Baby signing, does it work?

[macmama73]

Hi,

I am interested in babysigning as it is part of a course that I teach. I have no experience in the results of this, just what I was told in the course.

Who has done baby signing and can tell me their opinions, did you feel it helped your child's development? Did you feel your DC was able to communicate better with you? How consequent do you have to be?

Thanks for your help!

DH did a baby signing course with DS from about 9mo. He picked up a couple of signs - more and all done, happy, maybe a couple of others - but he never really used them to communicate. He preferred to point and make lots of noise till he got what he wanted! I tried for months to get him to sign drink at meal times, rather than just whingeing, but to no avail.

I know lots of people think signing is fab, but it didn't really work for us. Think they both enjoyed the class though

we did sing and sign at around 6-9 months and then again from 10-12 months
we enjoyed the course but really don't think it helped ds to communicate. He never signed much and went straight into talking. Think there are some children who want to speak before their mouths and tongues are ready and for whom it would be helpful my son was just not one of them

I think the singing, the talking and the games really helped his development and his language but not the accompaning signs (if you see what i mean)

ds said his first words around 13 months and was speaking in three word sentences around 18 months

yes, it can work. it takes a certain amount of commitment from teh parents tho. I have a 16m/o boy with whom i can have a basic converstation about his basic wants and interests.
Its all quite civilsed, he tells me if he wants milk or equaly doesn;t want something. we "chat " about what hes seen, its mix of sign ans speach but it gets his meaning across fairly well. As he is bit keen on B sounds at the mo its handy to have the sign as well to tell if hes interesed in the ball, bird, bike or bell. I feel I can respond better to what hes trying to tell me about his world.
The commitment has been that Dh and i both sign certain words when we use them with him. we started at aout 4 months and he was 9m/o before he used any signs , starting with milk one day when I wasn't there! that was teh only sign he used for ages tho he appeared tounderstand others. in teh last 2 or 3 months as his spech has exploded so has his sign. hes a boy who wants to talk about his world. sign is helping him communicate with his family so he uses it.

I'm not sure about baby sign but my children have learny British Sign Language from an early age as my dad is deaf. I think it will definitely benefit from this even if it only means they can put it on their cv as an extra language. It certainly helped when my 5 yr old had open heart surgery. He was in intensive care and was on lots of drugs to keep him still. He still managed to sign the words Drink please

We did it with our DS1, can't remember exactly when he started but he was over 1 (but definitely before most kids start talking).

I remember one night in particular he would not settle, and we were just about to change his nappy, when he signed it. It made our day! He only really though used the signs for milk, more and snake.

We are going to start with DS2 in Sept when he's 10 months old. I am not expecting too much but the classes are quite good fun.

@mm22bys
Is it common to start the classes so late? I am doing it with children aged from 3mths.

@witchandchips
Wow, he was quick in speaking, wasn't he? No wonder he didn't sign much. My DS has only this year started speaking in sentences and he has just turned 3 last month. Saying that, DD was similar, and now I would be glad for some peace because she blethers nonstop.

Thanks to all for your replies.

I discovered Babysigning with ms, wish I had known about it with my es...he really could have done with it!
MS was, out of my 3 the best with speech devellopement etc...with ys I would have done babysigning, but he wasn't receptive to it...he would go schizzo everytime I would sing along to the dvd (sing and sign) and would not sit with me watching it, etc...!
Obviously I realise that this is just personal experience.

Yes, I would say it definitely works.

I'm currently signing with my DD2... she is 8 months old and she definitely recognises several signs, and she is able to sign milk already. Its not consistent yet, but it is clear when she does it.

DD1 signed too, but she didn't sign until 12 months. But then she had a huge vocab. She had about 140 signs by 14 months, and by the age of two she had a vocab of over 500 words (we know this because we had to complete an inventory for a research project at the time). Her vocab was huge and she was able to sign some really complex things, like telling us she wanted the light on (when it was dark) and was able to tell us when she felt pain etc.

The thing we noticed was that it has to be woven into the everyday fabric of your life, you can't just do a class each week, but you have to sign everytime you talk. So we sign milk everytime she has a bottle. But the effort has paid off, as now I have an 8 month old baby who can sign milk and let me know when she is hungry instead of crying - and that is well worth it! (Though not many babies sign this young, but we have done it since she was 3 months, and we have several friends and babies who sign, so it is around her all of the time.)
If you go for it, then you won't regret it!
HTH

pre-baby i used to scoff but my experience does work!!!my wee one does sign needs..i like it kinda cute

I took DS to a weekly class (from about 5 - 12 months) but was pretty lazy about signing outside of the class.

He never signed anything but he enjoyed the singing and playing with the toys at the end.

I know lots of other children who did pick up one or two signs at least, but DS was just too busy trying to learn to move. The daughter of the class teacher signed loads.

The last few months DS spent most of the time trying to crawl all aorund the church hall where we had the class, climbing the stairs to get onto the stage, and cruising around the hot water pipes

You can lead a horse to water etc etc

I'm training to become a Makaton teacher, so I say a resounding YES! So when you say 'baby signing' do you mean the 'sign and sign' style weekly lessons or something a little more based on everyday communication like Makaton? Although some of the signs are the same. Makaton has been around for decades.

Neurological studies show that signing stimulates the same neural pathways as speech and so genuinely aids speech development.

The difference between Makaton (which is based on BSL) and BSL (+some other sign langs) is that you have to speak and sign at the same time.

My DS has Global Developmental Delay (caused by genetic disorder) and at nearly 3 is barely speaking, but he can sign very well despite not starting until he was 20 mths and having the development of a much younger child.

Yes it does...i did sing and sign with dd (now 4)
She started signing back at about 7/8 months.She had quite a lot of signs by about 9-10 months. Can't say it made any difference with her speech though...she spoke early but i think she would have any way and it certainly didn't hurt it . She started speaking at about 10 months..and by 13 months she started putting words together.Her brother spoke earlier though and he never did it. Each sign dropped off as she learnt the word...although she kept 'sorry' for quite a while (very cute)

just for interest.
I was a party today with 6 kids under 3 from differnt fanilies. 2 families used sign from about 6 months old. 16m/o used sign and speech, his 19m/o friend used mostly sign, both were busy telling their parents about what they saw, what they wanted etc, no tantrums, no arguements, was a pleasent afternoon. of all 6 kids 16m/o was teh loudest and most verbal. Non verbal non signing 22m/o stayed v close to parents. as did verbal 20m/o and 2.8y/o. 16m/o was off exploring and chatting to anyone.