Mumsnet Talk

We are a Greek family living in the UK and speak to our baby in Greek at home. She's nearly 3 months now but I was thinking of taking her to baby signing classes when she hits 7 months or so. Of course those will be in English although I'm hoping we can use the signs to indicate stuff in either language. At the moment she's only exposed to English in a mostly passive manner (me meeting up with English-speaking mums/friends, playgroup, etc.). Is that a good idea? Am I overthinking it? She'll be at English-speaking nursery by the age of 9 months anyway... Just don't want to mess up her chances of understanding Greek really but I love the idea of baby signing.

I don't see what harm the baby signing would do, especially if you use the same signs for both languages - it could even help with your DD understanding that there are two words for each thing. Maybe someone with experience of teaching bilingual children can help more.

My DN is bilingual and loves Mr Tumble and has taught himself some signs from watching the programme. DN speaks well in both languages.

My DC is not bilingual but did seem to understand more when we signed. We started baby signing classes at 4.5 months and DC had a couple of useful signs before 6 months.

You will need to do lots of signing at home for your DD to pick up any signs. The classes are for social experiences for the babies and to teach you the signs and songs to use at home.

We chose milk and nappy as 2 signs to start with, and used the sign a few times for each feed or change for about 6 weeks before DC started signing. I did even see DC sign for nappy while fast asleep - so it gets pretty ingrained.

Other than that we just signed along when singing or reading books - it's no more bother than doing an action song.

That sounds great. I'll see if we can start earlier as well. Thanks for your reply!

We sign bilingually and have from early on. DS is 8 no and signs milk very clearly now, sort of signs eat/drink and flaps his hands for nappy change! I would start early too and if you're bilingual I'd definitely say it helps make connections between the two languages.

My son is now 3 and bilingual yet still uses the babysingning esp when hes tired and clearly cant think of the right words. We found it incredibly useful, at the height of his signing he chose signing over language and skillfully mastered approx 40 signs, without much effort from us. I can strongly recommend the 3 Sing and Sign DVD's freely available on ebay and the sing and sign website. They are truly lovely dvds and the kids still watch them mezmerized by the lovely Sacha Felix! She is a real star! Good luck!

My bilingual dd is now 2.5, I took her to signing classes from 3 months old, she did her first signs at 8 months or so.
We do opol and found it extremely useful i could just sign the word instead of saying it in the "wrong" language iyswim.
We still go to the group now.
I would definitely recommend it.

Hi mpops

I, too, am Greek and I had my reservations for sign language. We use opol as my husband is English. The reason I had reservation was that when I was doing my level 1 BSL years ago I realised that there is no universal sign language. However, my DD has just turned one and couple of weeks ago I succumbed to temptation. I am giving it a go. Whether is too late I don't know. In any case it's an opportunity to meet with other mums, the class is stimulating for DD with all the songs etc so time will show if it helps or not.

Let me know how you get on.