[Celesyee]

I'm looking to hear about ppl's thoughts and experiences with baby sign language. I found a free, informal playgroup in my area that focuses on/teaches baby signs and am interested in going, but concerned that it could defer Devin from developing more verbal words.

Devin just made 10months yesterday, but since 8months old has been developing an impressive vocabularly. To date he can appropriately say:

• mom, mommy, mama
  dad, daddy, dada
  PaPa (Chinese for maternal grandmother)
  dog, doggy
  Audi (our dog's name)
  ball
  apple
  all pau (Hawaiian for finished)
  kau kau (Hawaiian for eat)
  hi
  bye
  I get
  got you
  no
  yeah
  thank you

He's so verbal because he really studies our's and other's mouths when we/they speak...I don't think he even looks at our hands when we speak, so baby signs might be hard.

I'm NOT rushing his speech and will NOT be dissappointed if he doesn't learn as quickly, but I also don't want to hinder any potential.

Thanks!

[Stormster]

for us, it simplifies things and helps E get his needs met. He signs for hungry, more, and all done. It has not affected him in any way but positively but we only use it for these basic things (food).

[SupaModel]

My gf did the signing with her son and she swears by it.
I haven't tried it though.

Cel- I am shocked that D is soooo verbal!!! H only says ma ma ma or da da da and they are the same age!
Should I be doing something ??

[Stormster]

I agree at 10 months that is in an incredible vocabulary!

[lovemy2boys]

I had to go back and check your timeline to see how old your son was...I thought 10 months was a typo! I thought maybe you for got to put "a year" in front of it...

That's an amazing vocabulary...absolutely amazing!

[mama_again]

Yes, wWe have done the signing from the beginning and now our lil one does both, like for apple its the sign with the word bapple! along with many others, what's really cool is that her vocab is expanding now at almost 2 and the signs are with it... now we are doing the alphabet and last night when she picked out the z and said z, she did the sign for zebra... it is cute and smart. I am amazed at learning this as a second language and we hope to continue for years to come... it could prove valuable later on...

[Yash]

I decided to use ASL instead of baby sign language, it isn't that much difference and I figured my children could actually begin learning a second language instead of just a made up one.

I found it to be very useful. We also watch and record "Signing Times" which is a show that teaches ASL for children of all ages and abilities.

Jory is now 4 and still occasionally signs for certain words when he says them.

[kelceesmom]

Signing was a Godsend when Kelcee wasn't speaking. I think it is wonderful. Even now that she is talking she still uses sign at times.

[adoptnky]

I am a HUGE supporter of teaching sign language to babies. It helped us so much as Alex was trying to communicate with us.

We started signing with him (also using the Signing Time series) when we brought him home at 5 1/2 months.

At 9 months old, he was able to communicate with us which was amazing. I believe that it actually helped him with his vocabulary.

He is now 32 months old and talks in full sentences. He still uses signs every now and then if we can't understand him. We still ask him if he knows how to say certain words with his hands.

Kim

[Celesyee]

Thanks for all the feedback! I think I will check out that baby signs play group, but I might look into ASL as Yash recommended. And I will google Signing Times right now--never heard of it.

Yes, it's great that Devin is soo verbal...but it's not fun to already have back talk at 10months old.

Supa--I just build off of his babble...whenever he said "babababa" I elaborated to ball. "Aaaaaa" went to "apple" and so forth. But I really think a lot of it is because he constantly watches our mouth.

[ChromaKelly]

We also used Signing Time in conjunction with us using the signs when speaking. Signing Time comes on PBS in some areas. If you buy the DVD's, I recommend starting with Vols 1-3. They have a Baby Signing Time out now, but it wasn't out when we were doing it, so not sure how much better that is for little ones.

I loved signing with the girls and plan on doing it with Caleb too. We already do some of the basic signs when speaking to him. It was very helpful when they were first starting to speak, I knew what they were saying because they would do the sign along with saying the word, so knew if they meant "ball" or "baby", for instance.
They don't sign much now, but do remember the signs if asked. Every once in a while, they will do a sign when speaking.

Edit - Just to brag a bit, they probably knew well over 100 signs, and know the entire alphabet in ASL!

[court5505]

Okay, I may be in the minority here, but I'm not a big fan of using sign language right away. DD was VERY verbal for her age, much like your son. However, all of my friends were teaching their kids sign language, so I decided to do it too. Wouldn't you know that my daughter could speak in 2-3 phrases, but still wouldn't say the words that she knew the signs for! I think sign language is great IF your child is struggling to get something acroos to you verbally. However, if you have a child that is perfectly capable of conveying his/her message through words and isn't getting frustrated when you don't understand him/her, then I say ride it out. I spent more time trying to "unteach" the sign language than I did actually teaching it. That's just my opinion though.

[Cjmeck]

Originally Posted by court5505

Okay, I may be in the minority here, but I'm not a big fan of using sign language right away. DD was VERY verbal for her age, much like your son. However, all of my friends were teaching their kids sign language, so I decided to do it too. Wouldn't you know that my daughter could speak in 2-3 phrases, but still wouldn't say the words that she knew the signs for! I think sign language is great IF your child is struggling to get something acroos to you verbally. However, if you have a child that is perfectly capable of conveying his/her message through words and isn't getting frustrated when you don't understand him/her, then I say ride it out. I spent more time trying to "unteach" the sign language than I did actually teaching it. That's just my opinion though.

You're not alone. I had the exact experience with my son. He was very verbal, very young just like Devin. And I found out about signing through some friends with kids on the autism spectrum. It was an incredible experience for them! But I found signing frustrated my son, and then, he would sign those few words he knew instead of speaking them. So, it was not beneficial for either of us. That was just our experience and I've heard such good things about signing, so I understand why your curious about it. I'm skipping it this time around with my daughter (who's not nearly as verbal as her brother was, but we're communicating).

[Wisdom]

DH and I thought about doing it months ago because we'd met people who swore by it and suggested it. We never pursued it though. For me it was mostly because I thought it would be quite daunting to have to learn a "new language" along with so much else I'm doing. Our DS is verbal too and loves words so I didn't think the signing was necessary. However, when considering it a few months ago I taught him one sign for "more" when eating just to see if signing was as easy as people were saying. He caught on quickly and today he'll still do it when he's saying "more."

[Lilly's Mommy]

We used signing for basics such as eat, drink, more and all done. They were very helpful, but as I read your email, Devon is already communicating (amazingly!) many of these basic needs, so I personally don't think he needs to sign. The point of it in my mind is just to help a pre-verbal child communicate.