Baby signing/ toddler talk questions

[Josefgeorjallen]

Hi everyone, my first time posting here.

Me and my partner are after some advice or to hear your experiences with baby signing.

We have a 4 month old girl, and a lady at my work does baby signing. I think it sounds like a really cool thing to do with her but my partner has concerns that it might affect her development of spoken language.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks!
Joe

My DD1 picked up a few key signs (eg milk, food, sleep) in the couple of months before speech and these were a huge help. She has a fantastic vocabulary and literacy skills and won a nursery award for Best Chatterbox 😂😂 so no delay or negative impact at all. As someone else said, you speak as you sign, so oral language is being used alongside.
Try it! Probably need a good few months to commit to it, and 4 months is still young to expect any signing, but it was my favourite of all classes and we’re repeating with DD2 👍🏻

I did Makaton with ds as he has a speech disorder. We also use Makaton at the preschool I work at. It helps support speech for many people for many different reasons.

Personally I would stick to Makaton though.

I'm on the fence. I did 3 terms of Sing & Sign with DS1. He sat stony faced through the classes and didn't make a single sign for months, until he suddenly started talking AND signing at the same time, which rather defeated the point of the signing! His speech has been ahead of his peers from the start, but I can't say that signing helped particularly.

Interestingly, it seems his nursery are now doing some signing, as he occasionally comes out with "this is the sign for x," but he seems to have no memory of learning it previously.

I taught dd Makaton as my parents own residential care homes for people with learning disabilities and I wanted her to be able to communicate with the residents that aren’t verbal. I worked there whilst on extended maternity leave and took dd with me occasionally. She could sign hello, how are you and bye from about 5/6 months ago and it was really lovely.

She’s 3 now and no speech delays.

I taught my younger dd signing from a book. Would definitely recommend it. She was always able to sign whether, for example, she was hungry or thirsty or tired or whatever so she basically never really cried. She was also able to sign when she needed a clean nappy and in time she started to sign just before she needed a nappy change. Made potty training a cinch. No speech delays.

Learning a few signs won't have an impact. If you were using fluent BSL rather than talking to her then yes it would, but BSL is a full language that takes many years of study. A few simple signs isn't going to have much of an effect either way.

SockQueen Didn’t your DS’s nursery tell you they’d be doing this? I’d be really cross if that were the case.

I did a term of classes for my eldest. Didn't think we'd need more. I made up a couple of my own!

It stopped frustration fromtheir point of view as they could tell me what they needed as babies by signing.

They were both really early speakers (5-6 word sentences by 18 m)

I was cynical at first but then convinced when my eldest signed 'milk' when she'd only had a bottle about an hour before (normally a bottle every few hours). However, I gave her another bottle and she wolfed the whole lot down! Imagine her frustration and not being able to tell me that if we weren't signing? The trick is to speak as would sign. They sign milk, you sign back and say "you want milk?"

It's come into it's own ever since. I list my voice once so I signed to them instead when they were 5 and 6 and they remembered it all. They are now 9 and 10. My son was ill for his school play. I was in the audience and signed to him "do you want to go home?" He signed "yes" and so I pulled him from the at early and took him home. He was asleep in bed a few minutes later.

Best thing we ever did!

Plus, there's something lovely when you see their little faces in assembly and you sign "I love you" to them.

I am a Nanny and have signed with 3 of my charges including one who had English as a second language and it just makes life so much easier when they can tell you what they want.

I'd start classes when your child is about 8 months old. You may need to go on a waiting list do sign up now. Don't expect immediate results but it will come. Sign all the time and they will.suddenly surprise you.

Signing us second nature to me now, whenever I am around babies.

I never went to classes but I sign with my two, the important things (nappy, milk, food, more, etc) and it is very helpful. Both dd1 (3yo) and dd2 (8mo) could sign nappy by 6mo, dd2 tells me when she needs a poo, she's more reliable than her big sister on that front and she'll tell me when she's weed. It's really handy. It helped dd1 with the frustration a lot during the awkward stage where she wanted something but couldn't say it, it didn't hinder her speech from what I can tell, she was able to speak quite well (in that she spoke sentences and other people understood most of what she said) by around 2yo.

Rainallnight
SockQueenDidn’t your DS’s nursery tell you they’d be doing this? I’d be really cross if that were the case.

I'm quite surprised by this. As a preschool we have used Makaton since ds was there (I didn't work there then) and I dont remember whether other parents were told specifically - "your child may pick up a few signs as Makaton is being used in the session"...and of course they wouldn't have been told, "We have a child who is non verbal and so your child may see some Makaton and pick it up"

Now we use it often, and the children will learn the signs (our nativity songs were signed and sung). We have a high level of children with a variety of SEN and speech difficulties, and it is an asset for all. It is now stated that we use Makaton in our introduction pack, and we have a Makaton Friendly Award on the wall.

Why would signing need to be discussed at nursery? It’s just another form of communication. Can you really be cross at nursery being inclusive towards disabled people? Jeez.

@Rainallnight why on earth would I be cross with them? I knew they did some Sing & Sign stuff as they have posters up, but it's only recently he's started to show me signs at home. Possibly because he's changed his days and/or moved up a room, so wasn't previously doing the activity.

Can't imagine what the problem with this could be.

Wow thanks for sharing your experiences everyone. Some mixed opinions in there but mostly positive. I guess we'll have to make our own minds up on it!

The evidence base is that signing alongside speech does not delay spoken language and there is a limited amount if evidence it can support language development. You don't need fancy classes or videos just a few makaton signs like milk/more/finishes from a book or YouTube and see how it goes.

I would also know which profession is advising not to use signing, I hear of the odd renegade HV saying this but it's not the official advise.

Rainallnight as the parent of a child who uses BSL, I find your attitude depressing. The children in my child's nursery all learnt a little sign, it was lovely for my child that she could make communicate with peers, not just adults. Inclusion should not have an opt out element.

@patchworkelephant123 which profession??? I'm a Speech and Language Therapist. The professional who advises about language development. Signing is universally recognised as an aid to communication.