I'm thinking of teaching E a few signs.... did anyone have any success? When did you start teaching the signs? When did he/she start using them? Which signs would you say are the most useful?
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M does "more" "eat" "please" and "all done". She's 18 months now and can say all those words but she still does the sign as she says it. I would say around 10/11 months she had mastered all done and picked up the rest of them pretty quickly.
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We are having great success! We started with milk, then added more, eat, and all done. I think LO understood them for a long time before attempting to use them himself. He picked up on "more" first because he loooooves to eat! That was the only sign he physically did back for a long time. He just recently added eat and milk at 13 months. We have also noticed him creating his own signs (he points at his tongue when he wants a drink of water for example).
I love seeing him communicate and want to add a ton more signs! -
I introduced sign at 4 months and he did his first sig. Around 8 months. More was very helpful, and so was all done. We signed water, drink, thank you, please, help, more, all done, potty, good morning, blanket, blue, and many others! I think it is an excellent way to communicate.
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@MamaMoose: @cmomma17: Thank you!
I'm looking at the resources and there are signs for cat and dog etc.... but as I want to teach E to enable her communicate better in toddlerhood (thuss ease frustrations), surely she doesn't need these signs? When would she ever need to tell me "cat"? Or am I missing the point?
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We started signing at 6 months. We sign more, milk, eat, all done. She just started signing milk and doesn't sign any others yet. But she does get excited/bang her high chair tray when I sign more!
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I started at 6 months and DS signed at 10 months - I was just about to give up too!
With DS I used a book and taught him myself but with DD we did the signing times dvds and me, DH, DS and DD all loved them!!! Check those out!
Good signs to start with
More, eat, all-done
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We started around 5-6 months with just a few basics. It really helped (especially with a babysitter)! She still loves to play around with signs now that she's 2 but obviously has a great spoken vocabulary.
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I'm a signing drop out.
We did it religiously from six months to ten months. Around ten months she started saying the word I was signing at her so I stopped. At fifteen months she randomly started using the signs I had taught her months earlier along with using her words. I should probably pick it up again. -
I'm not positive, but I THINK my daycare does baby sign language, but I'm not really sure. But recently (14 months), I decided to just start signing "more" and "eat" and "all done" to Xander and he got REALLY excited. I think he must've learned them at daycare because he started using "more" and "eat" ALL THE TIME with us. I love them because now he can really indicate to us when he's hungry and stuff, though sometimes we'll have to sign first to check. Like if he's being fussy and I'm not sure why, I'll sign "eat" and ask "Are you hungry?" and then if he signs it back, I know he is. He doesn't really sign "all done" though, which is frustrating because he'll just start refusing food and being fussy instead of just letting me know that he's done!
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My LO learned more, all done, milk, and please at around 14 months when we to started her in a new daycare
We never tried at home but she would start doing them with her when she started. She learned in about a week. -
We've been teaching C the signs for eat, milk, please, thank you, all done, etc. It sort of works I guess? He can sign them all... but he thinks my name is 'Milk'
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Day care started teaching her at 6 months. She never did milk for us. But she does more all the time. Even for things not food related. like more tickling.
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we taught a couple of signs, but not very consistently. The ones he picked up on were milk and more. He found his own ways to communicate anything else so i never felt the need to push the signs too much even though initially i really wanted to.
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Yes! DS can sign "more", "all done", "milk", and "diaper change", and it's been incredibly helpful for us. He uses "milk" liberally!! From the moment he wakes to right before bed he needs his milk, haha. We started signing to him at 6-7 months, and he started signing back to us around 10 months.
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yes! i recommend it. she started signing "more", "eat", "all done" around the 1 year mark and it definitely helps! esp since she wouldn't get frustrated if we knew what she wanted. at 18 months she can say about 30+ words, but she still only signs a few like "please", "thank you", "i love you!!", "eat", "milk", etc.
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Yes! We love signing - J is 27 months and still uses his signs regularly. He also love his signing time videos and watches them consistently, so he's always learning new signs.
We started around 6 months, and he signed his first sign when he was 8-9 months old.
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We started All Done at 6 months. It's now 9 months and no signing yet. I keep plugging on. I've also added Milk and More in. We'll see.
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@Smurfette: hahhaha yes!! M often requests more tickling!!
@Cherrybee: I think it's more just an additional way to teach them they CAN communicate the things they see around them. We never taught her things like cat and dog, but if she was a late talked I could see how it would be useful to her if she wants to show me something she would have a successful way of communicating.
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@Mrs. High Heels: oooo I didn't know there was a sign for diaper change. M just walks around pointing at her bum and announcing "poop poop"..... Even when she didn't poop.
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@MamaMoose: Hahha aww that's so cute! Video!!
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I think the point is it's supposed to help your LO communicate with you, particularly their wants/needs right now - if you wouldn't normally say cat or dog on a daily basis, I would skip those words. But a lot of words that are food related are great because that's a daily need they have. Sleep related words are great also - check out Mrs. Chipmunk's post from yesterday! http://www.hellobee.com/2014/05/27/baby-sign-language-bedtime-rituals/
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@Mamaof2: my kids love the baby signing time DVDs too.. we even listen to them in the car.
They still sign just for fun at ages 5.5 and 2.5... my DS will randomly come up to me and say "I want a cracker" while signing cracker (knock on your elbow with a fist)
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@Mrs. High Heels: She has stage fright with the video! but I'll see if I can sneak it! She started doing this while my parents were babysitting and they called me to ask if she always announces her poops.... um, nope, never had seen that before.
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yeah, like PPs, we did milk, more, water, all done first. then mama, papa, bath, thank you, please, hurt, help, share, poop. she doesn't know all these, but it's what i remember. as she notices more things, i'm going to try to learn the correct signs!
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Yes!!! A lot of success. I recommend the baby signing time DVDs. They helped us both learn the signs.
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@lisa1783: How did I miss that post yesterday??!
How did you teach signs if you WOH? @grizz: @lawbee11: I asked my FIL yesterday if he would use signs with her; my inlaws have her three days per week - and my FIL is a retired early years specialist - but he said that it's just nonsense and he has never seen it work. Then E is in nursery three days per week and they don't use signs either..... will it work if I'm the only person doing it? (I doubt DH will do it, especially if he dad says it pointless.
)Oh and @grizz: , I laughed so much when I read your reply - he thinks your name is Milk!! Hahaha!
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@birdofafeather: Haha, I love that you just told me what signs YOU learned (not your baby)!!!!! Has it helped you to be less frustrated at the dinner table, though?!
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@Cherrybee: I was relating the most useful!
We did those because we used them all the time (instead of your cat example) so we could practice them with her. She understood the signs before she could do the signs herself. And with few words at 16 months, they most definitely help. The first set is signs she does and the second set is signs she recognizes. I meant I couldn't remember of there were more that we do with her. -
@birdofafeather:
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@Cherrybee: I think it will still work! My DH and I both WOH and we started with "more" as our first sign. We would do it at every meal and he picked it up after a while. I forget how old he was when we first started - maybe 9 months? And he picked it up after a few weeks and then we did "drink" and "all done". I wish we started earlier and did more words. Babies learn very quickly - don't worry, as long as you do it with your LO, they'll pick it up!
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Does your FIL think baby sign language is some sort of circus trick? How does he think hard of hearing and deaf babies communicate?
As far as starting to sign, 6 months is a good time to start teaching. My daughter didn't start physically signing until a few months later but once she started she loved it. For signs like dog and cat that you think you may not use, I would still teach them because they see these things in books and on clothing and just love to have a way to use words to describe what they are seeing, be it verbal or signing.
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Some, she actually only started signing when talking, so she would say the word when doing the sign but never before.
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Check out the signing time DVDs. Most libraries have them and there is a special series that is baby signing time which includes really useful signs for little people.
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@Desertmama: Wow, I just noticed that your first posts on this site were to help me with this! Thank you!
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@Cherrybee: I think your little girl will pick up even if it is sporadic - eventually she will do them at her caretakers whether they think it's a circus trick or not
DH was 'meh' about it but once LO started signing back instead of crying or screaming, he was ALL about it. We just did the very basic milk, more, eat, all done in the beginning. Once he was older we added help, which was awesome. I just googled for the sign and ran with it.
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@scg00387: exactly, my DD's daycare doesn't sign either but she still uses her signs along with her words all day. They are actually learning from her some basic signs!
@cherrybee I had to chime in, my gal is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids. Signing was so fun for her before she could talk, and she still signs just as much as she speaks. It's such a great way for all babies to communicate, and they really do love being able to express themselves.
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@scg00387: @Desertmama: He doesn't think it's a "circus trick" (definitely not my words!), he just thinks that any idea that is eases toddler frustrations is nonsense. It sounds from this thread though that people have had a lot of success so maybe we will be the ones who change his mind!
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@Cherrybee: sorry, I was skimming! But yes, baby sign makes its worth known VERY quickly once it 'clicks' so I wouldn't be surprised if his mind is changed!
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Wow. This thread has totally inspired me to try this with my 11 month old!! I feel like he should actually catch on quickly to something like this... He mimics me all the time! Thanks for posting this, @Cherrybee:!
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We did those because we used them all the time (instead of your cat example) so we could practice them with her. She understood the signs before she could do the signs herself. And with few words at 16 months, they most definitely help. The first set is signs she does and the second set is signs she recognizes. I meant I couldn't remember of there were more that we do with her. 
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