Signing?

[kthomp]

Hi everyone,

I've been noticing in some of your posts that your children can sign. I have a nine month old and I'm curious about it. I've read a few articles about it, but never enough to try it. How, exactly, did you go about teaching your baby to sign? Any books you could recomend?
Any experiences/ stories would be very helpful!

Thanks!

[cdlamis]

Hi Keri-
We LOVE the "Signing Time" videos. They are a great way for the parents to learn new signs and it's a fun video to reinforce the signs with the baby. By watching the videos with Julia, I learned the signs MUCH quicker, therefore I used them with Julia a lot more.

There is a co-op here for the ST videos:
http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=12&topic_id=16113&mesg_id=16113&page=

Like many others here, I started with Joseph Garcia's book "Sign with your baby book".
http://www.sign2me.com/default6.htm

It's a great book to read for a foundation in signing with babies but I would just borrow it from the library.

Good luck and have fun!

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

[kristine_elen]

Signing is GREAT. I hope everyone does it. We started at 12 months but you can start much earlier than that. I just learned some signs and then as I was doing things I'd use the signs. For example, I'd say, "Do you want to eat? Eat?" and I'd make the sign for eat. Soon Jack was doing it, too. It's so nice to have your baby say "I'm sleepy." or "I'm hungry." He knows tons of signs now.
We have the Signing Time videos and I let him watch one per day.
I also like this web site:
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
It's easier to use than a book b/c you can see the sign in action. I also checked out the Garcia book from the library, but I think any ASL dictionary would be just as useful.

[peanut4us]

Hi Kerri! Sara started signing about a week after she turned 1. It has made a huge difference in our lives. I love knowing that she wants milk or that she wants "more" food, play or whatever we are doing.

We have had all 3 Signing Time dvds and have watched them with her regularly for the last 6 months. We also take care to sign to her whenever we are doing something that we know the signs for.

I can't recommend any other books etc... because we haven't used them. I just think that the videos we have are great though because they use actual little kids doing the signing and Sara LOVES to be like the "big" kids LOL! HTH

[Lucia]

ITA with the other posters....signing is GREAT! Not only does it decrease our son's frustration in communication, it is also fun for all of us. I also like the idea that we will be able to communicate with others who are hearing impaired (my husband is a doctor and I am a social worker so it is helpful for us professionally).

We started by the using the book Baby Signs (ok, but not all ASL signs). We also purchased a couple of their board books which are wonderful...my son loves reading these...cute photos with objects and babies signing.

We recently started using the Signing Times DVDs and these have been the best resource for us. Not only is my son totally enthralled with these,but he is also picking up the signs very quickly and so are we.

I have been impressed with how quickly my son has started using the signs and how helpful it has been...he can let us know when he is hungry, full, tired,needs to be changed etc. We started when he was about 9 months old and I think it is one of the best things we have done together as a family!

Lucia
mom to Noah 2/2003

[jamsmu]

I just ordered the signing times dvds from the co-op and haven't tried them yet. (The co-op ends this week, so you'll need to decide pretty quickly!)

If you aren't sure if you want to make the investment or not, go to the signingtimes.com website. I was previewing the videos with DS in his exersaucer and he stopped, turned and started "bouncing" with excitement. That was all I needed to decide to order.

[jasabo]

I'm a Signing Time dvd fan too. I bought a set (3 dvd's and a CD) a few weeks ago and my boys LOVE them. I don't think they know what they're watching, but so far these are the only dvd's they'll actually sit and watch for longer then 2 minutes. I think I've got the only kids in the world who seem to hate watching TV - our Baby Einsteins never get used. But they love the Signing Time. They also get a big kick out of it whenever dh and I use the signs. They're obviously too young right now to really get into it, but I'm hoping they'll pick it up if dh and I keep up with it. I think it's a great idea.

Lisa - mom to 10 month old twin boys

[AngelaS]

I started signing with my first dd who's now 6. The only book I could find was Baby Signs which got us off to a great start! That book and a dictionary of signed English gave her a vocabulary of 60+ signs!

Gabrielle also has some of the Baby Signs board books and they're great too! She knows more than 40 signs! :D

[egoldber]

What she said. :)

[american_mama]

Hi, I learned about baby signing from my sister and largely copied what I saw her do. I also took a baby signing class (2 hours) that was offered in my town of Minneapolis. The class was really beneficial at teaching what to expect from your child, how to incorporate signs, etc. rather than just teaching signs.

Anyway, since you are new to signing, you might want to try the very easy approach that I took. I wanted to use signs for basic needs, not conversation. So I taught my daughter "more," "eat," "all done", "diaper change," "drink", and "nurse." I probably should have added sleep, get up, and get down. That's it. I would do the sign and say the word whenever I did the activity, then gently form her hands into the sign.

I started when she was maybe 8 months old - not really sure - and she started signing eat, more, all done within a few months. Nurse and drink came later, and diaper change last. When she started talking, she replaced the signs with words, and we hardly ever signed after she was 18 months or so.

I have seen one Signing Time video and am surprised that so many people like it for baby sign language. To me, it was a bit like a dictionary of signs with cute music, and all of the actors are age 2 and up. There's no info. to help parents. I thought the video might be fun for a child, plus the music is great, but it wasn't helpful at teaching me how to teach signing. Still, it's simple and repetitive, and that alone means you and your child will learn the signs, but that's all.

[egoldber]

I took a baby sign class, and it was a fun activity, but after the class was over, I sort of stopped signing. It wasn't until I got the videos that I (and DD) really started signing. Obviously, you don't need the videos, but they are a very fun and easy way for everyone to learn most of the basic signs you will need. And my DH would have never learned all the signs without the videos. It made incorprating signing into our daily lives very easy.

Another thing I found really helpful in the video was seeing how the very young kids signed. They often don't sign "correctly", and seeing all the different ways that kids sign helped me realize when my DD was actually making a sign, even though it wasn't correct.

I had the Gracia book from the library and really didn't find that I needed any of the info in it.

No affiliation with the videos, just a very happy customer. :)

[jec2]

Hey, what is the sign for "nurse?" I just tend to use "eat" but would love to know the correct sign!

[papal]

i asked this same question in the alexandleah yahoo message group. they said you can just do the sign for milk. i use eat for solids and milk for nursing.

[stillplayswithbarbies]

The correct sign is that you make a fist in front of your nipple with the thumb side of your fist facing your nipple, then you pull it outwards like you are pulling the milk out of the nipple.

Not something I want to do in public LOL (or have my baby do)

So we just use the sign for milk. (open and close your fist like you are milking a cow) When we get to the point where we need to differentiate between cow's milk and mama's milk, I'll add the sign for mother to the sign for milk.

This is the first sign Logan learned at 6 months. She learned it by watching the Signing Times video, I didn't have to do anything to teach her. Children are great mimics, they want to do what they see other children doing. That's why I think the Signing Time videos work so well to teach signing to babies.

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

[jec2]

Yeah, you are right, using "milk" is better!!!! I seem to switch back and forth between "eat" and "milk" so glad to hear I'm not confusing him too much :) Yes, and Finn loves the Signing Times Video. Aagh, and that song, DH and I started signing it to our Pediatrician...such dorks we are!

[american_mama]

I used the milk sign for nurse (open and close fist like milking a cow) and the drink sign for all other liquids (hold hand like holding a cup and lift to lips). I always separated these two signs because I was very interested to know when my daughter wanted to nurse, when it was on her mind, and I wanted to distinguish it from drinking, bottles, etc.