Signing - Advice

Go for it, it has been great for us. My now two year old son is speaking at a 3 year old + level and I totally credit it to his learning and usage of sign language. It gave him what he needed to express himself and kept him focused. We loved his "baby signs book" I would only start with 2-3 signs for a 10 month old though. Sleep, Milk, Hungry, thirsty, and more are the first ones you will probably want. When they start signing back then start bumping the signs up in numbers.
PBS runs "Signing Time" in cycles- It isn't always on but my son loves that program still although he only still uses 2 signs and usually only when he is tired.
Some people will try and tell you that teaching sign language holds back their speech development but this has been proven faulty many times now.
You will be so happy you did it when you have an even tempered and happy toddler who can tell you want they want!
Good luck!
C.

I think it's a great idea to sign with a child. I have a 7 month old and we are plaining on teaching her sign language. I live in the Muskegon area and there is a show on PBS call Signing Time and my daughter love the show. We've been watching it since she was 6 months old and she's still a little young to sign but she just loves the show. I bought the Baby Einstin one and she didn't like watching it at all. So you might just want to find if there is a show on TV where you live.

We sign with our daughter and it has been great. We started with 3 easy ones: more, milk, and eat. It takes a while for them to pick it up, but with your son being older he may get it pretty quickly. We started at 6 months with our daughter. I bought a DVD (I think it is called "Sign With YOur Baby) that explains how to do it and the benefits. It also came with a little book that shows how to do the different signs. After she learned the 3 first ones, we started to add more like please, thank you, and finished. It's been great just do it often and he will pick it up.

We taught both of our son's to use sign language. If you use it consistenly your child will pick it up and it can really help ease frustration in communicating before they can speak well. I used a video/book set by Joseph Garcia (purchased at Barnes and Nobel) which was very helpful.

S.

Signing is awesome, My daughter is speech delayed and we learned signs and it help so much with the communication issue.
If you go to amazon.com or google signing time it will give u a lot of different ideas
Get in touch with me if you need more help.
C.
pbs kids used to have signing time @ 5pm

Hi S. -

We have been signing with our daugther now for a little over a year and it has been wonderful!! I would suggest that you pick a few signs that you want to start with and consistantly use them. Then, as you feel comfortable, add more in gradually. One tip that was shared with me was that until your child starts signing back, don't focus on anymore signs than your child is old. So, at 10 months, you wouldn't focus on anymore than 10 signs until he started signing back.

If you can, you might also look into taking a parent workshop on signing. They teach you some great starter signs and help show how you can integrate them into your daily routines.

I loved the program that we used (the Baby Signs(R) Program) that I actually became an independent instructor for them. It provided us with so many signs (100 of the most frequently used words with infants/toddlers) that I didn't have to go and try to look others up. It also gave me tools to use to help learn how to use everyday. I actually have a parent workshop coming up on June 22, if you are interested.

If you have any more questions or would like more information on signing, please let me know.

Have fun!
J.

With our first son I bought about 6 different books and worked extensively with him on ALL of the signs! He could tell us everything from apple to zebra. With our second son, I realized that many of these signs are unnecessary. Ashton is 14 months and he knows: more (useful at meal time), all done (also useful during meals), and night-night. This seems to get us through the day very well. I may add more signs soon, but the three that he has now tell me almost everything that I need to know. (He uses the "more" sign as the sign for eat, too). Good luck and have fun!

You can get so many signing books, also i have discovered on pbs at around 5-530 they have a whole signing program. my daughter signed starting at 9 months. and she is now 2 1/2 and has such a huge vocabulary, and talks in 5-6 word sentances and has been doing so before she turned 2. and im sure its cause she started commuticating so early.

Signing is a wonderful thing! It helps to lessen the frustration that lack of verbal skills can cause. I started with both our kids about 8-9 months. We started with mealtime signs like more and all done, then added milk and eat. We have also taught them to be polite at a young age! Please and thank you are very important in my opinion too! There is so much you can learn. Just enough to get by or you can teach them to even name the animals and their toys. It's really up to you how far you want to go. We have "Signing Time" dvds. The show is also on PBS, I believe. My kids (3 1/2 and 16 months) really enjoy it! Don't get discouraged if it goes slow at first. The first couple of months it seems they won't ever get it. But if you do the sign and show them what you're talking about, they will eventually sign back to you. About a year or so my kids caught on to a bunch. Good luck and have fun with it.

I plan on starting signing with my daughter too (she's only 2 1/2 months right now though). The other day I found this website that has all the signs on short videos so if you want to know what something is, you just click on it and it will show you how to do it. http://www.mybabycantalk.com/content/dictionary/dictionar...

Go and get the book "Baby Signs". That should give you all the info you need.
L.