Hi,

Does anyone do this with their baby and if so do you find it a great help?

Also which programme would you reccommend getting?

Any other comments about it would be great too.

Thanks,
Renee smile

We are starting to teach our little boy, we are only doing signs (at this stage) for change my nappies and food.
Had a friend do SL for her little girl and it's worked wonders, we're hoping for the same result.

We taught our now 20 month old daughter simple signs for the following words:

drink, food, mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, help, please, more, sleep, blanket, baby, story time, milk (and others, although they're not coming to mind right now).

We found it to be wonderful and we managed to avoid a lot of confusion as our little girl was able to let us know what it was she wanted.

The only thing to be mindful of is that as she is armed with signs, our little girl will often sign before she verbalizes what she wants. It is quite funny to watch her silently shouting out "daddy" when he's not looking!

Personally, that isn't a concern to me and I am most grateful that we taught her these simple signs from a young age.

I would recommend Baby Einstein's "First Signs" video. It was most helpful.

We did baby sign langugage (you can google Australian baby hands) with out DS from 7 months. We taught him the signs for food, bottle, biscuit, finished & sleep.
He didn't start signing back until around 10 months but he understood it very quickly. He didn't start talking till around 20 months so it was a great help to us and avoided a lot of tantrums smile

Hi there!

We used a couple of signs and it was brilliant! She was signing milk from about 8months old and nappy from about 10months I think. Later we taught her toilet (which was one of our first steps in tt) It was so so so handy! It made communicating very easy as she could tell us exactly what the trouble was!
We didn't bother with learning lots of signs as we just wanted her to be able to tell us the main things. We found it didn't hinder her talking at all. She would chat as well as sign and you can also do it when out of earshot!

We also found it very handy at a dinner party one night. When the conversation was loud the adults just signed milk when they wanted people to pass the milk down the other end of the table at coffee time! I stood back and it was amazing to watch. They weren't even doing it as a joke. It was just a handy tool!

Hey Renee

I've mentioned to you before that we use baby sign language smile
Now is a perfect age to start using it with your DS.

I have a book called "Baby Signs" by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn which explains it all so simply.

You could also make up your own signs for certain things? I've found Tom has a different interpretation of some signs we use, so we're pretty flexible, but it works smile

Some tips...
Start with just a few signs for important things such as milk, food or when your DS wants a cuddle.
Always sign and say the word together and repeat several times.
Hope that helps

Hi,
Just thought I would add my piece. I started doing baby signing with my first son (now four). I started teaching him when he was 8 months old and he started signing around 12 months. He quickly built up his number of signs and his speech came quickly after it. My second son started signing even earlier and though he isn't as quick in his speech it's starting to pay off now. My third son is almost eight months and I've just started teaching him. I do believe he will pick it up even faster because he is already trying to copy me and will study the movement of my hands and then his own.
The best things to do is go to a website called australianbabyhands.com you can get books, dvds and flashcards etc. It's great.
Christine

I'm a NZ sign language interpreter and will definatly be teaching my new baby to sign. Kids pick up signs so much faster than words. I have known of families whose children will go to their Deaf family member to ask for something rather than their own parent!
I always wonder though, why to these programmes always offer Auslan? (Australian Sign Language) We have our own unique sign languge here in NZ in fact it is even an officially recognised language now (since 2006).

jo

I have been using baby sign language since my baby was 6 months. We use the Australian baby hands book because to us it was important to use Auslan and not American sign language. She quickly learnt what the signs meant, for example if she would wake up crying and we signed eat she would calm down and wait for her feed. She is now 7 1/2 months and signs bed and eat.

We started using Auslan when DD was about 8 months old. It was important initially that we use the Australian sign language rather than American. DD has adapted some signs and made some up herself, so we have deviated from Auslan, but the important thing is that she has an avenue of communication other than verbal.

We started with a few signs (eg book, bed, finished) and gradually increased over time. Her day care also used the signs. DD is now 2 years old and still uses signs, often in conjunction with the word. Some of her spoken words aren't clear, so it helps us (and her carers) understand what she's saying. It has also been very helpful when she has been too upset to speak, she has been able to use the sign to tell us what she wants.

There's alot of products you can buy, but there's also free websites that you can enter the word and there's a video of how to do the sign - eg auslan.org.au

I'm a NZ sign language interpreter and will definatly be teaching my new baby to sign. Kids pick up signs so much faster than words. I have known of families whose children will go to their Deaf family member to ask for something rather than their own parent!
I always wonder though, why to these programmes always offer Auslan? (Australian Sign Language) We have our own unique sign languge here in NZ in fact it is even an officially recognised language now (since 2006).

jo

I so totally agree with you! If this is the NZ site of Huggies they should be promoting the NZ Sign Language option. We have a book based on NZSL called Baby Sign Language for Hearing Babies by Karyn Warburton and it is fabulous. It explains things really clearly and has a dictionary of over 200 signs to use. But then our wee girl is making up some signs of her own so it's only a guide. They so respond to signing it's wonderful to see and people are most impressed when she asks for things without a tantrum.

We found it really helpful when putting our daughter into daycare. We told the ladies what each sign ment and this not only maded thier job easier but the transition for our daughter alot smoother. It takes time and effort but it is worth it.

I've heard good things. I never know what my baby wants.

Nice article. Great job. It is a fact that infants develop the fine muscles in their hands before they develop those required for speech, so they’re equipped to communicate with you before they can speak. Thanks for sharing..