Baby Sign Language - Los Angeles,CA

We loved signing. Both my children did it and I loved being able to communicate with them clearly so early on. It strengthens the relationship in such a positive way because everyone gets excited about it!
I used Sign2me by Joseph Garcia.
www.sign2me.com
Later when we introduced TV to my younger one while he was still kinda little we watched Signing Time on PBS and borrowed dvd's from the library
www.signingtime.com
Enjoy!

I use Baby Signing Times/Signing Times with both of my daughters. I think a good age to start is about 9-10 months. It worked great for my first child, who is now 4 and she has retained memory of a lot of the signs. I had little to no communication issues with her. She was able to sign milk, food, eat, and all done (the important ones) at 10 months so it was easy for me to know what she wanted/needed. My second daughter wasn't interested in the DVD's until she was about 14 months old. She's now 2 and loves it. It's the only way I can get her to learn her ABC's...she has no interest when I sing the alphabet, read the letters, or use the LeapFrog alphabet toys.

The videos are great, cute, and attractive. It makes it very easy to learn and both of my girls caught on quickly once they started watching. They love the videos so much that they've both memorized some songs.

I think that this is a great idea and it is never too early. A lot of people will tell you that using sign language inhibits their expressive language delelopment all developmental languange experts have discovered that this is not true. So I say go for it. I have some things that I would be willing to copy for you, just let me know. If you have any other questions please feel free to email.

Penny Amic CEO/Clinical Director
Special Beginnings, Inc.
An Early Intervention Network
###-###-####

Using sign language with babies is great, because it enables them to communicate long before they can talk. Babies with signing deaf parents learn sign very young. If you start using it now, even as young as she is- not necessarily 'teaching' it to her, but using it yourself when you talk to her- then she'll probably start to mimic you. We used sign with all four of our kids (now ages 12 to 20). We stuck with basics, like "more," and "please." For a tiny child, being able to tell you they want more of something cuts out so much frustration, for them and for you. There are good, very simple books out there that give you the basics, which is really what you want at this point. I'd start with just a few words, like: more, milk, cracker, all done. Those are pretty simple, 'doable' signs. A baby may not do the sign 'right,' but will do their best version of it, just like when they're learning to speak. It's great you want to do this for your baby!

after reading some of the other answers, especially the one about speech therapists thinking sign is a bad thing: one of my closest friends is a speech pathologist of more than twenty years' experience. She thinks that signing with your kids is a great thing! She uses it commonly to help her students communicate. It is wonderful for expanding their breadth of communication and reducing their frustration. Anything that expands and enriches our kids' language skills is a good thing! We signed a lot with all of our kids, and it did not delay their speech one bit. They all had very solid communication skills. We continued to use some sign throughout the years. Our eldest daughter has stayed interested and expanded her skills with ASL classes in high school and college. It has been a great help all along- you can tell your kids to stop what they're doing in the grocery store without getting loud. "No, stop now!" was used in our family for years. They get the point, without the embarrassment of verbal public correction. I think they much preferred being corrected in sign, rather than have everyone hearing what was happening. The signs for "thank you," and "I love you," are still a part of our daily communication. My husband found the sign for "go" to be particularly helpful. When we're out somewhere, he will be done visiting long before I am. He can just quietly sign "go" to me, which tells me he's ready to leave in a subtle and unobtrusive way. And another angle of this whole question: can you imagine how wonderful it would be for hearing- or speech-impaired children to go to school, and find that many of the other children could speak their language?! If many of our children knew at least some sign, then those who cannot communicate through speech would not feel nearly so cut-off and alone!

It's not too early to start! Babies can sign at 6 months old!
I signed with both my daughters, it is kinda weird at first, but don't give up, it is a great thing for you and the baby! I started with taking my daughter to a baby signing class, then learned from there. The babies can start the class at 6 months. I didn't start taking my first daughter till 10 months and she started within a month. She had like 200 signs at 18 months old.
I started my second daughter earlier and she signed by 8 months old.
It really is great and eases babies frustration cuz they can tell you what they want or are interested in.
A great DVD that I got at the signing class was:
The Treasure Chest: Toys and Signs DVD
You can buy it online. Just do a search for it. It is really great, and the babies love it. Good luck and happy signing!

I would advise you not to do this!!! I have done alot of research and talked to alot of speech Therapist, and what I have found out is that, Teaching babies Sign Language delays there Speach and when they enter school they are behind in that area. Speech Therapist, hate this new fad on teaching babies how to sign. they said that it is the wost thing for them cause they start talking later, and they don't know how to commuicate by talking, Unless there is a reason to teach them, (they have hearing problems, ect...) Speach Therapist, have also said that 7 times out of 10 kids that were taught to sign are in Speech Therapy in grade school. So I would do some research on your own to make sure this is right option for you.

Have a great Day.

I totally believe in signing and no your baby is not too young. Start now and you will be amazed how much they pick up. I think www.signingtime.com is the best. She has many DVD's you can buy. We have 10 of them but started with the basic first. We also took a class through the Parks and Rec which is good if you are just starting out. Since we had been watching the DVD's we knew most of the basic words already.. The DVD's are kind of expensive and I could not find them cheaper any place else. We bought through her web site, we also asked for them as gifts as we were moving up on the list and learning more words. Good luck and start now you will not be disappointed but impressed on how much your little one learns.

T.

signing with your baby is so great! I started at 6 months, that's the recommended age to start a class although you can start signing to her at any age really. It's so fun and she'll love the interaction with other babies. Videos would be good too at home. I saw someone commented about the instructor Monta, she has a great set of flash cards and dvd, under $20. It would be a good start.

My kids enjoyed the Signing Time DVDs from PBS.

I used it with both of my kids and it was great! We didn't use a lot of signs, just the basics (eat, more, drink, milk, please, thank you and all done). We started with my daughter at around 7 months and she picked it up immediately. My son took a little longer (maybe around 9 months), but my daughter was an early talker, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. I guess what I would say is that it can't hurt to start using them now, but don't expect your child to replicate it for at least another month or two. I had a kit that someone gave me that had a laminated sheet with some basics on it and a video, but I don't remember what it was called.....sorry! Good luck. It really was a lifesaver for us until kiddos were old enough to talk. :-)

this sight looks like it has some useful information http://www.signingbaby.com/main/ ....I had a friend that taught me the signs I wanted to teach my children.....your daughter is not too young to start learning sign language, studies show that children start to sign 3 months before they start to talk, by 6 months my kids were doing the "important" signs; more, eat, drink, all done, please ect. My one main piece of advice would be to say "show me..." when you want her to sign and "say ..." when you want her to speak, I didn't with my first and it caused confusion when she became verbal......enjoy your new avenue of communication and try not to stop when she becomes verbal, it will come in handy more than you would think

Hi N.-

I didn't do baby sign language with either of my two kids ages 2 & 3, but my husband and I did do the Your Baby Can Read program. We bought the program for $200.00 and I must say it's wonderful. And with that program you could start it at the age your daughter is now.

I see you have lots of good answers already but I'll chime in. I didn't use anything special with my 1st, I just got a book with baby signs to teach myself, and then taught them the you would orally- pointing and signing during a task or while reading, while also saying the word aloud. It worked great for us. I started around 5 months and he didn't start signing back until about 10-11 months, but then it really took off. I think it saved us a lot of tantrums because he was able to communicate his needs from an early age. He even started inventing some signs. He did start talking just a bit late, possibly because he wasn't as motivated to speak as a child who didn't know signs, but I wasn't worried since I could tell he understood me perfectly. After he could talk he would still go back to signs when he was really excited, mad or tired. Once he started talking more he gradually replaced all his signs with the spoken words and has now forgotten them. Thanks for reminded me that I need to start signing with my baby!

7-9 months is perfect, but we started at birth just to give ourselves more practice with doing the sign and saying the word at the same time. It may be some months before your daughter will sign back, but she will be taking it in. I did a lot of research beforehand and I totally disagree with Amy from Las Vegas. The research shows, in fact, that it actually jump starts their language development because they are using language (i.e. a concept goes with a sign that is meant to represent it) long before they develop the physical ability to speak. Our now 3-year-old is highly, highly verbal and his language skills are incredible. He is starting to read and can write all but a few of the letters. I highly doubt he is going to have trouble in school or end up in speech therapy. I give a lot of credit for this to sign language, but we also talk a lot to him (from birth we basically have narrated EVERYTHING we do) and I think this really is the most important piece in language development.

We also felt that it was very important that we teach him ASL signs rather than "baby sign" that is more made up, because our hope is that he continues to learn more and more signs and can turn this into a second language. So, we used the materials put out by Joseph Garcia because they seemed to be the most ASL based (with some modifications). We also took a class (3 Saturday mornings, 2 hours) WHILE I was pregnant. We found out about the class by looking through the handouts/postings at Babies R Us. While I found great value in taking the class, I don't really think you need to buy a system. Just get a book to learn the basics of teaching sign, which is pick a sign or two you want to teach (I'd recommend "more" and "milk"), then say the word and do the sign every time you encounter that concept. Add more signs every week or two. There are two excellent ASL browsers that I use to look up signs:

http://aslbrowser.commtechlab.msu.edu/
and
http://www.aslpro.com/

Keep in mind that there isn't usually "one right way" to sign something and that ASL has dialects just like English does. Depending on where a deaf person was educated, the signs may be done differently. This website has some good information about deaf culture and using sign and also has a good dictionary: www.lifeprint.com

I also really like the Signing Times shows. I taped them off PBS, but I think they are available for sale (you might also check your local library). They've really been more for me, so I can learn the signs and then use them with my son interactively. He never really took to watching them, but it's been about a year, so I might put them on again and see if there is any more interest there. They will probably be helpful to you, though.

Signing has been really great for us and I know that it helped cut out a lot of the frustration of late-babyhood/early toddlerhood when my son couldn't say what he wanted, but he knew the sign. He just turned 3 and is starting to read and spell 3-5 letter words. It's funny because he gets a word a lot quicker when we finger spell it.

So, I say "go for it" and have fun. It's great that you are looking into things early and getting your ducks in a row. You're a great mama!

We started signing with our daughter around 6 months. I thought she would NEVER pick it up but all of a sudden at 10 months she started signing, and then with a vengeance. She probably knew 80 signs before she started talking, and it was sooo helpful for us to communicate. We took a class that really helped- it was aimed at the parents- helped us know how to remember and also what to look for since baby signs can look different from adult signs.

The trick is for the parents to be consistent. I think it's actually more useful for the parents to watch the dvds and tv shows than to sit the kid there. (We don't do much TV in our house).

To start, just pick a few important words (milk, more, all done, diaper, danger) and a few motivating words (e.g., dog, airplane, ball, book) and use them all the time. When the baby begins to seem to understand, even if they aren't signing, then you can add words that you think will be meaningful.

Oh, one thing to watch for when you buy dvds or choose classes- check to see if they will be using ASL signs or so-called "baby signs" that are essentially made-up gestures- these are usually more simple and easier to either remember or perform for baby, but are not part of real sign language (ASL). We were advised to use ASL so that our daughter would be learning a real language, but it may not matter depending on your goals.

We started our son watching the Baby Einstein's "First Signs" DVD at around 5-6 months. We also had a board book called "Baby Signs" that we would look at with him (it had a lot of the same words, and some additional). We also made sure to use the signs that he was learning when it came up in our conversations (mostly things like "eat", "milk", "sleep", "mommy", "daddy", etc.). By a year he could do the signs, and a few months later he would use them correctly to actually communicate with us his wants. It was a HUGE help, and lessened his trantrums. He still uses them, even though he is over 2 now and his verbal language skills are getting quite good (especially for the words he learned how to sign). The big thing is to start them young, but don't expect results right away. Keep at it! Good luck!

I didn't use movies, but got a book from the library. I copied some of the signs and just started with the basics. (milk, more, please, thank you, drink...used A LOT) and as time went on I added some others. Definitely introduce it now and keep going until she catches on.

no she is not too young, day one is okay really you would be amazed at how much they will 'soak up' . i took a class and read some books and then just did hte signs each time the ones I wanted her to know came up, you sign and say the word at the same time. it takes a LONG time for them to actually sign, they say aroudn 9 mo. my DD was so verbal that we honestly just did not follow through all the way w/ sign, it could have been a second lang, but she talked more than I knew how to sign. lol. but it really does help for kids taht are not as verbal, it is great that you are looking into it and start today. good luck.

I started at birth with my second. With my first, she was a late talker and I found out about doing it from a speech therapist when she was 20 months old. I started with MILK, DIAPER, ALL DONE. The first time my baby signed back to me was at 6 months. We slowly added more and more signs and by 10 months, she was telling me she SEE a DOG outside and a BIRD in the TREE. It was totally cool. She would ask me to tell her signs of things by pointing to them and shrugging "WHAT'S THAT?" and I would have to figure out the sign for it to teach her. The best thing to do is to read one of the books for teaching the signs and then just sign the word every time you say it. (every time!!!) Start with just a few and add them as needed. Sign the most important things in the child's life (MILK is a good place to start!) Forget about the DVD's - the best way is interactively with her caregivers. Have a great time!

mine learned it at about 1 it was sparatic but 5 is definately old enough we used signing time which is a really cool series. mine has speech delay problems but uses sign to communicate and I highly reccomend it.

and for the mom who says it delays thier speech I disagree strongly because mine who was speech delayed to begin with has picked up words orally by using signing videos like cookie more, whats that, ball, etc. according to the video signing is supposed to help their language development and think about all the kids in school that can't talk and don't have any friends because of it. gives them an oppurtunity to make friends. I used sign due to the tubes and he may be hard of hearing. and several family memebers are hard of hearing. when he wants more cookies he signs more cookies or more dinner or more drink. they pick up sign before they pick up actuall words and learn to pronounce them. makes the terrible 2s a lot easier. less fits from fustration of not being able to communicate.

but you also have to realize milk may mean juice or koolaid. because in their mind milk is a drink so is juice and koolaid and milk is easier for them to pick up than drink in my opinion. and like regular speech the words aren't quite right the signs will be close but not right also.

I started using sign lang with my daughter at the age of 6 months! I think its great! It took her awhile to start using the signs, but when she did she really used them! She is 22 months & still uses them once in awhile, but she has slowly dropped signs and she starts talking more & more!!
I think it's great!
Monta Bryant is a local author here in San Diego who has a bunch of books & classes! She is great! She happened to be the instructor I got when I took a baby sign lang class at the hospital that I delievered at! Good luck!
(Baby Sign Language Basics-Monta Bryant)

My son learn some of the basic sign by playing V-smile baby game at around 6 month. Now he is 3 and sadly he don't do anymore signing since he talk alot and I do mean alot. Signing don't take away any abilitly to talk at all. We are bilingual family too. It is never to early to learn.

Good luck

Hi N.. We are huge fans of Signing Time videos. We started both our girls (now 5 and 3) when they were 7 months old. They loved it and still do. They love it so much we ordered the music DVD's for car rides. They sing along with it all the time. You can check out signingtime.com. The program grows along with your child.

It is never too early to introduce sign language to your baby. I began signing with my babies at birth, and they were signing by the time they were 6 to 7 months old. You seem to be aware of the many benefits of sign language. In this age of high technology, babies and children are overexposed to television, video games, cell phones, texting and are losing their abilities to connect with people. By teaching your baby sign language, you are not only enhancing your bond with your baby, but you are also enhancing her ability to develop into an effective communicator. Sign language is all about intentional eye contact, facial expressions and body gestures.

When babies hear language they are primarily using their left brain to process the language; with sign language, you are stimulating the right hemisphere as it is a visual language that they are now processing. When the two hemispheres are encouraged to communicate and neural pathways between the hemispheres are developed, you child will reap many benefits. Children who sign have been shown to be more imaginative, creative and more advanced in pre-reading skills.

There are many wonderful success stories, including some terrific websites. Check out www.signshine.com if you are interested in some wonderful classes in the LA area, and www.babysignshine.com if you are interested in reading the latest blogs about sign language. There is also a wonderful youtube video that is probably the most famous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSZfW4gVhI
Sign language is a beautiful gift you will be giving your child and family.
Enjoy the journey!

My son has really loved the Baby Einstein signing DVDs.

You can start signing with your baby now. The research I've seen shows that babies typically have enough memory and ability to start signing to you at about 6-7 months. I used signing with both of my kids and they were using it to communicate long before they could speak the words.

I loved the Signing Time videos. I think they're the best. I also had a couple of books to help me learn signs ("Sign with your Baby" by Dr. Joseph Garcia and others I no longer have). I would also go to online signing dictionaries to help me find new words. Either way, make sure you're teaching American Sign Language (ASL). Now there are many parks and rec classes that are offered too that weren't offered when my kids were little. I know I've seen them in Long Beach and I think in Westminster or Huntington Beach as well. I would read simple books in sign language and sing songs using sign language. Animal books and songs are most fun. "Sign2Me" is a program that I used also.

It's been many years since I used signing, but I strongly recommend it! It made communication with my little ones so much easier. In fact, I find myself signing with my baby nephew even though he hasn't been raised using signing. Funny!

Signing is such a great tool for parents.. we taught our son very early and I think it was the best thing for us first time parents. We bought simple books, we taught him the basic signs approx 20 and were able to communicate very well. We also taught the grandparents so when they watched our son they could understand him, to this day (he will be 5 in Sept) we all still use the signs but now with the younger cousins. He loves being able to teach them a new sign. Have fun with it~

I take classes with my 7 month old. He's a bit young in my opinion (for the class, not to start sign language(, but it gets me motivated to meet other moms.

I started my now 2 1/2 year old at the same age. He knows about 200 signs (we sign VERY regularly) and still signs with me. If his mouth is full or he's excited he will sign to me.

It's been awesome. The nice thing about classes is that you meet like minded moms and that helped me.

My 7 month old signs "milk/nurse" to me now and recognizes "more" and "papa".

I would recommend doing ASL with your baby and not baby sign language.

If you want to start on your own, just pick a few signs a week and introduce them.

My older son really started picking them up when we started solids as the food and the signs were a lot of fun for him!

Good luck.

I have been using the signing times dvds with my daughter since she was about 6 months old. She is 25 months now and still loves to watch the dvds. Learning sign language HAS NOT affected her ability to talk at all!! In fact she speaks better than most kids her age. And she's bilingual! I say go for it. Your child is never too young to start learning something new. You may have to watch the dvds and learn the songs and signs yourself at first and teach them to your child yourself thru everyday conversation until she can sit and watch them too. I had to do that because my daughter has never been interested in watching tv for very long.

Take care and ENJOY!

Hi N.,
We did sign language with my daughter from early on. We started with very simple nouns - milk, mommy, and daddy. She understood milk pretty early on, and then we added "more" and "eat." The main thing is to start simple until the child grasps that the hand motion is associated with an object or action. Once she understands that, she'll want to learn more. We also used a few books that were great. They were the two "Signing Smart" books that had pictures and interactive parts to each page. Her signing exploded with these books, as each page has 2 signs.

Once her speech took off, she started signing less, but we think signing helped her language more. She still signs and speaks certain words together like "please."

The main things is repetition - every time she drinks milk, sign milk. Everytime she eats, sign eat. She'll pick it up in no time, even at 5 months.

My daughter's seech therapist recommends Signing Times.

Baby Signing Time, my 7 month old loves it, and she is starting to pick up on some of the signs

My daughter used sign language with our grandson from the time he was born...he probably knew ( and used) 150 signs before the real value of them was no longer there because his verbal skills were so good. I do not think they used videos at all, they simply learned the signs and used them everytime they said the word. They started out with the basics, "mama's milk" ,"mama" , "papa", then they added things like "more" ( he used that one a LOT lol) . I can't tell you how thrilled I was when he first signed "grandma" . By the time he was a year old he was very proficient at signing what he was trying to "say" . I cannot tell you the amount of frustration on all of our parts that it helped save, instead of guessing what he was asking for he could sign it for us. It just takes lots and lots and LOTS of repetition on your part. We are already using it with my other daughters' 4 month old....everytime she gets ready to nurse him, she asks him if he wants "mama's milk" and signs it, each time I see a dog I sign it, or a bird. I sign for grandma, grandpa,kitty, it is just like teaching them to speak English...they don't "get it" the first time you do it...it takes time. Be patient, be consistent and it will happen!!
As for where to go for help, I think my daughter kept the website that she used just permanently pulled up on her computer!! Don't buy expensive videos and books...just google "Baby sign language" and pick which one you like the best...and use it. If you need more information, you can send me a message, I would be glad to find out exactly which website she used.
Good luck!!!

Hey N.,
It's never to early too start. I have started signing with my little guy and he is only four months old. Even though he can't sign back yet, he can hear and see me and is learning. I was told by others that if you start earlier you baby may be able to sign a few signs by 6 months. If you give your baby the words now, once she's ready she'll sign back.
I love the Baby Signing Time DVD series (there are four of them). It's very easy and the songs are real toe tappers. You can purchase them on Amazon or you can even get them directly from the creator at www.babysigningtime.com

I think baby sign is great. We used it with our daughter. The hardest part was learning and using it ourselves. Our daughter signed and said her first word at the same time. We used Signing Time videos and other baby sign books available (there are lots) I also took a baby sign class with my daughter through park and rec. it built my fluency on basic signs and had time for her to play. My husband and I found it useful for communicating to each other in crowded places. Also now that my daughter is four she is interested in signing again and asks us "what is the sign for...?" Good luck. My advice is just start using it consistently in connection with speech especially for those basic needs food, diaper, sleep, more, mommy ,daddy.
Have fun

I started with our little guy at about 9 mos. We never used videos or books for teaching him, I just had a few handouts from a "parents as teachers" meeting that I used to reference. We just used the basic communicating words/signs like: please, more, eat, milk, i love you, thank you, etc. He picked up on it a few months in and still uses them at age 2. Have fun, don't let it stress you out, it will happen!

Have you looked online? I think youtube.com even has some simple videos showing how it works. When they begin understanding simple things like more, bread (or food), drink, up, down, etc. that's when they can comprehend it, but even as you start saying those things to TEACH them it's cool to go ahead and use the signing. Kudos to you for being ready ahead of time! I think it's wonderful!

My son watched some Baby Einstein videos with signing in them from around the time he was 9 months old. He enjoyed the videos, but didn't seem to get much from them. When he was about 17 months old, we were introduced to Baby Signing Time, and that's been wonderful. He immediately started signing more (even picking up some signs that he'd never used before despite having seen them for months in Baby Einstein), and he also started talking way more.

I used sign language with all 4 of my babies. However I ALWAYS spoke the words as well. It was an invaluable communication tool. Words like eat, drink, more, please (a big one!), thank you, happy, and sad helped me know what they were thinking before they could speak the words. BTW, I used it for things like "Stop Now" (to stop poor behavior i.e picking on each other) and "Listen" that even though they're older (5yrs to 13yrs) I can correct behavoir by simply getteing eye contact and sign.