Anyone Have Any Baby Signing Stories?

Great idea! I started signing to my son(now 17 mos) at around 9-10 mos. I have taken some ASL(American Sign Language) classes and have several books on it. We started with the basics...more, mamma, daddy, food, drink, etc. Some are a little hard for him to do perfectly, but he has the general idea and does use them. Best of luck, it's a lot of fun!

I used baby signing with my daughter. She is now 16 months old soon to be 17 months old and she uses her signs along with saying the words. I definetly feel it is a big plus to continue. She was less frustrated and was able to communicate with us better. It does take a little while for them to start signing back but it will surprise you one day when they do it out of the blue. Good luck!

t.

My daughter was a preemie (born at 27 weeks) and I was worried that she may have some speech delay. We started signing with her at 9 months and she picked it up very quickly. Now at 4 years old she could talk your ear off and she has such a HUGE vocabulary! I'm sure it's due to signing. I think signing was the single most important thing I've done for my daughter. I used a video series called Signing Time! (www.signingtime.com) and HIGHLY recommend it. Kids LOVE it, and parents do too!! (none of that annoying purple dinosaur sounding stuff!!) You can find it on some PBS stations (35 in the philly area) also.

Best signing story: Before my daughter could talk, she was teething. She woke in the middle of the night and was able to sign to me that her head hurt! Poor kid. It was nice to know WHY she was waking up so I could help her.

She also used to sign to me all the time that she was thirsty or tired. I never would have thought to get her a drink of water after her naps if she didn't tell me!

My tip is look into Signing Time! and sign as much as you can.

I started sign language when my son was 2 because he still hadn't said anything yet. He is now 29 months and still doesn't talk so I still do signs. So far he can do eat, drink, and more and he picked up on those really quick. I am just basically teaching him the ones that are important to me like 'help' so he can tell me that way instead of whining, and things that he's always pointing at like big semi trucks on the road.

Happy Mother's Day! My son just turned 18 months and we started using sign language with him around 9 months just to ease the frustration he was having trying to communicate with us. He only used the sign for milk at first and now he can sign quite a few words. My husband and I are learning as we are teaching him, we really just use basic signs for his needs such as eat, drink, more, all done, milk, please, thank you, and dog. My son doesn't say any words yet, but he completely understands us and gets frustrated if we don't know what he wants. The signing has helped alot! At first I didn't think he was catching on, and then he would have days were he started signing in short phrases. "Milk, Please", "Thank you, mommy". Once he has a few things mastered I start adding other words and signs. I still say the word and show him the sign, and then if he wants something I ask him what he wants and then show him the cup of milk and say "Do you want milk?" while I show him the sign for milk. He usually shakes his head yes and I tell him to show me what he wants and he will then do the sign for milk before I give it to him. He is so proud of himself when he gets what he wants. He doesn't get every sign exact but it is close enough that I know what he wants. I am not sure if I will continue once he starts speaking. This is just a means to communicate with him and ease his frustration with us when he wants something. I had a cousin who taught her daughter (who also didn't speak till she was 2 1/2)sign language and I thought she was just trying to show off, but I was wrong, it really works. Good luck and take care.

We started using signs with my son when he was around 6 months (we started my daughter around the same age 15 years ago). My mom is a retired nurse who worked with profoundly handicapped children for years (who communicated through basic signs) - she figured that, if it helped them communicate, why wouldn't help the babies? We really only used the very basic signs though. I can't really give you any tips - I didn't actively teach him any signs - we just used the ones that he seemed to need to communicate to us. I have to say, though, I highly recommend it during that time where they have a lot to tell you, but they don't have the words yet.

We phased it out, though, once he started talking. We were really only using it as a means for communication, so once he was able to communicate verbally - we allowed that to take over. His frustration level during that pre-communicative stage was low, & I attribute that to the few signs he knew. We also allowed the signs he knew to kind of "grow" in meaning as he attached his own meaning to them. For example, he learned the sign for "more" very fast. He also quickly learned that when he signed "more" he got something, so he started really using it to mean "I want" - he'd point at something & do the "more" sign. It worked, though - he got his meaning across to us!

It doesn't sound to me like you need to change anything that you are doing - try to make sure that the handful of signs you are using are the most useful to your son & stick with them. My kids seemed to catch on best when we introduced one at a time & used them consistently during the learning stage...

Good luck!

We did this with both of our kids (more-so with our first). We were very successful. My daughter starting signing back at about 9 months and by 11-12, it was non-stop. It's a great idea! We used the Baby Signs book.

I started trying to teach my daughter to sign at 6-7 months, and got nothing back from her a long while. One morning she woke up and did three signs in a row, she was 10 and a half months old. Now she's 2 and she knows over 200 signs, and can speak in sentences, and knows about 300 words. I am a firm believer that signing helps kids learn to talk. Good Luck with your signing endeavor!

My daughter definitely started signing back under a year. The easier signs like "more" or "eat." She's 2 1/2 now and we still learn more signs. She seems to like it. I didn't do a class or anything. I just used books and stuff. I concentrated on ASL since there are other types of sign. Now we try to do a new sign each night that is relevant for the day. For example, if we go to the zoo at night we might learn a sign for a new animal. Also the internet has great resources on signs. I think before she was able to talk, signing did help her communicate without as much frustration.

Have fun,
Y.