TTM about baby sign language

djtippietoes

I feel like I sort of missed the boat on this one.  For those of you who are doing signs with your LO, how exactly did you start, like how often did you do the signs and how many and all of that?  And how long did it take for them to catch on?

sdlaura

I don't think you missed the boat at all. We went out of town when DD was 13 months and the in laws taught her the signs for more, all done, and a few others, and she still uses them now at almost 2.5 years old (in addition to talking). I think actually doing it when they're a little older works well because they can catch on quickly.

Flyingtoast

I use the signs as I would say the term. She has been picking them up rapidly resently which is nice. While some of the signs are 'offical' ASL, others are not. Her sign for sippy, is the same motion as drinking with an imaginary cup. She can sign nurse, sippy cup (water), food/eat, done, more, dog, goat, ball, done, pick me up.

I focused on terms we would need to understand when she was unable to verbally communicate her reason for a melt down.

Flyingtoast

When I feed the livestock, I sign everything I am doing. The signs for animals, hay, car, ect. She has a hybrid of cow and goat that she uses when she pets the goats.

It just goes to show their little brains are just absorbing everything around them. If they don't have the dexterity to sign it back, the recognition is there.

flightview

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MissDemeanor

I can picture little @flyingtoast having a goat meltdown, because my LO has a meltdown over wanting to see a dog all the time. 

I really need to work on "up", as the way LO communicates wanting up is to screech at the top of his lungs until you pick him up. 

Flyingtoast

We have melt downs over the kids jumping around and being silly, and Missy can't keep up, or climb as quickly.

djtippietoes

CiaoMama said:

@DreamingBabies‌ www.babysignlanguage.com has a lot of words and good videos.

This is where I've been looking too.  They have a dictionary section.

Cerisrichard

We go to a sing and sign class where I learn and LO enjoys the songs. He also has a DVD. I use common signs like: milk, home, all gone , more, and then lots of animal signs while reading and vehicle signs when we 're out. We try to use signs which will help communicate he routine to him like nappy change time and food/ drink, bath or nap. Also anything he takes an interest in.

He has started to try to sign more during meals and milk and understands home and all gone and no.

Our class leader says to use as much as you can and always talk and sign together. I really love it!

versed

You definitely didn't miss the boat. DS1 was a late talker, and while we had started with three or four signs before age one, the majority of his learning was after a year. Between 12m and 20m (when he really started talking), he learned about 200 signs.

We mainly just followed his lead - he was really into food, animals, and vehicles, so we learned those to teach him. Otherwise, we went with the daily words we used with him anyways: routines (bath, diaper, eat, sleep), action words (want, hear, see), feeling words (happy, sad, crying), colors, people, adjectives (big, little, more, hot, cold). Before he started talking, he was stringing words together, and like I said this mostly happened after a year and over the course of 8+ months.

He continued to sign to fill in gaps until his language really exploded. Now, he's doing some signs with DS2 as we teach him.

As for resources, I'm a speech pathologist, so I knew a lot of signs and had collected lots of books and videos over the years. We did find one very helpful with the nanny and grandparents since it had nice flashcards. Once he learned a new sign, we shared the flash card with others.

https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/baby-sign-language-karine-shemel-rosenberg/1102052818?ean=9780760782125

rexgirl06

I had good intentions. We sign mom and dad pretty regularly. But he never has seemed to catch on to anything we did like milk, more, dog etc. Now we are in the "best" of both worlds: 11 months old and no babbling and not a single sign. 

The movies (Baby Signing series) are great though. My sister's twins were immaculate with their signs and that's how they learned. 

MoxyByProxy

Another for you not missing the boat!

My ds#2 was non verbal until almost 4 (he's on the spectrum) when we realized he needed a way to communicate better instead of angrily screaming at me.. (at 2) I found a youtube video. They were not as awesome in 2003.

Blues clues helped us ALOT. he will still sometimes do the sign for all done and he's now 13. I doubt he even thinks about how or why.

It's about the only sign we've taught to E so far that he'll repeat back.