Sign Language - Marquette,MI

We did sign language with our son who is now 22 months. He really started "getting" it when he was 13 months and learned about 50 signs. I honestly cannot imagine how we would have survived without him knowing sign language for the past year or so. It has helped SO MUCH to ease his frustrations when we're trying to figure out what he wants and he LOVES using them to tell us about different things around him.

I highly recommend the My Baby Can Talk DVDs. We got those around 14 months and within about 3-4 weeks, he had learned ALL of the signs from them. They were great!

I would definitely encourage everyone to use sign with their children.

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I started teaching my then 11 month old girl sign language through the DVD called "Signing Time". She is 2.5 years old and knows over 110 signs. I found that she did have delayed speach because she'd sign over speaking. Overall, we get many compliments on how smart she is and how she understands many things. I assume the ability to communicate at 11 months helped in her development. She is just now putting three words together at at 2 she was putting two-three words together. She continues to sign while speaking. We sign to her to keep it fresh and we help her build three signs. Just the other day I helped her sign "baby, drink, Mama, milk". She copied me but to do it on her own she'll drop one word. I highly encourange signing. It's fun and I feel it has cut on the terrible attitude that little ones can get by frustration of not being able to speak the words they want.

1 mom found this helpful

R.,

I did sign language with my daughter who is almost two and I am gald I did. We started signing at 6 months and I think she did her 1st sign around 9 months. I think it helped she was able to sign what she wanted instead of crying in frustration. Elsie will still use some of her signs even though she is talking now. Good Luck. Jenny

I used sign language with both of my daughters. It takes patience and persistence on your part to remember to sign "milk" when you say it, and your son will probably take a month or 2 until he gets the connection. But as soon as my daughters understood, other signs came more quickly. Communication got much better. The whole family was happier because there was less crying and less frustration. I recommend taking a community class, or going to the library and checking out some videos. Books are hard to know what movements they are doing.

We taught our son milk, more, and all done. We started using the signs when he was like 4-5 months old. He signed back to us by 6-7 months old - which we were told was early. His first sign was milk. Not sure why we didn't continue, but what he does know has been a HUGE help to us. I would say go for it - you've got nothing to lose - but so much to gain.

They say to start out with only a couple signs (like the 3 mentioned). When they master those three than you can pick more, but if you do too many it can be overwhelming.

R., we started signing to our daughter at six months. She started using signs at nine months. By sixteen months she knew over 75 signs - we stopped counting after that! It was fantastic. (She is now three and has an incredible spoken vocabulary, with fantastic grammar and tense usage.)Only thing I would really recommend, is to use ASL - the American Signing. That way your son can build on his signs and always use them. Some universities are accepting ASL as a second language for entry! He will also be able to sign in the deaf community. Good Luck - it was a great experience.

I used sign language for both my children. My youngest child is already speaking sentences and he is only 3 yrs old.

I started doing baby signs with my now 7 yr old when he was a slow talker at 2 so he ended up talking before he learned a lot but he still caught on to simple ones like please and thank you quickly.
I now have 3 toddlers 3 and under and I use it a lot. Start as early as possible more to get you in the habit of making a sign when you say a word and babies learn surprisingly early. My twins were signing more by 9-10 months old so it is definatly not too early to start with your 7 month old. I find that it helps them to sign when they are too young to get the words out, I am sure it has avoided a couple of bouts of frustration for them...and me! I have the book called simply "Baby Signs" and it has a whole listing of a variety of signs for babies. I would recommend that but I am sure there are a lot of good ones out there. Alot of places teach baby sign classes, try your local ecfe program.
I couldn't be happier with the results of baby signing and recommmend it to all new parents.
Good luck
K. H

I am a furst time mom myself, but I have a degree in Early Childhood Education and was the Lead teacher in an infant room daycare for a few years. From first hand experiance I can tell you baby sign language works wonders. It helps the child communicate before they can actually form words. Sign language has also been linked to junp starting vocabulary. Meaning your baby will seaker a little sooner than average. Some signs a too complecated and usless, the ones that I found worked the best and made the kids much calmer:

Eat
Milk
More
Done
Sleep

These are the easiest signs and kids pick up on these very quick. Just remember to do the sign and say the word every time you do the activity and the child will catch on much quicker.

Good luck!

Our family used sign language with my son (now 3) for basic communication until he started talking. It is a priceless and very helpful communication tool. Sign language was easy for everyone in the household to learn and fun too!! Contrary to what I previously believed about sign language, it did not delay him actually speaking. Go for it and have fun!

Hi, R.!

I have two children and used signs with both of them. It's pretty easy to do. Just use the signs as you say the words. Pick a few easy ones to start sith (more and milk are good). As your child begins to pick up on it, introduce more and more signs. Once they realize they can communicate with you, they even start to create their ows signs. I highly recommend it. It becomes a lot of fun and decreases crying out of frustration - theirs, not yours:)

My oldest child spoke very early as a result. He has a very extensive vocabulary and speaks clearly. I think signs had something to do with it. My daughter (15 months) does not speak much, but communicates very well through sigs. I think the lack of speaking is because her older brother never stops!!! I recommend starting soon. Your child will starts to pick up on it about now. Good luck!

Dear R.,

I took a sign language class and started with my daughter at 6 months. She definitely caught on quick and as others have mentioned, it definitely helps with the communication. As she started to talk, it helped me to better understand her since I could use the sign to confirm my understanding of her request. (I had already known the ABC's, but the class taught me a lot more signs, how to present them, the benefits of using sign. It is helpful to keep up the sign language if possible even as they start to talk -- I have an 18 month old son, and although he refuses to sign back, he does understand as I talk to him and my daughter encourages him with the signs she knows. (Plus when in quiet places -- like church -- it is certainly more discrete to sign "potty" rather than blurt out "potty, mom"... Enjoy the benefits of communicating with your son. Think of it as his first "second language" He can use it later in life to talk with deaf people....
s

We are very big on signing in our family. I taught all 3 of my children to sign and our 18month old is signing up a storm right now and it is wonderful knowing what she wants with out her crying. Yesterday she let me know she wanted to watch signing time. We are big fans of SigningTime. I also teach families to sign and teachers. There are so many great reasons to sign. My 4year old is spelling. She was fingerspelling when she was 2 1/2years old. Signing is so much fun for everyone.
I could go on and on about signing. :) It has so many great rewards for your child and you.
M. mom to 3 signing kids. :)

Go to www.mybabycantalk.com. They have 2 excellent videos. My son (15 months) and I have been watching the first one on and off for the past 3 months + and he is now able to sign milk, more, drink, book, bird and he understands and responds to many more signs including eat (very important:).

We taught my first son sign language and it was wonderful, we taught him signs for Milk, More, Thank you, Please, All done etc. Good for communication and it really does work wonderfully! We certainly intend on doing it with our second child as well.

We did sign language with our son Alex starting around 8 months. We are true firm believers that it helped a ton.

For several months it was just my hubby & I signing the basics as we went through his day. Words like milk, all done, change, hurt, eat, etc. Then one day, he just did it. It was so amazing. At 25 months he will still occasionally use the signs thank you, sorry and please when he says the words, almost like old habit. Very cute.

Our pediatrician and others think he has an extensive vocabulary and with very good verbal comprehension and expression. He communicates so well now and it makes his early two's less stressful because he can tell us almost anything that is important in his world.

I will say that the sign language alone won't be a magic pill but research is continuing to suggest the sign skills help parts of the brain develop faster that improves overall language development. Besides the sign, we talked to Alex about literally everything we did with him during his day(mommy's flipping the pancake now, daddy's going to change your diaper and put your jammies on, etc.) and read books to him every day. Today, he loves certain movies like Elmo and Baby Einstein stuff, but we can get him to walk away from them with the suggestion of reading certain books.

One of my fondest memories was Alex in his crib at about 12 months and he was whimpering at his nap. When I went back in, he stood up and signed "hurt" and pointed to his two. After picking him up, I took his sock off and he pointed to a big hang nail. I could not believe it. I signed "hurt" back and pointed to his toe saying he had a big "owwie" on his toe and he signed hurt again. Super cool experience, and it was just one of many that followed each time he mastered a sign and was proud of himself for communicating with us.

If you decide to pursue it, you can decide just to do some basics like milk, eat, change, hurt, etc. or take it further once he starts using them and teach him as much sign as you can learn yourself.

Good luck and enjoy it if you do!
D.

hello R.. i actually have used the sign language with both of my kids 2 and 1. my oldest, a boy was very slow to talk and communication was getting frustrating for all of us so i used the sign language and everything started going much smoother. it didn't take him hardly any time at all to learn it and then he could tell us what he was needed. my daughter picked up on it right away, probably seeing her brother do it and now we use a mixture of sign and speech. my family really loves it and i think it is worth a try.

SIGNING TIME! You can check the DVDs out from the library if you don't just want to go to Amazon and buy them. There are 13 in the series, plus BABY SIGNING TIME, too. They are amazing, and I totally credit them for giving my daughter the amazing vocabulary she has. She's almost 22 months, and knows the signs in all 13 DVDs, uses those words as well, and sings almost all the Signing Time songs! It's amazing. I am interested in continuing sign language with her as she hasn't shown any interest in dropping signs when she learns the words, etc.

Anyone know where such classes are offered in the Twin Cities?

Hi R.,

I have a 10 month old son and have been teaching him baby signs for the past month and a half. He's started doing some of them in the last couple of weeks, such as fish, frog and light. It's very rewarding to see him using some of the signs! My advice is to be consistent and patient and start with just a few signs. I also work a part-time evening shift, so I understand how sleep is so precious! :) Good luck!

My daughter learned signlanguage at daycare. I was very skeptical and thought it was great but thought it was kinda weird. It was one of the best things my daughter had been taught. She was able to communicate with daycare and soon at home with me with little to no problems. She was months away from talking but could tell me her needs. It was awesome and I totally think it got the wheels rolling to start communicating and talking earlier. She is now 5 and talks in very complex lengthy sentences beyond her age level. She used her signlanguage so good that ppl in public thought she was deaf. I regret that I didn't keep up with it, once she was verbal we kinda just forgot about continuing to use it. Her four favorite signs were please, thank-you, more, and milk. I say go for it. Just make sure to encourage verbal responses from your child too. I have always talked ALOT to my daughter and didnot go overboard with the signlanguage just enuogh for simple communication so it only did positives for us.

We used some of the basic stuff with ours, and it works. Most of us use some sort of sign language with our babies and don't even know it. When we hold our hands out to pick them up...and they in turn, put their arms up to be picked up...that is a form of sign language. Communication without words and both parties understand. Why not use the basic stuff at least to help our babies commuinicate with us, the way we do with them. Good luck...and have fun with it. There are alot of good books out there, you don't need a huge expensive version for the basic stuff.

R., I am a new mother also, but my babysitter's son (who is now 2) was using sign language since he was 7 months old. It was/is amazing to see him communicate with his parents without being able to verbally express himself. They used books and the Baby Einstein video for their success. My husband and I use simple signs with our 4 month old daughter now just to get in the habit. Good luck! It's amazing when it works!

I taught both my girls basic signs when they were babies. Things like more, drink, eat, etc. I know the Baby Einstein videos do a lot of signing and there is a book on baby signs. To this day my girls sign a lot of words and they are 5 and 3.

I have a seven year old boy, who I taught sign from a book at age 7 months. He picked it fast. He signed and spoke for a very long time. (he would say NO and sign 'more' for NO MORE)

He has some developement issues, so this was done as a precautionary in case he couldn't speak. Just like the other mom's, the level of frustration was dwindled! Plus, I have older sons that picked it up and re-enforced it constantly!

The best part, for me; learning the sign 'NO" and not saying NO all the time. For me, I began to feel as if the word NO was ruling our life. Signing it, it became a very calm word! I could sign it (to our then aged 6 and 7 boys) and they would stop figiting at church, the store, in the car.

Remember that sign language is another language! Your child will be bilingual!

I am an infant/toddler child care provider and I use sign language with the children under my care! It is a great way for them to communicate and feel less frustrated. The only thing that I would suggest is to teach the language with the signs. That way they learn the sign and the words and then they would eventually only need the words to communicate to you! You don't even need to learn real signs if you don't want to! Anything that you and your child both understand is okay! Like rubbing tummy for hungry, that is not the real sign, but both you and your child would understand it and that is all that really matters! Good Luck! It is really rewarding when they sign back to you for the first time!

I used sign language on both my kids one is 3 and one is 18 months. It helped a lot w/ communication my 3 year old would then communicate with my son when we were first teaching him. Its also a plus with the 2nd child because he feels that he doesnt need to talk because his sister does. I bought the basic book of sign language and it was only about $6-$10 dollars. Good Luck