The value of baby signing

[Singsongsung]

Hi all,
I'm wondering whether any others are avid baby signers as we are? We used it when our 9 year old was a baby and she became very proficient. She's now very bright with an amazing vocabulary.
My 1 year old (just) is getting ever better at it and we now have "more", "finished", a few animal signs etc. She has now started signing "change my nappy" which is fantastic.
So, just wanted to hear your baby signing stories.

We had both sing and sign DVDs and I used basic signs from quite early. DD only signed for about a month but it definitely sped up her language once she realised she could communicate. Everyone commented what an early and advanced speaker she was/is and I'm convinced it was largely due to all the signing. So I would argue that signing helps to accelerate communication for early speakers and isn't at all pointless!

DD learnt basic signs, we had a board book that had simple signs for milk, biscuit, please, thank you and teddy bear etc. she used basic signs at a really early age, 6 months according to my notebook I wrote on her development milestones, the milk one especially! She used her first spoken words at 9 months and then the signing stopped at about 11 months except when she was upset or tired and some of the popular ones came back into use. She was however a lazy walker - never got round to it until 17 months. Don't think that is tied into sign language but most parents I've spoken to say that their DC either spoke or walked before 12 months but didn't do both. Doesn't the saying go 'you spend the first three years encouraging your child to speak and walk, then the next fifteen years telling them to shut up and sit down!' ???

You don't necessarily need to go to classes. There weren't any near me but I realised the best way to learn a language was not in a class but by using it. I picked up a book of basic signs then used Google for any others I needed. We started using them when my daughter was 6 months. Her nursery contacted us when she was about 18 months maybe to ask for a list of signs as it was clear she was communicating lots with them. We were amazed at how extensive her vocabulary was once we wrote them all down. She even began making up her own signs for things. She is 4 now and has an excellent vocabulary. Her 18 month old sister is following in her footsteps.

Of course go to a class if you like - just don't feel you can't do it without one!

I did it with DS and it was great :)

He is bilingual now at 6 as we moved to Germany and his teacher commented that he picked up the language very fast. He's also now interested in learning French and Russian

Of course I have no idea if this is just coincidence or whether baby signing actually did help but certainly it did not harm his speech development, and it was extremely useful!

They say you should start at 6 months so you can start modelling it. I can't remember when we did but it was before speech for sure.

We went to classes because I enjoyed them - there is a bit more challenge for the parent than just singing songs. We didn't sign at home though. But DD1 now has a surprisingly wide vocabulary, so that is perfectly possible without learning to sign first.

I didn't do a huge amount of signing with my son because I was working 4 days a week and I didn't think the nursery would bother. However, he did learn a few signs including the signs for "sorry" and "I'm hungry" and used them for a long time, even after he'd learnt to talk. So had I been a SAHM and been around 100% of the time I think he'd done really well with signing. I'd definitely recommend it.

Can babies really talk at 9 months? My son said bye bye at 11 months and didn't speak a recognisable word again until he was 15 months old (which was bubble).

Some babies talk at 9 months but it's rare I think. Most have their first word by about a year old. I do know one child who talked at six months, she had about two words, one was "dat" (that) - very very freaky to see this baby who could barely sit up stretch and reach out for "Dat, dat, DAT!"

I did signing with dd when the trend was first starting. There were no classes in our area and so I got a book from the library which just said to make up your own signs. This worked as well as anything. I think dd started signing at about 7 months. At 12 months I counted and dd knew 19 signs. When Justin Fletcher started on TV I used to follow the signs he used.

It was great. Dd could tell me what was wrong when she cried. Once we went to the park and I was talking to her about children playing with a ball. She signed "bird" and so I started talking to her about the birds we could see instead. It was lovely that she could see herself being part of the conversation.

There were concerns at that time that signing would slow the start of talking, but, from what I have read since, this has more to do with when the voice muscles develop. From my very limited experience my guess would be that it assists development. I would love to know if any research has been done on this.