Signing without using TV?

[aahjed]

My son is turning 5 months on Friday, and I wanted to start teaching him sign language. I don't want him to be watching TV yet, so I don't want to use DVDs or videos.

For those of you who taught your babies sign language without TV, what did you use? Did you use books for the baby, books or DVD for yourself (and then taught signs to the baby), flashcards, or some combination?

TIA!
Angela

[jhaud]

i have taken sign language classes (community college - part of their community friendly courses) and have friends that sign (i am an audiologist and work closely with the hearing impaired teachers in the schools i served)... i also have several books on using sign with children and my favorite (easy to read, uses asl) is Baby Sign Language Basics by Monta Z. Briant. It is a little (short and fat) book. For me it made alot of sense and also gives basics for how to start with your child as well as when and with what signs. you could always use other books (sign language dictionary, etc) and internet sites to look up more/different words. I think what really sold me on this book (because i had read others) was the use of asl and the suggestions on with what words to start and how many.

[brittone2]

DS is tv-free and we sign. I worked as a pediatric PT before he was born so I picked up a bit from work, but not a ton of signs. We've used a combo of various books and this site, which I love because 1.) it is free and 2.) it has videos of the signs being done so you can "see" what to do better...I find this more helpful than seeing things in a book sometimes.

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm

The best thing is just to incorporate signs into your day and do lots of repitition. DC will catch on eventually :) DS is 18 months and pretty verbal but he's really catching onto a bunch more signs all the sudden. I still find it helpful to have him sign things when I'm not sure what he's saying or what he wants. It is such a fabulous tool :)

[Katia]

I got Joseph Garcia's "Sign With Your Baby" video (for parents) from the library, and later bought the quick reference guide to keep at home. Here's a link on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932354018/qid=1124739536/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-8189776-1276622?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

We didn't really follow a structured program for introducing signs -- just picked what we thought would be useful for our family (milk, help, etc.). I thought it was really fun and interesting. HTH!

Katia
DS 2003

[AngelaS]

I've taught four to sign without any vidoes. I've read "Baby Signs" and start by teaching more,all done, drink and eat during meals. Then a lot of signs are learned just from their favorite books (like I pick on item on each page to show them the sign for) or from things we see.

The boy I nannied learned a handfull of signs, my oldest knew 60 signs, my second knew 40 and my 10 mo old knows 3 so far. :D

[murpheyblue]

We use the Signing Times DVDs but TV is not necessary to teach your child to sign. We learned the signs for the things DD is interested in and incoporate those signs into our daily life. DD knows about 120 signs and she's probably learned half from the videos and half from us. You can check out ASL indexes on the net or pick up a sign language dictionary to keep around the house to build your vocabulary.

[calebsmama03]

I took ASL in college and still have my book so whenever I wanted to teach DS a new sign I'd just start signing it in conjuction with saying it at the appropriate times. I would always sign please, thank you, and more when I used those words with him and he still signs when he says please :) If I couldn't remember a word I'd look it up. I think he best way to do it is getting yourself a book (or using a good online ASL dictionary) and presenting words/signs that are useful to his everyday life. No sense teaching a ton of signs he won't use right away (like candy!! hated that this was on the signing times video I rented at the Library!).
Lynne
Mommy to C 3/03
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif[/img][/url]
And Miss Purple, 5/05

[mudder17]

Kaya didn't really start learning signs from the ST DVDs until around 12 or 13 months. Before, she mostly picked it up from us signing to her. We used a method that the University (they're doing a SL study on babies) people taught us. Basically, you start with a few signs and you get their attention first (the hardest part, actually!). Then say the word and do the sign 5x's while you have their attention. Then form their hands into the sign and help them do the sign. Then reward them with praise, encouragement, or whatever it is they're signing. She learned "nursing/milk", "water", "baby", "more/eat"
(she didn't sign "eat" separately until much later) this way. I used (and still use) the following sites to figure out the signs:

http://www.masterstech-home.com/ASLDict.html
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
http://www.lessontutor.com/ASLgenhome.html
http://www.lessontutor.com/eesASLFarm.html
http://www.lessontutor.com/ees_asl_food_vegetables.html

Don't be discouraged if your son doesn't seem to pick them up that quickly as he is still very young. However, if you pick maybe one or two important signs like eat or milk, and do it very consistently, he'll probably surprise you by doing them one day. We started inconsistently at 7 months, and I think Kaya really picked up her first sign at around 10-11 months. FWIW, Marlee Matlin (who is deaf) has two (or three?) hearing children and she said that when her daughter was 6 months old, she was in the hotel room with her daughter and her daughter suddenly started signing telephone. She smiled to herself and thought, "That's really clever, my daughter is signing telephone. I wonder if she knows that's what she's doing." Then she realized the telephone really was ringing! But obviously, this daughter had been exposed to her family signing 24/7 since she was a newborn.

Anyway, the most important thing is to have fun with it! :)




Eileen

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/candle.gif for Leah

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif , 18 months & counting


http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/t/catcatcvi20040222_4_Kaya+is.png

[aahjed]

thanks for the suggestions everyone! I think I'll try out the Garcia book first and start from there!

Angela