Anyone here 'sign' with their baby?

[MediumBrownDog]

I was given a DVD and book on using sign language with infants (starting at 8 or 9 months) as a gift this holiday. It also has a corresponding website www.sign2me.com Evidently, the theory is that children can understand and communicate using sign language long before they are verbal. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it real or a crock? :eyes:

[AwakeAtLast]

1. My daughter used some of it

The caregivers in her daycare (wonderful people) taught a lot of words to her. The most useful was "more". She would ask for more of something all the time! I really do think it helped her develop language more quickly, although we did not pressure her to use it all of the time. Incidentally, she does not use any of it now that she can talk. She is too busy! :)

[Book Lover]

2. Don't know about the DVD/book you have

but I do know when my friend and I took her daughter to an initial speech therapy consult, one of the things the therapist said she could do while waiting for a spot to open up was to develop and use simple sign language. Personally, I think it's yet one more tool in helping someone learn how to communicate and from what little I've read, it seems like it wouldn't confuse or stunt any speech development. YMMV.

[phylny]

5. I'm a speech-language pathologist, and I use it all the time with kids.

It won't hurt your baby's languge development, and it might help.

Speech entails fine motor control, and rudimentary signs like "more," "open," and "finished" are more like gross motor movements.

When signing with babies who aren't hearing impaired, it's also easy to let them be less accurate when they sign, and therefore it's easier for them all around.

[trotsky]

3. We wanted to do it...

but our son was verbal before we even started. He still talks a million miles a minute, and he'll be 6 in March.

But it's true, from the research I read, that kids' brains are wired for language even before they can master speech, and that not only can sign language work well for them to communicate their needs, it actually helps them when they do learn to speak.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

4. I think it is for real,

but I think it will only work if the parent is also comfortable with using the signs. I tried it for a while, but I kept forgetting to use the signs. I guess if you regularly use some form of sign language, this would be easy for you. I'm not used to signing, so I couldn't stick with it. Almost every baby will learn to talk eventually, so it is not necessary.

[gollygee]

6. Our daughter started talking at 8 or 9 months

so we didn't need to. But if I had another child who didn't start talking early, I would probably try it.

I know people who have done it and have had great success.

[SCDem]

7. My son is 14 months and signs

He actually only signs one word "more" and he signs it a lot. He understands more signs though than he knows how to sign. He understands juice and milk and water and shoes and eat. I just look at it as an adventure for both him and me. It's just something to communicate by and sometimes I hate that he is always signing more and curse myself for him learning to sign but then I thought well if he wasn't signing he'd be crying for more and I wouldn't know what he wanted.

I have the sign 2 me video and book. I thought more would happen and he would learn to sign earlier than he did (he learned at 9 months) but still only signs 'more'. But some mothers have said that they just keep signing with their children and eventually at some time they start signing back to them with all the signs the mother has been signing with.

Good luck!

[MediumBrownDog]

8. Thanks for all of the responses!

We're going to give it a shot, and see where it takes us!

[SW FL Dem]

9. My sister used it with her daughter quite successfully

It seemed to cut down on the crying when Steph could tell mom she was hungry or thirsty.

[arismomkoofie]

10. I started signing with DD when she is 9 months old...

It was great! She is now 2 and still uses her signs in conjunction with words. Because she was in daycare most of the day, she only learned about 20 signs or so, but they really saved the day! Before she talked, she would get so frustrated if she could not let me know what she wanted. Luckily, she know "more" "drink" and "eat" to help out at meals. She also knew "flower" "dog" and modified "cat" on her own. She still used "plane" (pointing up to the sky, she says bird for a bird).

If you are thinking of using signs, I say go for it!!!

EDITED TO ADD: DD is potty training, and she was able to tell me "potty" before she could say it. I think she began to train herself at about 15 mo! We are still working on it - well she is. I like diapers!

[SCDem]

11. Yes signing is so good for you and the baby

My son is 14 months .... I started very early on trying to teach him signs.... at 9 months he started signing "more" and that was all he would sign. I was kind of discouraged but I kept signing to him different words. Well at 13 months one weekend he had like a signing explosion. He started signing "eat", "milk" and "bath". So now he knows 4 words. Yay for my son. Now I'm trying to teach him "poop" but it's kind of looking like "more"!!!

Oh well whatever you do have fun with it!

[lizzieforkerry]

12. I signed with both of my kids

My son only signed for a short time and then started talking and completely abandoned the signs. My daughter used them a lot longer and now she does both- says some words and signs others. I liked it- they both seemed less stressed out as 2 year olds because they could communicate better than some other 2 year olds I have been around. It was fun, I can't think of any negative aspects of our experience.