Sign language for babies?

My husband and I started using sign language with our children after our now 4-y-o was born. We looked at the baby signs program and decided to use ASL signs instead. Our 4-y-o still uses signs and we try to add a new sign every few weeks. I think it's great to have many ways to communicate but if the children ever get really interested and start learning more on their own, my husband and I will have to find a different way to discuss surprises in front of the children.

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We started using sign language with our daughter at about 8 or 9 months. Now, at 13 months she regularly uses about 20 signs and 4 or 5 words. It's truly amazing. I don't know if all that is true about higher IQ's blah blah blah. All I know is that I have a happy baby who can tell me what she wants. She still does a far amount of point and grunt, but the things she loves the most are the signs she picked up first!

We have two DVD's from the My Baby Can Talk series, which she loves. They were very helpful for my husband and I to learn the signs as well. But she's now ready for more signs and we don't know any! We learn new ones from the ASL website. I am also thinking about getting Signing Time. They have a new baby series available.

I cannot recommend baby signing enough!

You can see my daughter doing some of her signs on her blog (yes, I have a blog for my child -- I know I'm pathetic) http://winnemac.livejournal.com

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I do have a question for signers. A friend of mine has taught her almost 2 year old signing as way for him to communicate because he does not want to talk. I know he is not "behind" on the talking milestone yet. Though I am thinking that if there is no impetus for him to talk and he is able to communicate by signing, wouldn't signing just delay his speech even longer?

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Frannie, I had some neighbors who didn't teach their little boy sign language because they had a friend with a little boy that would sign, but refused to talk. While I can see why they were concerned, everyone else who I have ever known who has done sign language with their baby was pleased with the results. Many experts claim that sign language actually encourages more vocalization rather than less as children are not frustrated by a lack of communication and therefore "shutting down" because of a lack of an outlet.

I did signing with my boy and was very happy with how he did with it. At two he is starting to speak in sentences of three and four words and occasionally uses his signs with words still. I will do it again, no matter what anyone says because we found it helpful.

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One of my good friends was born into a deaf family (she's hearing). After her first child was born, she used sign and speech regularly with him. He was able to communicate with his grandparents easily as a baby. We didn't live close to each other at that time, but when my daughter was born (six years ago), they moved closer to us and she helped us learn some basic signs to use with Sophie.

The difference was amazing. She was able to communicate basic needs at a very early age, way before she was verbal. She could tell us if she was hungry, hurt, thirsty, tired, and lots of other things. She hardly ever tantrumed when she was young (but at 18 months, she made up for it!) and she started talking earlier than the norm.

If we had another baby (not likely at all), we'd definitely do ASL again.

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Hello! I need you to give credit to my site for the photo you are using of my daughter Lauren. Please mark it Courtesy of http://www.signingbaby.com with it linked. I am not sure how to get ahold of you personally because I can find no contact information for you. Thanks! Monica Beyer

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I use my duaghter's own cues and ASL when I work with her sign language. I used ASL to teach her food, drink, more, and please. I used simple gestures for up (point up) and down (point down). She came up with her own gesture to mean "turn on the music".

I taught her all of the signs in less then a day when she was 13 months old. She barely talks and her doctor told me to continue to teach her the baby signs because she is a physical child (started walking early) and may be delayed in talking and baby signs with help with the fustration (she also has a short fuse, like her mama). We teach her other signs as we find it is nessary in daily life, but other then that she is doing great with them and it really helps.

But I will warn I have had quite a few people tell me that they did use ASL with their children and ended up having the send them to speech therapy because they refuse to talk because ASL is easier.

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My 19 month old can also say bed (asl/baby sign), but it can also mean blankie for her sometimes.

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I started signing with my little one when he was about 4 months old. His first sign, "more" came when he was about 8 months. Then it took off. Within a month, he had more, eat, drink, water, finished, help, up, down, happy, and a few others that I can't even remember! I used ASL as my base, although I modified "help" because he had trouble with the coordination of that one. Now that he's almost 3 (where does the time go?), we're working on the alphabet. He can sign about half of the letters, and can also sign the "now I know my ABC's" part of the song at the end.

I don't think it hindered his speech at all. I continued to use signs with spoken words throughout the whole process... sign & say "more", etc.

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Oh, and I continue to educate myself on the sign language. My brother gave me "The Joy of Signing", which is an old book, but very helpful. In fact, I found myself able to speak with and help a deaf person in the store the other day! Too cool.

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What people don't realize about ASL is that there is *incredible* dialectical variation in ASL - not many speakers, spread out over a wide area, speaking what is essentially a creole, of *course* there is.

So you learn that this sign means one thing, only to find out that half the Deaf population signs that word differently. Lots of words have two or three different signs - or no consistent sign at all, in fact.

So I've never seen a problem with making up signs, so long as you try to keep the most common signs consistent with your country's signed language (which may not be ASL, of course!)

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Adding my two cents to what every one else has said, I have found that teaching my daughter to sign (she just does 'more') has been extremely helpful. She has adapted her 'more' sign to mean that she is hungry or thirsty, and also to ask for a nonedible object, i.e., "Give me that". It has definitely helped me cut down on the frustrations of trying to decipher what your nonverbal child wants.

I will definitely teach future children how to sign, probably some variation of the ASL, which is what Emily uses to sign more.

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We adopted our son when he was 15 months and so were going to skip signing. Just last week, when he and my husband were at a neighbor's, they learned the very handy "more" sign. Our son picked this up so fast and uses it just as Erin said--to mean more food, I'm hungry, etc. We also taught him the sign for "finished" or "all done" and he picked that up right away too. It's so easy, even with an 18 month old. Really it seems like there's no reason not to.

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We teaching our lad Jakob BSL, in UK there are so few resources as it all seems to be ASL. Thing is we know some BSL already so it's easy to add in new signs (even is they're misremembered).

Jake started with "light" and "bird" at about 9 months. Interestingly he doesn't do those signs anymore (at 12.5 months) but he appears to recognise +light, +bird, +food, +potty, +poo, +mummy, +daddy, drink, +bed, +music, +speaker, +smell(verb) ... at least (+ shows signs he's made). There are a few signs like finish, cat, nice and perhaps others that we've been doing a long time but that he hasn't attempted. There are also some like "smile" where we can't be sure if he's responding to the sign or just doing the action.

He doesn't appear to be any less vocal than other babies.

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PB, that's strange - looking online, I've consistently found that BSL and Auslan dictionaries are far more comprehensive than ASL ones! I'll dig up my links if you like :)

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I recommend signing for all kids. I have only taught two - more and all done and let me tell you - they made all the difference in the world

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