Baby Signing: Is Teaching Your Child Sign Smart Parenting

I wouldn't say it's "smart" parenting, but it's very beneficial. How could anything bad come out of it?! Even keeping with the basics like more, hungry, tired, thirsty, blanket and such would be such a huge help to a child that doesn't have the ability to speak the words yet.

My 1st was speech delayed, didn't call me mama til 2 1/2 yrs old, and I taught her some signs per the speech therapist and they helped a lot. I wish I knew about teaching her signs sooner! But I wouldn't classify it as a smart vs not smart parenting.

I love Baby Signing! It's so much easier for small children to learn smal motor functions before they are able to speak. My 18 month old knows quite a few signs and it's been great to be able to understand what she wants as she doesn't know how yet to get the words out. As long as the parent signs and says the word verbally I think it's fine. I love it. Just bought a bunch of new dvd's go start watching together and learn more signs and can't wait! She picks things up really quickly. I don't see anything wrong with it like I said, as long as you are keeping up the spoken vocabulary as well.

I don't think it's beneficial to babies really, other than it's great parent child interaction and a new skill (so I guess it is beneficial :-o). I had several friends do it, and I swear it made their kids wait longer to talk. They didn't remember the signs as they got older once they quit using them, but I guess if you kept up with it, it could develop like any other skill. I had two late talkers, and no idea how we would have needed signs. I could still understand them. However, it is really neat in regards to learning a language for the deaf when kids are a bit older. When I was a kid, my mother worked at the Deaf and Blind School in Colorado Springs and I would go with her to volunteer. I was about 4-6 years old and learned the alphabet and many signs and had deaf friends. I used it for years and it was great. I wish I kept up with it.

I think it is a wonderful tool. I don't necessarily think it is something every baby should be taught so that they will have it as a 2nd language when they are grown... but I think it is an extremely helpful tool for an older baby (6-9 months) who has wants/needs to communicate and can do so by signing instead of just shrieking and crying in frustration. That is what I used it for with my kids. My son was incredibly frustrated and loud at mealtime when I couldn't get him food fast enough (if he ate all of the original serving and was still hungry). Teaching him to sign what he wanted let him communicate with me without all the screaming. Made meal time much more peaceful for all of us.

Do I think I am smarter than parents who didn't use it with their kids? No. Not necessarily. I think a smart parent or "smart parenting" can be using the tools available to you to accomplish what works for your family. Signing worked for us, so we availed ourselves of it. Had I not known about it, I wouldn't have been able to use it, but that wouldn't have made me a not smart parent. And continuing to try to teach it to a child not "getting" it after much effort with no results, and frustrating them and myself in that effort, would be counter-productive.

I also think that it is patently unfair to a baby to teach them to communicate effectively with signing and then leave them with caregivers who do not know signing. That was my biggest stress at that time. If we wanted to go to a movie, I had to go over and over with the person keeping our son what "this" and "this" and "this" mean.... so if he does "this" then he wants _______. So if you are routinely leaving your child with someone else, then you might need to insure that the caregivers are on board with learning it too.

ETA: for the record, my kids were not speech delayed in any way. Our second born was talking before we even knew it (because we didn't recognize the sounds she was using for her brother's name right away--it evolved over time and eventually we figured it out, but she had been using a specific "word" for his name for a while already by then. Son talked pretty well and fairly early also. We dropped it after they could use words to communicate with us.

I wouldn't categorize it as smart or not smart. In most cases you either want to take the time to learn it and do it with your kids or you don't. In my case, my son was speech delayed and the therapist suggested, but I wouldn't feel like I wasn't a smart parent if he hadn't had that problem and I hadn't taught him sign.

I think anything that you choose to actively do with your child is smart parenting, whether that is sign language, music, some sort of sports or games... It aids brain development and improved relationships.
We learned a couple of signs when my DD was an infant, but it wasn't my favorite thing to do, so as soon as she was verbal we abandoned it. However, if you and your family enjoy it - great and stick with it.

I don't think it's smart, or not smart. I have not personally heard (or read) any controversy about benefits, or lack of. I think signing is like anyting else, if it works for a family it's awesome. If not, it's just another thing that didn't pan out.

Personally, I chose not to teach my son sign language. The 4 people who I knew that did ended up having a lot of struggles. (These children did not have speech delays, or other speech struggles.) Their children did not want to verbalize, and they fell back to signing. That's fine for at home, of course. However, it's a problem in school and daycare environments. And, it did become a big problem. Only because my personal experience of seeing that, it didn't seem like a good idea for our family. I

What are the positives about knowing how to sign after you have learned to talk? Why not learn to talk and communicate the regular way. Signing means your're smarter??? Never heard of that. Anyone can be taught anything...including signing...but what is the point...who would NOT want to encourage talking...unless you have alot of time on your hands and want to try something new. Guess I'm old school.It's done wonders for you...'cause that is your passion...but in what ways has it been wonderful for your children...just curious.

My 2 year old son DOES NOT speak. He has the vocabulary of a 12 month old... so yes, we sign. We don't have a choice.

As with a second language, I find it VERY hard to believe that anyone has anything negative to say about sign language. So what, you're kid ends up smarter than other kids?! Honey, it's a positive no matter which way you look at it :)

I have 2 older children I taught sign language to, even thought they spoke fluently. It did no harm. It's a good thing no matter what!

I don't have results yet...(11mo), but we've been doing it since 6mos.

Apparently it "kicks in" around a year that he'll start signing?

LOL - one side note. I did have a know-it-all mom once tell me that teaching sign language actually hinders their development of speech as they get confused. I told her that I would take that chance that my son would be stupid (but speaking two languages). rofl - I should have told her about the spanish. :)

I personally did not use it. Both of my kids were speaking in 5-7 word sentences by the time they were 18 months. When they were only 12 months old they each said about 20 words. My kids never threw tantrums out of frustration because they talked early on.

My SIL taught both of her kids baby sign and they ended up in Early Intervention for speech delays. They are now 7 and 8yrs old and still are quite delayed.

When we were touring my daughter's elementary school, my 3 yr old son said to one of the teachers: "we have a tent that is similar to that one". (She had a tent set up in her room for kids to read in). The teacher said to me she could tell we didn't baby talk to our kids. She was amazed our son used the word similar and in the right context.

So do I think it's smart parenting? No I do not. Do I have anything against it? No I do not. If you really wanted to make sign language a part of a child's life, I would ensure that they learned American Sign Language not just baby sign language. ASL would be super beneficial so that you can communicate with those that are hearing impared. Full sentences should be spoken too, not just "more" or ",drink;

I think signing is helpful-because when your kid can't talk they can still tell you what they want. That being said, only my 1st kid signed. I sort of forgot about it for the other 2.

I think it's a great idea and most of the research I've read encourages it. Essentially it's another language just like Spanish or German, you just talk with your hands. The best time to learn a language is when you're young; and I wouldn't stop when the kids start to talk. Continue to teach them signing right along with their verbal vocabulary.

I love the idea of baby sign language! I agree, the Baby Einstein video was a good one, my youngest son loved it and really picked up on some of the signs. I also had some sign lanuage flash cards
(like these: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId... ) that I used with the little girl I used to babysit. Her parents didn't even know we were using the cards during the day until the little one's mom saw her do the sign for "more" in her highchair! Fortunatly, her mom is a teacher and knew some of the basic signs, lol! But I do think they can be very helpful and a fun way to engage and communicate with your baby!

I think it is awesome to teach them as learning to sign is never a bad thing and babies/young kids pick up things so quickly it is the perfect time. The one concern I would have would be if they successfully learn to communicate via signing, it could hamper their speech and cause them to be delayed in that area...just a thought.

smart. wish I had learned more and taught her more. But what we know is very useful.

I think it could go either way. I think it will delay the speach a little

I didnt start until my son was 24 months and speech delayed. I wish I had started earlier! It helped him learn to talk.

I think it's great, and kids can learn more than one method of communicating. But, I had just bought the book when my daughter started talking (really early!). So, never got around to doing signing with her. I never really had a problem understanding her before or after she started talking.

My step-son did it with his son. At the time it was great because you could tell what he needed, etc., however, I think it delayed his starting to speak. Because he could sign and get his needs met, there was no need for him to try words.

we did it. starting at about 6 months we used the signs with her, but she did not repond back, we kept at it the around 8 mo she started repeating back to us. she is still using it at 2.5yo. Not all of the signs just one or two. some of our signs we made up, we never got through the sign dvd it was way too slow and a bit boring. one of our made up signs was more, for that we pointed into the palm of our hand she still used that one today. we loved having her let us know what she wanted, it made our life easier, she was also an early talker it never delayed her speach. MIL did not use sign on our niece who she helped raise she gave up on it. and our DN did not start talking until almost 3 and would have melt downs bc no one what she wanted before that.

When my baby was able to sit up in the high chair, I started to ask her if she was hungry by putting my fingers together and putting them up to my lips when I asked. I did it every time I was about to put her in the chair and then again a few times before i fed her. I ALWAYS used words with the sign. After a while, she started to make that hand signal. She tells me she is hungry now, and has forgotten the sign language. That is the only one I ever taught her.
I think baby signing is ok, as long as you talk to them as well. And as soon as they start to talk, it's time to stop signing.

I am very suprised that people actually think this delays speech and isnt smart at all. It kind of offends me. Ive been teaching my daughter sign language since she was born. At first i thought of only teaching her routine signs but shes learning how to finger spell and shes only 19 months. She sign back to me at 5 months (bath, pretty easy fun sign). She signs everything now except what needs to be finger spelled. She also speaks. i think she was able to speak a lot more words faster because of sign. Since she already knew the word (because of sign) she could say it. She didnt have to learn what the word meant. She signed her first sentence when she was 11 months old. She has been reading herself books by signing what she sees at around 10 months. Shes able to express what shes feeling and thinking very clearly. I dont know how we would be doing without sign. Im sure there would be a lot of grunting, pointing and guessing but why do that when you can provide your child with the right tools to communicate. It has also helped me teach her spanish which she also speaks. I would encourage you to do some research and take some classes. The only show that she is allowed to watch is Signing time with Rachel Coleman. Regular TV is to commerialized. Its like their telling you to buy this, buy that, look like this or that. Drives me crazy.

I think in general, it is positive. But the parent has to be enthusiastic about it and it has to work for the family. I have only heard positive research about it BUT I decided not to do it. My son did have a speech delay at 2 and they reccomended I do sign language. They told me it did not hinder language development but I felt that since he got speech therapy only twice a week why not focus on SPEECH and not SIGNS. It was a great decision. My son caught up on his speech very quickly but he didn't have any underlying physiological or psychological issue.

We didn't try it but I knew several families who did try, and in every case, the parents said it was because they -- the parents -- got frustrated trying to understand what their young children wanted because the kids weren't talking yet. They all dropped it as soon as their kids could express themselves even halfway decently (or as soon as the parents learned the kids' cues and early word sounds). So, I don't think signing is harmful, and any such positive, focused interaction between parent and child is good and builds bonds. But I think the usefulness of signing is based not on really advancing or helping the kids somehow, but on helping the parents who are tired of being unable to understand their kids' wants. I've never heard of signing delaying speech, but then, all these friends dropped it as soon as they figured out their kids' cues and words.

Hello, My three year old granddaughter has Down Syndrome. She is speech delayed (but not much in any other area). We use sign and oral language with her. She is able to sign a lot of words and is saying a lot more now, as she gets older. With a lot of words, she will say them as she signs them. It is so good for her to be able to communicate with us. She is not as frustrated as some children might be.
Good luck with your precious baby.
K. K.