Signing for non-deaf children

[emwi]

Has anyone tried teaching their hearing children to sign before they could talk? I have heard that it is useful in overcoming the gap between them understanding speech but not being able to speak themselves - reducing frustration at not being understood and consists of simple gestures to depict "I want a drink" "I am hungry" etc. (I have to say 7mo dd makes this pretty clear anyway!) Where can I learn about teaching this?

There's some websites here , here , and here - Also if you do a search for signing it has been talked about before. Good Luck

PS. I'm just going to pat my own back for putting 3 links in, in one go!

OK, so two of the links where the same, the third is here

Hi, emwi, my 17 mo dd knows signs for ball, drink, eat bread, horse, hot, bath, biscuit. We used the Garcia signing video and book and found it very good. I'm sure she would know a lot more signs, but we have been rather slack in teaching her them, and anyway she's picking up a lot of words now. I would say its definitely worth the effort.

DS2 learnt a few Makaton signs simpy because one of DS1s friend is profoundly deaf. His favourite is, of course, the one for biscuit which he still uses now he's 27 months old.

Interestingly we use Makaton with my daughter who has special needs-speech delayed but not hard of hearing-and it eases the frustration of her having limited speech.

I take ds to Sing snd Sign "classes" - basically singing with baby signs based on makaton and BSL. There's a DVD/video etc. Really lovely simple stuff. We're going this afternoon to sing songs about nappy changing and bathtime - ahhhh! Last week it was cars and lorries.
Their site is here: Sing and Sign

sounds really good bobsmum does the DVD keep your little one amused?

Sasha Felix who founded Sing and Sign did two work shops for me at the activity day I ran in April.

Several childminders bought the video and have found their little ones absolutely love it. One of the minders' ones is always telling her 'more. more' at lunch time and she is only 16 months old!

Sasha Felix is a really lovely person and is fascinating to watch in action, I'd reccommend the video as a bit of fun and enjoyable to do with your children.

Haven't bought the DVD yet but everyone I know who has raves about it. If I forget my chequebook again this week then i'll get it online.
One thing that singandsgin does emphasise is that the signs should always be used with speech - never on their own, they're meant to be more like emphasising gestures than just sign language. The babies can understand how to use their hands long before they're able to make speech. Fingers crossed that ds is soaking it all up, he's 9 months at the mo, the earliest most babies start signing is about 10 months - I'll let you know!
I think "more", "eat', "finished" and "milk" are potentially the most useful signs, the others are bonuses but we'll use them too and just see what happens.
Alibubbles - it's Sasha Felix who takes the classes I go to. Her face is so expressive ds grins every time he sees her!

I taught signs to my dd but lost all motivation for mt ds. I used the Garcia book/video. It was really good, she picked up loads, dog, cat, eat, more, milk etc. It was a really fun thing to do and dd really enjoyed it becuase she could "play" with me before she could do animal noises. I think it's best not to take it too seriously though, just another fun thing to do together.

I've been using a book called 'Baby Signs' by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn. I'm not that great at being consistent but I use a lot of signs fairly regularly with DS, who's 10 months. I hope he'll start to sign soon, but since he's not pointing yet, I'm not expecting it! It's fun, though, and I feel like it'll click eventually.