Baby Sign Language - Houston,TX

signing with a young child is great! here are some places to get started.... http://www.weehands.com/dictionary.htm
and http://www.signingtime.com/ look under fun stuff for free things to do with your baby. she does have a pbs show also that is fun for kids of many ages (my 5 and yr old watch it with the baby). I think that the best way to teach a baby to sign is to use ASL. it is a full language that can be used the rest of their lives. just teach them the real signs for everything. they will modify it and make it work for them. as time goes by they will start to do all of the signs correctly. I started to use sign with my roommates baby at 7 or 8 months old. now at 18 mo. she say about 5 words and signs about 25 or 30. she gets so excited when she learns a new sign.

I LOVE baby sign language! At 18mo, my dd still was not speaking much. I knew that my dh did not speak a word until he was 3urs old! I talk way too much to allow this to happen with my little one. I paniced and quit my job to spend all of the time that I could to teach her. She picked up on it right away, as if to say, "Thank God! You get it!" Her temperment evened out (with the help of a better monitered diet also) and she started using full sentences with in weeks. I taught my dd regular American Sign Language, but she began developing her own for things that I did not teach. (She does the cutest little turtle. LOL) I opened a small in-home daycare (because she is an only and I did not want to make her a hermit). All of the other children picked up on the sign language just by accedent. They loved it so much, I started introducing it in our daily lessons. (using finger plays and songs) It not only helps with communication and reducing overall stress in the house, but it helps with fine motor skills and opens the way for children to learn other languages later in life. She is 3years old now and speaks just fine. Not better then others her age, but just as well. Antoher huge benefit is that she can still talk to me when I'm talking with someone else! While I'm on the phone or talking with my momther or husband. Now we are working on Spanish. She is doing much better then I. (which I would love some help with myself) LOL.
Your baby is talking to you. How exciting! This is great! Give her all of the encouragment that you can. Their are programs that you can buy or you can just look it up online. The big thing to remember is that you need to say the word WHEN you are signing. This will teach them the word as well as still give them the drive to learn to speak. As far as spending a great amount of time on it. Quitting your job is totally unnecessary. That was an over reaction/excuse to start the day care I always wanted. It is just a matter of consistancy. Make eye contact and show her the sign while you are doing the action or looking at the object with her several times. She will pick up in no time. Grunting and pointing doesn't count. Ignore that behavoir and reward the sign language. You do not need to set aside time. Just be sure that you are consistant in the time that you have. (Though is does help if all of her caregivers help. I would talk with them about supporting the lessons. It will make their job easier too.)
I think that most children sign naturaly it is a matter of trainig the parent to recognize the signs
Congrats and have fun.

My sister-in-law gave me a cd called Signing Time and I think it's on tv as well, PBS. It's very simple and well done, so check it out. I'm just now trying to teach my daughter, 11 months old now, sign. I regret not starting sooner because sometimes it seems she's just not paying attention or has so many other distractions at this age, but I'm trying to just take it easy. Just start with the easy ones like eat, sleep, more, milk, and be patient. It doesn't take alot of time, you just need to be repetitious and consistent I think. Good luck, I'll need it too :-)

My 4yo was taught sign language in daycare when he was an infant, but my 19mo was not. We would just do the signs as we went through our day (mostly the sign for "more"). They usually don't start signing back until around 7-8mos (some earlier/some later). Both my children talk a lot and neither were speech delayed.

HTH
J.

I have 3 over 10 yrs and we signed as well. Not as elaborate as what you do now, this program has come about since but it's wonderful. I learned the American Sign Language signs for mommy words like stop, come here etc. As a mom of older kids, all this comes in very handy in large, noisy crowds and even when they're on the soccer field half a mile away! Don't stop using them if the kids will let you, although they sometimes turn their heads to "not hear you". Some school districts even see it as a 2nd language requirement filler.

I did baby sign language with my daughter. We started when she was about 7 months old. We just taught her the basics so that she could communicate her needs, such as "more", "eat", "drink", etc. When she got those down, we worked on please and thank you. She picked it up right away. We really only did it during meal times, so I don't think you have to spend a ton of time doing it, just be consistent. You have the weekends too, so work harder with her then. My friend gave me a kit with a book, video and a card that had the signs on them. It really isn't that hard, so you may just be able to pick it up from the internet. My daughter made up a couple of signs too, but even though they weren't technically right, I knew what they meant and that was all that was important.

Some people will tell you that doing baby sign language delays their speech and that is simply not true. My daughter is 2 and is over a year ahead verbally. There really isn't anything she can't say and she speaks in complete, grammatically correct, sentences. She can also be understood by strangers (not just family). So, don't let the nay-sayers discourage you!

I think you should give it a shot. She clearly has a desire to communicate with you and it does wonders for their frustration levels. Best of luck with it! I would recommend it to anyone!

I too, LOVE baby signing. However, my now 3 year old told me to STOP (both verbally AND in sign) one day when I was trying to get him to sign "MORE". So, we've taken it a little more slowly.

I suspect, he didn't want to learn sign as much because he is the youngest of 9, and his siblings weren't all signing too.

That will be the part that will be the real stopper. If your husband won't "jump on board" it could be difficult.

However, that said, my little guy does know the signs for MORE, STOP, hungry, apple, drink (and both signs for milk), come, go, "owie", no, yes, bye, sister, brother, mom, and his made up sign for dog (hands acting as ears, tongue wagging).

Is Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk and is available to read for free at <<books.google.com>>

There is also a web site that "shows" you the signs... And I REALLY like this one...<<www.mybabycantalk.com&gt;&gt;

Good luck, and believe me, teaching a child to sign is REALLY easy, because most of the signs are signs that "make sense"!

C.

Hi A.,
I think signing is wonderful! We did it with our daughter when she was an infant, and it really helped us understand what she wanted. We used a book called "Baby Signs". It was very easy to use. Don't worry if you don't have a lot of time. Just sign as the opportunity comes up. You may even just focus on two or three signs at a time. My daughter is now three and still remembers the signs we used with her as a baby.

M. Hatton
www.MyMommysLittleAdventure.com

We did sign language with our daughter, and it was a wonderful experience! I found the following website (a video dictionary) was very helpful in showing us how to sign many of the common things that she was trying to communicate. I just incorporated the signs when I spoke to her and showed her how to make the signs. It didn't take her long to pick them up. She still uses a lot of the signs she learned in combination with speaking even though she is now very capable of telling us what she wants. I hope this site helps you!

http://www.mybabycantalk.com/content/dictionary/dictionar...

You can look up some simple signs online. Basically, whenever you give her say milk, you say milk, make the sign and repeat it like four or five times. They pick it up pretty fast. My daughter knows milk, water, juice, eat, bananna, cracker, cheese, all done, potty, dog and a few more I can't think of now! She's to the point where she will pick up a sign immeditely cause she knows it will get her what she wants.