I have been thinking about it too but my big concern - does it hinder verbal communication? It seems like it would if they know they can get what they want through signing.


Ditto HRE's post -- studies have shown that babies who are taught to sign are actually MORE advanced with their verbal skills at 2 years than children who weren't taught to sign.

 

how do you know how to teach Baby signs? Should I get a book? Learn from a video?

Clueless in Hong Kong

 

My girls were 17 months when we started to watch Signing Times Videos. They picked it up really quick and love the videos. We also watch Talking Hands (on comcast cable ON Demand). It has been a great tool for the girls to use for communication.
Sue

 

I don't think you have to buy a book or a video. We don't plan to buy anything. There are a ton of great sites online with baby sign dictionaries. Here are a couple that I have bookmarked:
http://www.signwithme.com/002_browse_signs.asp

http://signingbaby.com/main/?cat=14

 

Lots of people swear by Signing Times but I am a huge fan of Baby Signs. My kids basically taught themselves most of the signs they know from the Baby Signs series of board books. We are not a huge tv family, and so having the signs in a kid-friendly book format was a huge hit.

We had great success and I would recommend Baby Signs and the baby board books to any parent interested in communicating with their kids!!!

 

I have a 2 1/2 yr old who was primarily watched by my father-in-law who is a deaf-mute. I was also worried about his verbal development, but he actually speaks better than most 2 yr olds.

With my twins, I start teaching them signs as needed. Example...bath, more, please, all done. They are 10 months old and because they see us signing all of the time the mock us.
My father-in-law says that my husband was fluent by the age of 4.