anybody doing baby sign language?

kmm2150 · August 2012

How/when did you start? I want to do it, but am not sure what to introduce, if I should just do one sign (maybe milk? or mama?) until she gets it, or start with a handful of basics...TIA for any advice!

bigbear · August 2012

We aren't doing it but my coworker did with her daughter and she said at the daycare center she had her DD at, started it at 6 months.

I'm also interested in this and so far it seems like the general norm is to start it between 6-9 months. Babies who's parents start to signal at about 6 months will typically start to sign themselves at around 8 months.

In general it's about making sure the baby is focused and is watching you and can associate the hand gesture with the specific item etc. I would think you start with one thing (milk), make sure the baby is really watching so you do the hand gesture and then give the bottle... So you do that every time you feed her for about a week. Then you add another thing on....

HTH. This is just what I've been able to gather so far.

fyrefairie · August 2012

I've been usigna few signs (milk Mama Daddy more) since 4 mos. I see that she recognizes them even though she can't mimic them just recently. Meaning if I sign milk, she smiles, reaches for me and when I pick her up reaches for my breast. If I sign Daddy, she will look for him or at him. For now I figure those are the ones she might use first and even though she can't sign herself yet, if nothing else, I'm getting i the habit of using the signs

bigbear · August 2012

fyrefairie:
I've been usigna few signs (milk Mama Daddy more) since 4 mos. I see that she recognizes them even though she can't mimic them just recently. Meaning if I sign milk, she smiles, reaches for me and when I pick her up reaches for my breast. If I sign Daddy, she will look for him or at him. For now I figure those are the ones she might use first and even though she can't sign herself yet, if nothing else, I'm getting i the habit of using the signs

That's awesome! I actually think it's a good idea to start as soon as the baby can focus and watch your movement. Just because they can't respond in an "expected" way doesn't mean they don't get what's going on.

aboynamedbarry · August 2012

I've been thinking about starting some signs, it seems like a great way to teach them to communicate. currently however, when she wants milk, she shows my by banging her head into my chest. LOL

bigbear · August 2012

aboynamedbarry:
I've been thinking about starting some signs, it seems like a great way to teach them to communicate. currently however, when she wants milk, she shows my by banging her head into my chest. LOL

LMAO!

CalMum_Momma · August 2012

We did signing with DS and have just started with DD. DS still uses some of his signs. We started with him around 7mos, and he used his first sign around 8mos...It was Dog. LOL! We started with just a couple of signs and started adding more as he started using them.

mkays25 · August 2012

We've been using sign language with LO since he was 5 mths. I have the book Baby Sign Language Basics (cheap on Amazon) and it really helped. It recomends starting between 6-9 mths with 6-10 signs. We do milk, mommy, daddy, cat, dog, more, all done and food. He is definatly understands some of them and I sware I have seen him sign milk more then once! It's mainly about consistancy and repatition and not getting frustrated if you don't see results right away.

theladyjess · August 2012

We've started using signs this past week. I'm introducing several at once and trying to get into the habit of using them more and more. So far we're pretty consistant with mom, dad, eat, more, and all done. Every day while looking in the mirror with K I sign to her "K is a beautiful girl".

Everyone learns receiptive language before they learn expressive language. This is true for adults as well as children. You can understand a language before you can speak it. Your LO will learn the signs and understand what they mean before they will be able to sign back at you. Children, espically young children and babies, are sponges and are capible of learning multiple languages at the same time.

2BMrsMcW · August 2012

I read a long time ago about how baby sign can really help with the terrible twos so i was gung ho about making sure we do it. My cousin's kid is 2.5 and doesn't speak much and throws horrible temper-tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants (because no one understands him).

We actually started signing really early with DS because his day care does it every day. At day care, they do eat, milk, more, and all done. We try to do these at home as well, but forget more than we remember. DC says that they can tell he understands when they sign to him and he started kind of signing milk around 5 months.

At home, I do mom when ever I talk to him. For example, if he is crying I will say "Mom (sign) is here." I showed H how to sign dad (he doesn't take it seriously though and it annoys me) and I showed the grandparents and my sister and brother the signs for grandma, grandpa, aunt, and uncle which they use the same way I use mom.

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