Baby signing

[LavenderBlue95]

I posted recently about my DS (10 months) possibly being delayed language wise. He has been referred for a hearing test to rule out glue ear or any other hearing issues and my HV is coming this week to check his development.

I have been reading about the advantages of baby signing the last few days and wondered if anybody had done BSL or makaton with their babies. Any tips, websites, videos or books would be great!

Did you find it helped? What age did you start? Did you feel it helped communicate if your child had a speech or language delay?

I know I’m ahead of myself but I’d like to be proactive in case it is something that means he’s going to struggle to express himself.

Thanks for reading

We did baby signing with DD, not because of developmental concerns, but just to give her a chance to communicate before she could talk and hopefully reduce frustration. We did Sing & Sign starting around 9 months old, which she absolutely adored (can only comment on the online version, not the in-person classes, as it was during lockdown).

She used about 12-15 signs by her first birthday, and added more rapidly for a couple of months – then speech started taking over, and she only really added new signs if they were part of a song. She definitely enjoyed being able to tell us what she saw, that she heard something, etc. She also used the 'done' sign when she didn't like something/was scared of something, so that was very useful, saved quite a few tears.

It also helped us understand a lot of her early words – it's a lot easier to be confident 'duh!' is an attempt at 'duck!' when it's accompanied by a duck sign.

Signing is fantastic for all children. Dd3 was communicating easily way before she could speak. We signed from birth with her.

Start as soon as you can. Make sure it’s a BSL based one then you get transferable skills too.