when did you start signing...

[jamsmu]

with your little one? A friend of mine recommended waiting until DS is one year, but I read to wait until DS is able to wave bye-bye. When did you start and what did you start with (what are the best things to sign?)

[pritchettzoo]

I've been doing 4 signs for about 2 months now: milk, dog, mama, and daddy. She now does milk when she's hungry and dog (panting) when she sees the dogs (or cats actually, but we're not being picky!). It's really cool--started on her 6 month birthday. She started waving (copying, but not on command or anything) about a month ago, so at 5 mos.

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[egoldber]

You can start signing any time. I started when DD was about 7 months old. Many babies don't have the motor skills to actually sign back until closer to one year, but the more you sign to them, the earlier they will sign back.

It doesn't really matter what you sign, as long as you do it consistently. But many signing "programs" or classes start with things that are very concrete and meaningful for babies. The signs for eat, milk, and more are signs that are easy (from a motor perspective) and have a built in reward system. :)

And babies born to deaf parents who are signed to exclusively from birth often begin to "babble" in sign language as early as 3-4 months.

HTH,

[stillplayswithbarbies]

we started at 6 months and she learned "milk" right away. Now at 12 months she does milk, please, more, want, and daddy. I used the Signing Time videos.

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

[papal]

We just started on Leela's 5 month birthday. I show her the Signing Time video (first one) once a day after her first nap. And then i sign MILK, MOM, DAD, EAT and SLEEP. She really seems to like the video because she does not turn away from the tv!

[papal]

Anna, which videos are you using? I ask because in ours the sign for dog is patting your thighs... i thought they were all the same.

[Momof3Labs]

We started later - at 11 months. Within a month, we had the first sign. Now, at almost 18 months, Colin's signing vocabulary is well over 40 signs, and he recognizes more than that. He also finally started talking about a month ago, and has about 12-14 or so spoken words.

[s_gosney]

Maybe I'm crazy, but I think I remember seeing you post about wanting to find the videos used. If so, did you end up getting the videos f/someone on the BBBSwap or did you buy them new? I've been looking into getting them for Kylee, but after seeing her lack of interest in baby mozart, I worry that I would spend my money and her end up not liking them. So I thought that if you had luck getting them used, maybe I could too.
So what do you think about the videos so far? I really think Kylee's frustration level (and mine too!) would be helped if she could communicate.
I saw on the bargains board where you can get the set for a good price, but thought I would check with you first.

[AJsMom]

We started signing at 7 months too, and DS did not sign anything until maybe 11 months? (can't remember off hand- I know milk and more and eat were his first signs) DS now signs almost 60 signs, which is mostly from the videos and from my reinforcement.

We use Signing Time videos and DS LOVES them! He asks for them ALL the time. We have to listen to the Signing Time CD in the car too!

Good luck!

Kristen

[kijip]

We started at 6 months and now at very near 9 months of age we have seen our son sign back 2 signs- Diaper Change and Milk. The Diaper change I think is more of a Pavlovian response to being on the changing table but milk is a real request. We used the Sign to your Baby video and book and took a class based on it program. The website is www.sign2me.com. I think that waiting till a year would just slow down the process. The signs seem to come faster to older babies, maybe 10-11 months.

[pritchettzoo]

It is the sign they use, but several friends of mine have used the panting (may be from the Baby Signs book as they have read it). I did it out of habit I guess. I don't think she would be coordinated enough to pat her leg for a while... We went for ease over correctness. :)

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[Momof3Labs]

I don't think that waiting until a year would "slow down" the process - what makes you think that? An older baby will just tend to pick things up more quickly.

IMO, any time is the right time to start signing, but if you start younger, you have to have more patience since you will probably wait longer for the signs to come. If you start older, you don't get the benefit of signing with a younger baby, but they catch on more quickly in general.

[papal]

Sherri.. i did not find any used. I finally bought Vol 1 online. The cheapest place i could find was http://www.ldsvideostore.com/
The price is the same everywhere seems like $16.95 but this place had free shipping. Great service.. i got it the NEXT day (maybe i just live close by?).
Which place did you find? I did a search on the board but did not come up with anything (stupid search does not work for me sometimes!)
So far Leela is nowhere near co-ordinated enough to sign back but i am hoping that if we keep at it she will be able to sign SLEEP and MILK back soon!!! and EAT (i started giving her a tablespoon of unsweetened apple sauce everyday... so far she loves it!).

[kristine_elen]

I started at 12 months, but only b/c that's when I learned about it. Here's an article I just pulled up for a friend of mine...


Sign language helps babies communicate
The Arizona Republic
March 29, 2003
BYLINE: By BARBARA YOST
DATELINE: PHOENIX


Kara Sherman has been talking since she was 14 months old - with her hands.

When Kara was 1, her mother, Dana, began teaching her American Sign Language even though the girl is not deaf. Kara quickly learned the signs for "milk," "more," "eat" and "shoes," and built her vocabulary into almost 50 words. By the time she was old enough to master verbal speech, she was ahead of the game, Sherman says. Kara spoke in whole sentences well in advance of her peers. "The benefit of sign-language development was that it piqued her interest in communicating," says Sherman, an adjunct professor of developmental psychology at Paradise Valley Community College.

Kara, 2, has exchanged sign language for spoken words. Sherman has just delivered her second child and plans to teach ASL to that one, believing her two children will someday sign to each other.
ASL has been one of the primary means of communication for the deaf since the early 1800s, when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet helped to develop the language and went on to found a university for the deaf. Now parents of hearing children are discovering sign language can help them communicate in the year or so before a child can talk.

One of the first programs for teaching sign language to hearing children was developed by Joseph Garcia, an educator and independent researcher in Washington. An ASL interpreter, Garcia began researching the use of signs by pre-verbal children in the mid-1980s.

Mastering spoken language is a complex skill requiring the maturity of some 200 muscles in the face and throat, Garcia says. He found children can communicate earlier using sign language, which requires only manual dexterity.

Using sign language does not delay speech, he says. Instead, it lays the groundwork for communication, and children easily make the transition to spoken words.

"The infrastructure for language is entrenched by the time their ability to articulate speech has matured," he says from his Seattle-area home.

Four years ago, Garcia created a sign-language program called Sign With Your Baby, which includes an instructional booklet and video [note: I have heard that this video is kind of lame – KH]. He says 200,000 people have bought the kit.

Garcia makes clear the proper approach to his program. He does not recommend parents "teach" sign language. Rather, children should be exposed to signs beginning around 6 or 7 months old and then be allowed to discover them as a means of communication.

"What I advocate is augmenting normal communication with signs," he says. "It's a loving process that removes stress from the relationship ... It empowers children."

Sign language can alleviate the "terrible twos," according to Garcia and parents who have tried it, believing much of a toddler's frustration comes from having wants and needs but being unable to express them.

Denise Capriola sensed just such frustration from 13-month-old Mike.

"When he was in his high chair and wanted something to drink, he would almost scream," Capriola says. "I could tell he was trying to let me know what his needs were."

Through a family friend, she heard about sign language for hearing children and ordered the Sign With Your Baby book and flash cards. She's starting to teach Mike signs and is pleased he's been encouraged to make eye contact.

Signing can reach all kinds of children. Rachel de Azevedo Coleman, a Salt Lake City mother and musician, has produced three sign-language videos called Signing Time. Her daughter, Leah, was 14 months old when Coleman discovered the baby was deaf. Coleman and her husband learned ASL and taught it to Leah, now 6. Their second daughter, Lucy, was born two years ago with cerebral palsy and spina bifida, and seemed fated to live without speech. But she, too, has learned to sign.

After parents of hearing children admired the way the Colemans communicated with their daughters, Coleman and her sister Emilie decided to produce videos to teach children ASL.

"It breaks barriers," she says. "I think sign language is the greatest gift a parent can give a child."

Jeanne Wilcox, professor in the department of speech and hearing science at Arizona State University, has long used sign language to reach children who are speech-delayed or have trouble with an oral language. Wilcox, who is also director of ASU's infant-child research programs, says it's logical to communicate similarly with hearing, healthy children using a visual language.

A sequence of skills develops in infants culminating in language, she says. Even newborns can make sounds, though there is little evidence of purposeful communication.

Babies begin associating gestures with meaning at about 7 or 8 months. At 9 to 10 months, they can point to something and indicate a need.

Around a year, most children form their first words, usually simple consonant sounds such as "mama," "baba," "dada." By 18 months, they're beginning to use whole sentences.

Wilcox agrees that signing could relieve the stress pre-verbal tots experience.

"Frustrations with communication are often the underlying causes of behavioral problems in young kids," she says.
------

[June]

I don't really remember when we started signing in the first year, but I think it has helped us in communicating. DD could sign milk while she still nursed around 12 months. Her favorite signs now - that she uses all day long - are ice cream and cookie. That's kind of annoying. She signed thank you early on and that's nice.

[missliss55]

We started signing with DD at arond 9 months and her first sign was hat. Some of her favorite signs are: hat, eat, more, all done, drink, fish, book, and diaper. She even made up her own sign for lotion. We ordered some stuff from this website

www.babysigns.com

and it was great. The board books are awesome, she loves looking at them. You also get this really cool card that lists some of the most popular baby signs. We also got a video although we haven't used it yet. DD is not into videos yet.

I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Acredolo (one of the pioneers of baby signing) as one of my professors in college.

Melissa and Emma (4/16/03)

[parkersmama]

I used the Baby Signs book with both my boys and started signing with them around 8 mos. They both learned "more" as their first sign. With Amy Grace, we have been using the Signing Time DVDs and started at around 7 mos. She watches all 3 videos randomly and really enjoys them. Her first sign was "drink" and she did it at about 8 mos, 1 month into watching them. She is now 10 1/2 mos...she signs "more", "drink", and occasionally "food" and waves bye-bye. We try to use the signs often and I expect her to begin picking them up pretty quickly now that she's gaining better motor skills.

[s_gosney]

Rashmi-
Here's the link to the thread over on the bargains board:
http://tinyurl.com/2o3v2
I don't know how long it will take before she's able to sign back, but I'm with you on looking for the day that she can communicate sleep, eat, milk, etc. I've been really tempted to start giving K some solids, but with all of the craziness in my life, I think that's one thing I can wait on. I'm sure she'd love it, but since she doesn't really NEED it, I'm waiting. I'm glad to hear Leela likes her applesauce! :)