[shy_bear]

Can anyone suggest some good books or websites to learn basic signs? A. knows a couple of signs but since we are quickly approaching 2 and still not talking I want to start working more on signing. I thought his speech therapist would be able to give some good suggestions, but no! She did say that him learning to sign will not interfere with him gaining more verbal ability.

[Wisdom]

Try youtube. I think you can find some basic signing lessons on there. Just do a search for "baby sign language" and see what comes up.

[mommamarci]

The Signing Time DVD's are great! They probably have them at your local library.

As for books, our speech therapist suggested: Signing Illustrated by Mickey Flodin. We loved it. It is very big and comprehensive, but I tried to pay attention to what words we used most and then used the index to look those up. And it was easy for me to photocopy and then cut and paste the signs to make a cheat sheet for when my parents kept Cameron when Spencer was born.

[Stormster]

I think ours was called "Baby Signs" but we only ever used four signs.

[devildogwife]

Our PT said the same thing, it won't slow him down verbally. He's signing about 3 or 4 signs and saying a few words. I'd try youtube also. Cameron knows mommy, daddy and music pretty well.

[Chachi]

I agree with a PP on the Signing Time DVD's - I have most of them and they are great! DS1 does have a hearing impairment so we used them when he was a baby/toddler and now we are planning to use them with DS2.

A good kids book on sign language is "My First Book of Sign Language" by Joan Holub. Another good one is "Learn to Sign the Fun Way" by Penny Warner. Both of these books have good descriptions and pictures to teach you the correct way to make the sign.

I am a firm believer that sign language will not delay your child's speech but it will greatly enhance their ability to communicate with you until they delvelop the language they need to express themselves verbally. PM me if you want any other information from me.

[GoddessDanu]

I HIGHLY recommend Signing Time. I have 5 DVDs and "B" has been signing since he was 10 months old. Signing Time makes sense of sign language and the way she teaches it makes you remember. I love, love, love these DVDs. Good luck!

[Magic_Hat]

I use this website a lot. It's not specifically for babies but I just search for the basic words I want to learn/teach.

ASL Browser

[mommamarci]

We did not really do baby signs. We wanted to use ASL. That way Cameron would be able to communicate with more people.

[Amaurosis]

My son is deaf. If you want to learn ASL, there are free (and good) lessons at • ASL • American Sign Language, and there is a good video dictionary (which I find easier than static pictures) at Signing Savvy: Your Sign Language Resource. We really like the Signing Times videos for our son, and you can pick up a fair number of signs that way, but they are aimed at hearing children.

Good luck!

[Withay]

My boys love the Signing Times dvd's. DS1 is hearing impaired and his communication has improved so much since he started watching these. My sister and I have also learned many new signs.

We got a 2nd dvd player and set it up with a small tv in the playroom and put in a dvd. It plays over and over all day. We leave one dvd in for about 5 days and then change it. We try to put in the ones they've seen for a day or two in-between the new ones as review.

It is amazing how often they will stand and sign along with the videos. They are now both using many more signs and the frustration level of ds1 is so much better.

[MkMw]

We used Baby Signs too -

Recently we added

"Learn to sign the fun way" by Penny Warner

It's easy enough that even my 6 year olds can pick out new signs.

Keep in mind, though, that even as speaking 2 year olds speak "2 year old" signing 2 year olds sign like 2 years so some of must be open to intreperation. For example - I wanted to teach DD (she is 32 months old) the first initials of her brothers' names so she could identify them. Now - to HER the letter "a" means "brother" and she uses it for both of them. I tried. Also, I taught her the sign for "potty" months before I started training her. She uses it sometimes now, but mostly sticks with the sign of her choosing (the universall sign - noone misses this one). She came up with her own sign for binky. She gets some confused - she makes the sign for red and says "blue" (sorta) when she means the color family of fuschia (she recognizes that it neither pink or purple).

Speech therapy has been really useful for us - but DD is so far behind. She at or above every other milestone for her age - except effective communication where she is in the low 60's. We are working on it.

I've heard too that adding signs is a good bridge to actual speaking. And it does help. It keeps her (and me) from getting frustrated when she wants to communicate something "common" - I'm hoping pre-school where soneone who isn't as intune with her needs will help too. My parent's (mother) doesn't like the signing at all, but I think it has been positive both in helping her communicate with us and in helping her speech.

Good luck!

[Whirled_Peas]

My son knew 95 signs and could tell us stories in sign before he was 2. We used the book "Teach your Tot To sign." It has about 500 signs and was more comprehensive than the ASL dictionary we have.

[GoddessDanu]

I just wanted to share with you how important sign language is to children with limited vocabulary.

B is 20 months old and has been signing since he was 10 months old. He has an ASL vocabulary of 25 words and an English vocabulary of about 15 words.

He was in the this morning playroom and started to cry. This was our conversation in ASL:

Me: Are you sad?

B: Yes.

Me: Why?

B. Want play with ball.

I got him the beach ball and he was happy again. If he had not had the vocabulary to communicate with me in ASL then his crying might easily have grown into a tantrum.

[DannieAS]

I agree with all above PPs. Another angle to enhancing sign language as well is using pictures when possible (not of the signing mind you) but if you have access to picture symbols, or just take a camera and take pictures of highly used toys/foods etc....when they ask for juice/milk, they can see the picture and remember the sign as well if used simultaneously.

I do this with my kids and it seems to build the bridge very well.