Sign language for babies

I've heard that babies can really use sign language to express themselves and communicate what they want. Has anyone tried a program like this? Does it really work?

 

I took a Kindermusik Sign and Sing class with my older DD at 10 months and it was great. She learned a ton of signs.

 

I LOVED the book Babysigns. It gave very good advice, saying that you can basically make up your own signs, something that's meaningful to you and your baby. You don't have to use traditional sign language to benifit your child... the important part is that they learn to express themselves thru some sort of meaningful, consistent, gestures. That being said, the book gives some excellent suggestions of signs you could use and which signs you might want to introduce first because of their simplicity and usefullness to the child.

 

We have the Baby Signing Time DVDs and my boys LOVE them. I started trying to teach them some of the signs around 10 months, and I think they picked up 'more' and 'eat' after several months. They didn't really get into the signs and DVDs and start to use them consistently until they were about 14 months maybe?

Now Tom signs and says things at the same time, and Jack still mostly signs - this evening in the bath he was telling us whole sentences about his day in sign language...It has been awesome to be able to learn how they think long before they have recognizable words, and it has allowed us to help them with speaking because we can tell what they're trying to say when they sign at the same time. For instance, draw and dog sound very similar when Jack says them, but he pats his leg when he means dog, and we can say the word back to him correctly and respond to what he means.

 

I used sign language with my first son and have intergrated into our everyday life with the girls. I didn't use a program. I know basic signs and picked up a basic baby sign language book from the library to learn a few more...the english sign language signs.

From my experience it is awesome to see them beable to understand and communicate long before words. In my opinion you don't need a program, just create signs that reflex the babies initial requests and make up ur own, consistency is the key and to talk the word you are also signing. My girls are just 8 months and we have been signing since 3 months ish..........they know and respond to more, eat, drink, and milk. They will sign for milk. As they get older and learn more dexterity with fingers they start to sign more. It's fun.

Good Luck

 

We have the baby einstien's signs dvd. The girls really enjoy watching it. We'll see if they learn anything in a few more months when they have a little more control over their hands.

 

Here is a website for a few baby signs ... http://babystrology.com/baby-learning/baby-sign-language/ enough to get you started.

Heather