What signs does your baby know??

[smomom]

We are finishing up our first month of signing. Sage has learned a handful of signs: milk, eat, more, down. I was just curious what signs other kids learned quickly. I guess I was wondering if there is a pattern to what children learn first - or do some kids pick up on totally off-the-wall signs sometimes. For the Signing Time devotees I guess the children may learn those signs first?

Anyway… I would love to see some list of words that your child knows. I'm really fascinated by this entire signing process.

Thanks!

[emilyf]

DS signs milk, airplane (kind of looks like he's waving, but can tell from context), fish, bird, water and dog. For some reason he's stuck on eat-kind of weird since that is one of the ones I use the most with him-he understands it but doesn't do it himself.
Emily \r\nmom of Charlie born 11/02

[stillplayswithbarbies]

Logan knows Milk. There are others that she mimics while the video is playing, but I wouldn't say she understands the meaning.

I am working on Eat/Food next, so she can start telling me whether she wants food or to nurse.

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[Momof3Labs]

Dog, milk, cat, bird, bear, airplane, car, fish, sleep, baby, cheese, more, shoes, train, yes and play (that's the one that I couldn't remember)!

We've been signing with Colin for about 4 months now.

[parkersmama]

The only one Amy Grace has picked up so far is "drink" but I'm not surprised since she's still a little on the young side. My boys didn't really start signing well until closer to age 1.

ETA: Amy Grace started doing "more" today! Yipee! It's one of my favorites because it really gets the message across. :)

[cdlamis]

We have been signing for over 6 months now and Julia knows about 20+ words. I think she would know more if I signed even more with her- not to brag but to show that they can sign however many words you teach them.

As for a pattern, we definitely started with the words that mean the most to Julia like food, more, and then words that help her communicate better (more, please, etc) and then the fun ones from the videos (flower, cat, etc). Now that she is pointing more to things, I am trying to learn those signs more.

Julia knows: milk, eat, more, banana, mama, dada, dog, fish, cat, baby, cheese, cookie, video, bath, car, cold, please, thank you, shoes, hat, plane, flower, hot.

HTH~

Daniella
Mom to Julia 6-13-02
http://www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b35d0802848f *December pictures

[AngelaS]

Gabrielle is 20 months and has been signing about 10 months. She's getting quite a vocabulary!

She knows:

more, eat, drink, cracker, banana, hat, shoes, bath, up, dog, cat, rabbit, sheep, frog, horse, pig, night-night, telephone, toothbrush, Ling(her dolly/lovey), on, swing, elephant, bug, fish, bird, help, please, thank you, flower, pretty, book, stinky, hot.

Editted to add the ones I just remembered. :D

[kristine_elen]

We've been signing for a couple of weeks now and Jack does "more" and "eat" and does his own home-made sign for "music" -- as in, Please turn on the CD player. I'm not sure if he's really always hungry when he makes the eat and more sign; sometimes I think he does it just b/c I get excited when he makes a sign. He'll probably gain 20 pounds...

[stillplayswithbarbies]

Logan did a new sign tonight, she signed "more"! Of course dumb ol' mom and dad thought she was clapping at first and then the lightbulb went on. We were waiting for our table in a restaurant and I was feeding her cheerios in my hand, and she would eat them all up and then "clap" while I refilled my hand. Duh. She was signing "more"!

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[lisams]

At 14 months DD knows eat, more, milk, banana, shoes, play, sleep, sad, moon, cat, dog, doll, cheese, juice, fish, mommy, daddy, airplane, baby, car, duck, bird, no, and spaghetti (the Wiggles' way - not ASL ;)) She started signing milk at 10 months and then started learning them fast. It amazes me!!

Lisa

[jamsmu]

When is a good time to start signing? Any advice on how to teach it?

[stillplayswithbarbies]

We started at 6 months. Just get th Signing Times videos and let the baby watch them. As soon as we saw Logan mimic a sign, we started reinforcing it. She did the milk sign, so everytime she was nursing, I would make the sign and tell her she was drinking milk. After a short time she started making the sign while she was nursing or drinking from a bottle. We made a big deal over it so she would know that was a good thing to do. Soon, she was making the sign to tell us she wanted milk.

We decided to work on "eat" and "more" next, so we make those signs while we feed her. She watches the video once a day.

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[daisymommy]

I really like the book Baby Signs (by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn) to go along with the video. The book really gives evidence for why siging can be so beneficial to all babys and toddlers, and tells how to teach your baby siging and reinforce it. It tells really neat testimonials of parents who taught their kisd to sign. There is a sign language dictionary in the back of the book with about 100 signs in it, all of them ASL, with a few added optional ways of doing signs that may be difficult for babys to do. The DVD just arrived so Josh hasn't had a chance to watch it yet, but I read the book last Monday, and by Saturday he was alreday siging more and all done. I'm guessing that it will go much faster once he watches the DVD.

[AngelaS]

These authors also have a series of board books out that show the picture of an object and a baby making the sign. Our library has these and Gabrielle LOVES them!