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Original poster

Any mums here who signed with their babies? I need your input.

105 replies

asmallpoll · 02/02/2006 19:34

Hello.

I have been teaching signing to hearing babies for a little while now.

After a really good start I have found that my numbers have started to dwindle quite alot despite lots of promotion and demonstrations at various meetings and groups.

I found out today that there is a group of mums who frequent the local social circle who have been criticising signing in general saying amongst other things that it delays all speaking in babies and is only for special needs children and no others I live in a semi rural area and word travel fast

What I would like to find out here is what your opinion of baby signing, with hearing children, is? I'm sure there will be a mixture of comments and I would like to show them to mums who come to talks in the future.

I really don?t want to give reams and reams of information from experts which is why it would be interested to hear from you.

All of your opinions would be gratefully received be they positive or negative.

Thank you.

OP posts:
Cristina7 · 03/02/2006 11:21

To get back on topic - the reason I looked into a sing & sign class but didn't go to one in the end is that the sessions were very short (about 40 minutes) and run back to back so i thought we'd be hurried out of the room for the next class and that I wouldn't have time to chat with any of the other mums. I'd have gone mainly for the social aspect for myself.

JackieNo · 03/02/2006 11:30

Yes - did some signs with both DD (now 6) and DS (now 2). Started signing a few basic words at about 6 months, they started to make the signs at about 10 months, I think. They both seemed to think it very amusing when we made the signs, even before they started using them themselves. It's fun and easy (although we didn't end up learning very many - just the basics, like milk, more, food, drink, all gone, sleep, please and thank you). And I think it helped avoid many of the tantrums, as they had another way of communicating their needs. It certainly didn't delay their speech - like many others on here, they seem if anything a little ahead of some of their peers (evened off now for DD, but still noticeable in DS).

GillL · 03/02/2006 14:23

I've been signing with dd for about 4 months - she's now 10 months. I thought it was a brilliant idea but she doesn't seem to have taken to it. I signed milk for every bottle for 3 months but she has only signed it back once so I've lost faith in it.

I wanted to go to classes but I work full time and no one seems to do them at weekends.

Any suggestions from successful signers would be greatly appreciated.

getbakainyourjimjams · 03/02/2006 14:27

You might be too early. Research has shown that a lot of deaf mums don't start signing with their babies until 8-10 months. Signs which start on the face are harder for babies to learnthan signs which don't. Also a lot of deaf parents sign in the babies signing space (rather than their own), whilst the baby is little and this appears to increase rate of sign aquisition. For face signs (eg cat) they'll sign on the baby's face.

GillL · 03/02/2006 14:47

Thanks for your advice. I'll persevere - it would be a shame to give up now.

kittyfish · 03/02/2006 15:01

Getbak - how very interesting about signing 'space' which I had never even considered. I shall start signing in my daughters space as well as my own from now on.

I have just been to Tiny Talk for our weekly session and will reiterate that it is fun, my daughter thinks it is great, but it is a bit weird. Dancing in a circle to Ring-A-Roses does seem a tad pagan to me. If it happened a night I am sure we would all be arrested for practising withcraft...

getbakainyourjimjams · 03/02/2006 19:24

It made a huge difference to sign aquisition. Imagine a child sat on you knee reading a book- sign in front of them and hey presto it's in their space. The worst thing you can do is take a toy from them that they are playing with in order to give the sign- they look around but as if to say "hey where's my toy" and miss the sign. Also (same as speech) best to follow a child's lead, so if they are playing with a car sign car don't say "hey look" and sign about something else entirely.

mszebra · 03/02/2006 20:05

I tried (hard) to do signing with baby1 from before 6m: he didn't get it. He picked up a few signs but picked up spoken language more quickly (at 19m).

Baby2 picked it up about as quickly/slowly as baby2, but she did invent one sign which the whole family still do ("come here").

Baby3: couldn't do TinyTalk because I had DD (unwelcome, and no childcare for her). Besides, based on experiences with baby1 & baby2, signing doesn't seem to help my babies communicate. So I can't especially recommend baby signing myself, and that is based on experience of trying to sign. Nothing to do with SN, though!

Psychobabble · 05/02/2006 19:34

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

anchovies · 05/02/2006 19:42

I did baby signing with ds from about 8 months but he didn't sign anything back to me until he was about 10 months. His actual language development was very slow but he was able to sign in sentences (eg mummy, more, please) by about 13 months. He kept up the signing until about 20 months (by which point he knew about 150 signs) when he finally started to talk. Since then his language has improved immensely and he now has at least a typical vocabulary for a 2 year old but strangely he has forgotten all the signs completely!

So in my experience it didn't seem to help his language development at all however it was a very useful way of communicating with him.

Sassafrass · 05/02/2006 19:52

I sign with my daugher who is just a year old now. She only knows about ten signs, mainly because I haven't introduced more but she really enjoys using them and 3 of them she made up herself (soft, phone and brush hair). We speak two different languages in our home and she'll use the sign with both languages. Both I and my partner who was quite sceptic to start with, enjoy using the signs with her and it definately helps us understand a bit more about what she's interested in.

rarrie · 05/02/2006 19:54

Psychobabble, In response to your question, I started signing to DD at 7 months. She didn't really get it until about 11 months / almost a year. Then she flew with it!

The key to it, is that yes you must always say the word as you sign.

And no, I don't think 10 months is too early, next time I'll probably start a bit later as I thought I was too early.

I think the other key thing is not to necessarily do the signs they recommend. Usually, they say start off with food, drink and more. Well, my DD got drink, but initially was not interested in more or food, so I changed it to two other signs she was interested in (can't remember what, but something like doggy) and she picked that up in an instant. Some theories recommend you don't start until 10 months. So not too late!!

Psychobabble · 05/02/2006 20:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mcmudda · 05/02/2006 20:09

I went to Sing and sign classes with ds frm 7 mths for 10 weeks having read the Joseph Garcia book.

The lady leading S&S would not take babies younger than 7 mths as she said that was too early for them to start taking anything in. She said the "window" for babies signing back to their parents was typically from 10-14 mths (when most start speaking anyway)

And I think when they can wave and point then they've learned 2 signs already so why not add more?

Ds' speech was always good - 40 words by 2 weeks after his 1st birthday (yes I wrote them down ) and about a dozen signs for the words he couldn't quite say (dinosaur) or wanted to emphasise (I am finished eating now mother!!).

Am signing with dd (7.5 mths) now and she certainly recognises what I'm saying better when I sign with my speech than when I don't use my hands IYSWIM.

Also - expect babies to "babble" with their hands in the same way they do with speech - they're just playing with communicating.

Best friend is SALT and my mum is OT in special school - both rave about baby signing and say it encourages early communication and babies who learn to sign speak earlier and have a wider vocab than those who don't.

BROWNY · 05/02/2006 20:17

Hi, I've been teaching my ds since he was about 9 months old, he signed back to me when he was about 11 months old - I was so proud of him - and me too, as all I did was buy the Sing and Sign DVD and sign to him constantly. His first sign was MORE, then MILK and FOOD. I've since bought the second DVD from Sing and Sign and he loves watching it.... he's 20 months old now, and has just learnt the sign for CHOCOLATE!! I think signing has helped so much in keeping daily life easier - no screaming fits for juice etc. The look on his face when he asks for something, and then he gets it is wonderful. HAPPY SIGNING!!!

joanna4 · 05/02/2006 21:31

I did baby sign as a childminder I have bundling along with it as a sn assistant with children who have delayed communication tomorrow morning I am off to the makaton course and I am really excited.I know the childrens speech and language lady and mum use makaton and now finally we will all be singing from the same sheet.

tessasmum · 05/02/2006 21:58

Should that be signing from the same sheet!! Sorry!

I'm a HUGE fan of baby signing. I just loved the idea of giving a child an extra set of communication tools before speech was clear - control of hands/arms comes quite a bit earlier than control of mouth/tongue/etc.
We started when DD was 7 months and she first signed back at 10 months - "bird" then "cat" (you can see where her interests lie!) She then took off with it and had about 60 signs at her peak. It certainly didn't delay her speech and I am confident it helped, she had already been through the stage of calling all animals '"dogs" (apart from birds and cats!) when she was signing so didn't do it when she started speaking.

Like rarrie, I really loved the insight it gave us into her world. She signed 'bird' during one early morning feed because she heard the dawn chorus. That was her own observation, nothing anyone had pointed out to her.

It was also brilliant when she was ill at 11 months. She had the appetite of a sparrow beforehand but after a week of sickness she suddenly developed the appetite of a vulture! If she hadn't been able to sign "eat" and "more" she would probably have just whined and we would have thought that she was still feeling under the weather. I would never have believed that she could eat that much as she never had before.

Really looking forward to starting it again with DS who is 3 months and seeing how much DD remembers.

AggiePanther · 05/02/2006 22:13

This looks fascinating ...what books or dvds do people recommend?

Mistymoo · 05/02/2006 22:17

Haven't read whole thread.

I did not sign to my ds but did with dd. I felt that I understood my dd a lot better and knew what she wanted and it seemed to stop a lot of the problems we had with ds.

To be honest I did not continue after she really started speaking, which was a lot earlier than ds, but she does still do some of her signs when she is talking about animals.

I have recommended it to my friends and to MNers.

I hope your class picks up again soon. All the best.

rarrie · 06/02/2006 00:18

AggiePanther, I'd really recommend Baby signs by by Linda P. Acredolo, Susan Goodwyn. They do an adult book to read for you, to explain the theory, but also baby board books that you can use to sign to your child. This was the system I ended up settling on. (it took me a few different systems though to find the one that really worked for us!)

You can also use the pack by Joseph Garcia (which is okay but I found the signs too complicated for DD to manage, so I ditched them for Goodwyn).

Alternatively, there is a video by Sing and Sign, but I found this limiting as if you don't go to class, then it is not part of a larger system and so you quickly run out of signs.

There are also classes, but I can't comment on them as they don't run those in my area.

AggiePanther · 06/02/2006 10:25

Thanks rarrie

bundle · 07/02/2006 10:42

marslady, I have the Baby Signs book, by by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, I'll email you today.

ntt, I do have another book in the same series called Baby Minds, you're welcome to that

babydales · 07/02/2006 14:15

A very interesting thread. I have been signing (Tiny Talk) with the children I care for (am a childminder) for about a year now and would love to take them to a class or maybe get someone to come and do a class for minders. Anyone know any classes in the Stockport area?

Hausfrau · 07/02/2006 14:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

chelltune · 08/10/2006 21:57

I have BSL level 3, I am a communicator for Deaf students in a FE college.

I signed with bith my children from around 7mths old. They used the odd sign quite quickly but it wasn't till DS was 11mths that he really strted to sign. I think DD was a little older.

I now have a babysigning site, www.chelltune.co.uk ,my experience of signing is on the home page.