Baby sign language...

[Theywerepert]

Does anyone here do baby sign language with their little ones?

We are doing it with Mady. Right now it's more for us to get used to signing and speaking so we don't forget when she really can understand it. I think she already might though, b/c when I sign for "eat" she grins. But I could just look silly to her, who knows, lol.

I'm doing it b/c my best friend did it with her ds, and that child was so easy to care for-at 10 months he could tell me if he wanted O's (cheerios), water, Mommy, etc. It was so neat, so we are trying it with dd2.

Anyone have any stories, tips, etc? I'd be interested to hear them!

[RedheadbyChoice]

Please pick up a SEE or an ASL book and use real signs, rather than made up ones. As the mother of a hearing impaired child, I implore you. :) If your kiddo likes sign and continues with it, by using real signs, she'll be able to communicate with someone else someday, maybe even a hearing impaired child on the playground.

We obviously sign with Connor, and are now with Meredith. She does MORE well, and EAT, and DADDY. Little turkey! Even signed his name before mine, just as she did with speech! LOL

We started out signing everything, but my suggestion is signs that you use. momma, daddy, eat, more, milk, play, go, ball, dog, cat, van, cow, etc. Signs that are in every day life for you and your baby.

[Just_Peachy]

We did it some with ds. I emailed someone before that taught baby sign language. She never emailed back though. I wanted all the kids to learn sign language because of chances my nephew being hearing impaired.

[Hermione]

DS knows a few signs, and I'm trying to teach him to use more words. Right now he knows more and all done. I *think* he understands the signs for milk, water, want and eat because he can respond to those signs by shaking his head yes or no.

I'm trying to teach him words for objects around the house like ball, cat, sleep, and more foods he might eat. It's been kind of slow though.

[Theywerepert]

Ginger, we are definitely using real ASL signs-I wouldn't dream of making them up. I bookmarked their website, and they have videos of "adult" ASL and baby as well. I use eat, mommy, daddy, sister, milk, no, night-night (well, sleep, but we call it night-night) and diaper.

The eat one makes her smile when I do it though, lol. I've been using them for about a month already with her. That way, it will be come second nature, I hope!

[hidesome]

We did it. It helped our kids ask for things like food, or express basic emotions like "like" and "don't like". After a while, they invented their own signs for things. My favorite was "butterfly" (make a mouth with flat hand and thumb and chew...)

[madelsmama]

We did it without our first baby. She knew over 40 signs when she was 15 months old, making it so much easier to communicate with her.

We've started it with our 11 month old. So far, she knows milk, eat, finished, dog, book, change (for diaper), and bed.

[HammBugga]

We did it with B and are now doing it with J. So far all he does is "finished" but when I say do you want to eat and sign it I can tell he knows what I mean.

[CatEyes]

I am doing it with Bonnie and Kaitlyn. The therapist that come to the home use signing while working with the girls.

[still_me]

My sister is deaf, so we all learned sign language from an early age. We have taught both of our boys sign. It really helps them and everyone benefits from it.

[Macabe]

I recommend the "Signing Time" videos. They're fun and have great songs. They star two cousins--one deaf, one hearing, who play together and demonstrate the signs, along with a ton of clips of other kids. One of the cousin's mom wrote and sings the songs.

My whole family learned basic sign language. We started with DS at 18 months because he was speech delayed. He's 3 now, speaks fine, but we still listen to the songs! I'm going to start with DD much younger.

[Theywerepert]

nak thanks Macabe-I'll have to check on those. Dd1 likes learning signs now!

[Sassafras]

http://www.breastfeeding.com/forums/showthread.php?t=560

[Theywerepert]

Thanks Sassy!

[Sassafras]

You are welcome. We use these sites to keep teaching our little guy words. He catches on really quickly. He is 3 almost 4years old with disabilities.

[Theywerepert]

I love how signing can be a bridge between worlds for challenged people. I just wish I were better at it. I'm not great at languages-baby sign is about my speed!

[winnie]

My DVR is 50% full because I have every Signing Time episode that PBS has ran recorded on it :P I wish it had the "send to DVD" rather than "send to VCR" feature :(

[Theywerepert]

PBS has them on? DO they still run them? Off to check the cable thingy.......

[NazirsMom]

I would like to teach ds sign language
I have a book... I think it's called Baby Sign Language
I'm thinking of taking him to a class though

[3girls2luv]

We do it with dd3, the day care she was at before started teaching her at 6mos so she learned really quick. She will not talk but she will sign anything she wants and it helps us understand her.

Red don't feel bad, she signed daddy first and would not do mommy until about a few weeks ago.

[SueDid]

We do it with Ruthie, who is speech delayed and it has been wonderful. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds now, but we are still adding signs to her unspoken vocabulary so as to be able to praise her for good behavior or curb naughty behavior without embarrassing her in front of her friends as she gets older.

It seemed to us that the correlation betweens signs and what they mean and words really helped her receptive language as she's understood what's said to her and has been following directions well for a long time.

[Theywerepert]

nak-we just watched a video on ON DEMAND and dd1 loved it. it was neat!! she knew almost all of them already!