Hellobee Boards

"More," "eat," and "all done" were the ones I thought to the boy I babysit. They were simple but extremely helpful because before I taght him he would just screech at me to feed him or get him down. At least with these simple signs I avoided the screeching for the most part (although he refused to do "all done" for the longest time)

Right now, K signs 'more' and 'milk'. She understands 'all done'. I sign with her frequently though- I often sign whatever I'm doing/saying.

We started signing around 6 months casually, and more seriously at 9/10 months. We signed a ton of things - food, animals, action signs. His first ones were apple and butterfly (we read the very hungry caterpillar a LOT!). Then he finally started signing more and all done around 1 year. Now, he has probably 30 signs at 17 months. He doesn't have a ton of verbal words still, so it's certainly helpful. He signs more, all done, finished, help, fish, banana, cereal, strawberry, milk, please, cat, dog, gorilla, mouse, hat, stars, sun, shoe, book, bear, moose, yogurt, water, drink, food, diaper, change...probably more in forgetting.

Kids pick it up fast if you are consistent. We did a lot of signing while reading, but also just TONS of repetition. Now that he's bigger, he picks it up usually within a day if we introduce a new sign.