Baby sign language

fedor.2.

Hi all, im just wondering if anybody knows anything about it or has tried it. Ive read some positive things about it, but id like to hear what ye think, thanks.

Ayla

I was quite curious to try it with our first but we never got around to actually trying it...just too lazy really. Also, as our daughter was in creche at the time we didn't think it'd be a consistent lesson for her.

I have a book that I'd be happy to pass onto you if you'd like it. PM me if you want it & I'll stick it in the post.

crazy cat lady

I have heard some criticisms that teaching a baby to sign may delay their speech development. That was enough to put me off!

I have heard that babies to pick it up really well and can be a great way to communicate before they begin to speak, it just wan't something that I wanted to do with my little one.

I've seen in Tesco a book about it, 'Babies first 100 sign words' or something to that effect...

aniascor

We tried introducing baby signs from about 6 months as recommended, but by 10 months, when our son still wasn't signing back to us, we got a bit fed up with it.

But then at about 12 months, when he finally started waving bye bye and using other signs like that, it was like he just got it, and so we were able to teach him a few things like "milk" "food" "nappy" "lights" and "sleep" that just made life easier. Then my husband taught him "chop chop" for hurry up and when he started using that correctly, I knew he definitely understood it was a way of communicating!

Once he started talking properly between 18 and 20 months, he stopped using the signs as much. I guess we did too. The only one he still uses all the time is chop chop. I guess he's a little impatient!

Cat Melodeon

We used a few basic signs with our boy - things like milk, hungry, tired, sore. We started it around 9 months and he'd picked them up by the time he was a year old. I don't feel it delayed his speech in any way. In fact, I think it taught him how to communicate early so he understood the connection between gestures, words and concepts. He really tries to tell us if there's something wrong - he still has tantrums (he's two) but they tend to be mild for the most part. In my opinion, the signing helped him develop his communication skills.
We had a British Sign Language book called My First Signs, found it very good.

Mothman

Signing was brilliant. Such an issue with little ones is verbalising their wants and signing bridged this gap. We were signing with our daughter from well before 1yo and while I can't remember the time scale we must have had about 40 signs, many of which she made up!
As for delaying speech...well we heard that as well, like a rumour, no-one who mentioned it had anyhting to back it up...it was just something they'd heard :rolleyes: and my experience is similar to Cat in that helped with regard to speech.

We did get a book and used recognised signs to begin with, but once the daughter started making them up, we just went along with them and I feel there isn't a need to use "proper" signs. Certainly we've never used all but one or 2 since she was about 3