Sign Language

mrsaragon

Good morning, mommas! 

      I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with teaching their babies sign language? I want to start teaching my little one basic sings so when he's a little older he'll be able to tell me things he wants or needs before he can talk. Like "milk" "more" etc. We did this with my little brother and my niece as well and it was so amazing to see. I'd love to hear your experiences and how old they were when you started (: 

Pontot31

Once my daughter was babbling more- probably around 6-7 months - we started just using the sign and saying the word. She put them together very easily. She knew more, milk, all done, please and thank you by the time she was about 10 months.  As she got older she would say the word and the sign. 

You don't have to do much- just use the signs with the words and the action or give them milk and say and sign it. Babies pick things up fast. 

rubirubi89

I dont know asl but I bought a book and started doing basic signs already. The book says baby won't pick up on them until he's about 6 months but I've been signing and speaking to him anyway for my sake. So I'll be at least a little familiar with them by the time is his turn to learn. 

Lolo427

So, here's my thing- I am fluent in sign language
and am planning on my daughter being fluent as well. As previous people have said, I just use words and sign at the same time. My husband and I sign to eachother frequently, and she enjoys watching.


A bit of a PSA though for those who are looking to go more in depth: The grammar of sign language is completely different than English, so be aware if your hoping to go down this road past word signs.  ASL is meant to be a visual , full body language that despite different accents (which can easily be maneuvered), is a universal language. I don't want to get obnoxious and preachy, but this is a topic near and dear to my heart and I've seen a few mothers try to interject themselves in the Deaf Community with misguided connections of baby sign. 

Sorry, sorry, but I always meet someone who inevitably does the 'oh! My child signs so well, she learned her colors and objects as a baby, she remembers some of it too!" drives me crazy.

Some sources:

aslpro.com

The books: Naturally Signing

theres a pretty solid app called Marlee Signs (I think it's spelled Marlee). It has a baby sign section. It has great videos


ETA: Lifeprint.com is pretty good too


FYI some signs might be different due to accents or age. (Signs get updated)

MargaretC5

Day care taught DS milk, more and wash hands in sign language.  It came in very handy because DS did not say any words until he was almost 18 months.  
Yep, we felt like parents of the year when DC tells us they taught him sign language.

gipfish

We've already started signing words around Jane, mostly to give us a chance to learn them by the time she is able to use them. 

I think sign language for babies is such a great idea. My little sister was a big communicator as a baby. My parents didn't do sign language with her, but I remember she invented her own signs, because she really wanted what she wanted.

@Lolo427 Thanks for the resources! My husband and I both really want to learn ASL someday. I tried to start teaching myself, but the syntax was confusing. We might try to take a class at the local university.

Edit: Android app is dumb.

mrsaragon

Lolo427 said:

So, here's my thing- I am fluent in sign language
and am planning on my daughter being fluent as well. As previous people have said, I just use words and sign at the same time. My husband and I sign to eachother frequently, and she enjoys watching.


A bit of a PSA though for those who are looking to go more in depth: The grammar of sign language is completely different than English, so be aware if your hoping to go down this road past word signs.  ASL is meant to be a visual , full body language that despite different accents (which can easily be maneuvered), is a universal language. I don't want to get obnoxious and preachy, but this is a topic near and dear to my heart and I've seen a few mothers try to interject themselves in the Deaf Community with misguided connections of baby sign. 

Sorry, sorry, but I always meet someone who inevitably does the 'oh! My child signs so well, she learned her colors and objects as a baby, she remembers some of it too!" drives me crazy.

Some sources:

aslpro.com

The books: Naturally Signing

theres a pretty solid app called Marlee Signs (I think it's spelled Marlee). It has a baby sign section. It has great videos


ETA: Lifeprint.com is pretty good too


FYI some signs might be different due to accents or age. (Signs get updated)

Yes, I agree. My mom is certified in ASL and is an interpreter. I've spoke with some of the wives here where we're stationed, and a lot of them haven't even heard of parents doing this, so I was curious about other moms out there. 

mmmynyx

My husband and I sing her ABC's and sign the letters for each one! I'm thinking about taking a college course in it so I can teach her some basic phrases and whatnot.

Ceridwen77

I plan to start teaching a few basic signs around 4 months. That way by the time she has the hand control at 6 months she should be familiar with them. 

I I took a few asl courses in college so while I'm not anywhere near great at sign, I feel comfortable teaching my DD and hope to expand her vocabulary as she gets older. 

angelinthepit23

We just have our own signs to use with LO that we made up. It's being used to make our lives easier before he can speak so it doesn't matter to us that they aren't actual ASL. 

Lolo427

angelinthepit23 said:

We just have our own signs to use with LO that we made up. It's being used to make our lives easier before he can speak so it doesn't matter to us that they aren't actual ASL. 

The only thing is that with home signs is that they aren't universal so they're restricted to only communicating with you which is a-ok but when hitting daycare or pre-k when kiddos can't express themselves great can pose a bit of a problem. Made up language only goes so far.

VexedMommy

angelinthepit23 said:

We just have our own signs to use with LO that we made up. It's being used to make our lives easier before he can speak so it doesn't matter to us that they aren't actual ASL. 

Just curious, but if you're already making up signs, why wouldn't you just use existing signs so others could understand him?

angelinthepit23

The only people that interact with him on a daily basis that would need to know the signs are myself,husband and sister. 

We we only plan on using them until he starts talking. I've also had multiple friends that did the same thing we are and no issues came from it. 

Because friends had recommended making our own I never even thought to look into what that actual ASL signs were.

Lolo427

angelinthepit23 said:

The only people that interact with him on a daily basis that would need to know the signs are myself,husband and sister. 

We we only plan on using them until he starts talking. I've also had multiple friends that did the same thing we are and no issues came from it. 

Because friends had recommended making our own I never even thought to look into what that actual ASL signs were.

First off- totally apologize for my last posts grammar. It was a run on sentence mess but DD was screaming bloody murder. As DH was trying to calm her, I was bumping for distraction. Was gonna edit but got lazy.

Anyhoo, just another FYI usually children/babies that sign can communicate their needs and wants earlier via sign but actually usually have delayed speech due to not relying as heavily. It's rather common so potentially your son will be using them for quite some time. I suppose if your only teaching him a handle of home signs (made up signs) it's not really a big deal, but anything 20+ I would be wary using them. It can get pretty confusing.

Ceridwen77

Lolo427 said:

angelinthepit23 said:

The only people that interact with him on a daily basis that would need to know the signs are myself,husband and sister. 

We we only plan on using them until he starts talking. I've also had multiple friends that did the same thing we are and no issues came from it. 

Because friends had recommended making our own I never even thought to look into what that actual ASL signs were.

First off- totally apologize for my last posts grammar. It was a run on sentence mess but DD was screaming bloody murder. As DH was trying to calm her, I was bumping for distraction. Was gonna edit but got lazy.

Anyhoo, just another FYI usually children/babies that sign can communicate their needs and wants earlier via sign but actually usually have delayed speech due to not relying as heavily. It's rather common so potentially your son will be using them for quite some time. I suppose if your only teaching him a handle of home signs (made up signs) it's not really a big deal, but anything 20+ I would be wary using them. It can get pretty confusing.

I read that studies have shown that teaching babies to sign does not correlate to delayed speech. Could you post your sources on this as I'd be interested in reading more. I want to teach sign but I don't want to inhibit speech in any way. 

And I'm also in the boat of teach the asl sign. They are pretty intuitive signs so why not use them. 

jdal1206

Sorry this is probably a silly question but how do you start teaching them the signs?  I imagine it goes something like say the word at the same time I'm signing it and then do what the sign says...so when I'm BFing and we are switching breats I can sign for more, say more, and then give him the other breast...does that make sense or is there something else I can/should be doing?

liba526

Totally agree with ceridwen 77_ sign language or any other augmentative communication system aid to increase speech not inhibit it.  There is a lot of research on this in autism, I haven't seen research in babies but it would make sense to be the same. When learning signs babies are using communication centres in the brain, same centre u use when u speak.  

Ceridwen77

Interested to see info from @Lolo427 as I know she's very educated on the topic. 

Lolo427

Ceridwen77 said:

Lolo427 said:

angelinthepit23 said:

The only people that interact with him on a daily basis that would need to know the signs are myself,husband and sister. 

We we only plan on using them until he starts talking. I've also had multiple friends that did the same thing we are and no issues came from it. 

Because friends had recommended making our own I never even thought to look into what that actual ASL signs were.

First off- totally apologize for my last posts grammar. It was a run on sentence mess but DD was screaming bloody murder. As DH was trying to calm her, I was bumping for distraction. Was gonna edit but got lazy.

Anyhoo, just another FYI usually children/babies that sign can communicate their needs and wants earlier via sign but actually usually have delayed speech due to not relying as heavily. It's rather common so potentially your son will be using them for quite some time. I suppose if your only teaching him a handle of home signs (made up signs) it's not really a big deal, but anything 20+ I would be wary using them. It can get pretty confusing.

I read that studies have shown that teaching babies to sign does not correlate to delayed speech. Could you post your sources on this as I'd be interested in reading more. I want to teach sign but I don't want to inhibit speech in any way. 

And I'm also in the boat of teach the asl sign. They are pretty intuitive signs so why not use them. 

Ugh, so very sorry on the delay- I've been incredibly sick and just am now getting functional again. I eat my words- 'usually' is not correct but ' have been found' is more accurate. The studies have changed drastically in the past 10-15 years. In the end it's a case by case bases, sign has been found to help with vocabulary and learning linguistics, but likewise children have struggled with getting out of a verbal rut. It's a cause for debate but I have seen it happen personally so my husband and I had a pretty intense conversation about if a delay matters to us if it's a possibility.
 Sign language can actually help linguistic language skills and is used in speech pathology to help with delayed speech. When it comes to autism (which is my primary focus of clients at my job) the reason why sign language is so effective is the exact same reason it works so well with babies: holophrases. Instead of saying 'I am hungry' or 'I want more', instead the signer uses the sign 'hungry' or 'more' as the same results are given. As simple signs are taught instead of full ESL or ASL. It's generally the same as teaching language in a multi language home BUT since sign is used much earlier, parents need to be very vigilante about using verbal words and sentences. At some point , I'll pull out my booked journals from school and find them on but here is some interesting info, I included this babble blog I found a while back because it was so poignant.. Most of these talks about the benefits but do talk about the complacency with sign.

https://www.child-psych.org/2009/04/will-teaching-my-baby-to-sign-delay-his.html

https://www.virginia.edu/psychology/childdevelopmentlabs/media/baby-sign-msnbc.pdf

https://www.babble.com/toddler/baby-sign-language-speech-development/


In terms of teaching it @jdal1206 you're right on point. The main thing is being consistent with using it. Right now everyday, we work with DD names, colors, request/statement phrases. She likes watching our hands. No expectations but it's just good to introduce the signs and use them frequently.

Ceridwen77

Thanks for sharing that info @Lolo427 !  Hope you feel better too.