Has anyone done baby signing? If so what book did you go by and did you find it helpful? My daughter is almost 7 months old and I think this would really help us communicate with her better. Any advice is appreciated!
I taught my girls more,drink,all done and please. Just those few ones helped so much. Just be repetitive and consistent when teaching her and she should get it get it pretty quick.
We are so grateful that we taught our daughter a few simple signs, beginning when she was about the same age as your daughter.
We found the book, My First Signs by Annie Kubler, helpful. We didn't worry about absolute accuracy as long as we knew what we were communicating. We only introduced a couple of words at a time. I started by signing "milk" every time I fed her until one day she signed it first. A few words that were essential for us were: milk, all done, more, book, please, and thank you. We were thrilled when Grace made her first sentence, "More milk," long before her first birthday.
Have fun!
http://www.amazon.com/My-First-Signs-Annie-Kubler/dp/1904...
PS - My sister found a few good resources at the library, including a book with flashcards and DVD that she used with her son.
I used this web site:
http://www.signwithme.com/002_browse_signs.asp
You really only need a few signs like more, done, milk, food, please, and thank you. It was great and it really helped build my daughter's confidence in communicating with us. She is two now and quite the conversationalist. :)
GL!
I purchased "Baby Sign Language: a practical guide to signing with your baby" at half price books for $5.95.
My DD picked it up very quickly and it's so cute to see her sign now for "more milk".
I started teaching my first son "more" when in the high chair for more food when he was about your daughter's age. (I just hated that grunting noise) He caught on but then "forgot" what he had learned and I just kept trying to teach him more and all done. I never saw him sign anything for months. Funny story: When he was about 14 or 15 months old I went to get him out of bed and I opened the blinds and said "Oh, it's raining some more" and I looked at him and he was signing "MORE". I was dying laughing. Now, he signs more and all done all the time and appropriately! It was like: LIGHT BULB! So, now we are working on more signs and language too.
So, don't be discouraged if your daughter doesn't repeat right away, she'll catch on eventually.
We signed with our daughter and still do a little even though she is 22 months old and can say just about anything she wants now. She has about 5 dozen signs in her vocabulary and uses them periodically. I have a hearing impairment so I wanted to start her on signs early in the hopes that she will pick it up as a second language eventually. My husband and I are not fluent signers but we will need to be someday and I really need to be more diligent about signing with my daughter!
Keep it simple at first, more, please, milk, eat, drink, all done, thank you, mamma, daddy, and one or 2 more for fun, like ball, fish, or airplane. Just do one at a time until she can do it, then add another one. Some words they pick up immediately and might learn more than 1 in a day, but others might take a few weeks or you think they don't know and then suddenly they are signing away wondering why you aren't "listening."
Baby Enstein has a great video to get you started with all the basic words, but I love Signing Time on PBS, I think you can buy those videos also. I like videos better than books because not only can you see it over and over again but your baby can see other kids doing it and I think that helps them get the idea!
You just have to keep doing them over and over every time you say the word, keep working on it and quiz her, "Can you sign milk?" "What sign is mommy making?" "What's this, you sign it."
I have a video of my daughter at 9 months signing and speaking "more cookies, please, thank you." It was the first time she started stringing words together.
Here is another link:
http://www.signingtimekids.org/
I also used Baby Sign Language. Very easy with great pics to help you learn the signs. We started with more, milk, and all done. Every time you say the word make the sign too. It took a couple months but by the time my daughter was ten months she was signing 10-15 words. It really is amazing when they start signing back and are able to tell you what they want or what's wrong before they can speak. Very helpful. Our pedi did recommend only teaching basic words and to remember you're not teaching signs as a second language. You don't want to delay her talking. Good luck!
