please share with me your experiences of baby sign

[Timeoutofmind]

I have signed up for baby sign starting in January when my DD will be 12mo.

I've heard mixed things about it really and just wondered if anyone has any feedback about how it was for you??

Tia

It was great. Started when DS was 6 months. He signed from 9 months on and meant we could communicate with him before he could talk. It didn't hinder his speech - he speaks very well aged 2.2!

DS never really got it, he just prefered crawling/walking around the church hall it was in. Our teacher took it very serously and was very operatic in her singing. All the parents trued very had to take her seriously. Not a great experience, but I think it was mostly down to the teacher. DS was talking in sentences at 2.3, no idea if anything he may have takn in at Sign and Sing helped.

I didn't go to a class but know makaton from my work life.

So glad I did signing with ds1 - not only because he could tell me what he wanted i.e. 'more' 'drink' er 'chocolate' (!!) but when we were out and about he could tell me what he was noticing i.e. birds singing and one time he showed me a flower and signed butterfly - the flower looked like a butterfly. I just really enjoyed it.

Parents and babies manage to comunicate perfectly well without it tho but I really loved it and am going to do it with ds2 5mo.

I took DS for a while and nursery does it with the children. He picked up a a very vigorous MORE! sign, milk, thankyou, please and a few others but was a very early talker so we haven't used them for ages. I don't think he picked up much at the class but it gave me a chance to learn what he meant when he started picking it up at nursery.

We started with DD at 7 months. She started signing at 9 months. She did not talk until quite late (unlike many of the others in the class!) but because she could sign we communicated just fine! When she did start talking she went straight to sentences....Even now she still signs sometimes, especially if she thinks I don't know what she wants! She also has a very wide vocabulary! I am very glad we did it and if ever a miracle gave us a second child we would do it again!

Thank you all for your comments, all very helpful! Sounds like those who started early found it especially good.

Am starting a bit late because it was all booked up until Jan, which I think was my main concern really as she has already started saying a few words. But DD loves singing so I'm sure she will enjoy that part anyway.

I've just finished a 6wk course where my 6mo DS was the youngest by far. The others were toddling/cruising (not v good at this, but say 12-15mo?) and just more interested in the toys or CD player, but some did start joining in with the signs towards the end. Our instructor said they key was the practice we did, as parents, outside the class, not so much the attention the children paids in the class. I'm trying to do it when I remember - the hardest bit is having 2 hands free to sign with, so I can imagine this will be easier when they're a bit older... Be warned: the songs get into your brain in a terrifying way.

We have found sign really usefull and fun. We did a class at the local cc which was fun but didn't cover much so i supplimented it with signs from some (secondhand) books.

Key imo is that the class is not intended to teach the lo's to sign. It teaches the parents and it's up to us to use it as much as poss day to day. That said ds took to some signs that i habitually forgot to use and sometimes picked up bsl from family where i had been using makaton.

See previous threads - did signs from birth with ds but he didn't pick any up until 18mo when he had an explosion of signed and spoken language. Even at 3.3 he often adds signs to speech for emphasis.

Though local Sing+Sign classes were great - when I told another mum I was expecting again she said "Hooray - you can go back to s+s" - just as she recently had with her second one!

Signing with one hand is feasible and useful, too. Not throwing your coffee over anyone while signing BSL is essential manners!

also even if the lo never signs, sign used by the parents probably aids the child's understanding.

I signed lots with DS from 6 m.o. although I didn't do any classes. He used 'all gone' for a couple of weeks at about 10 m.o. and then 'hat' - and nothing else. By 15 m.o. he was speaking lots, and by 16 m.o. we'd given up on the signing as he was talking instead.

However, I do think it helped his understanding and I still use it for emphasis (dangerous, hot etc). He used to point at things and 'ask' me to sign them. Some he particularly liked the signs for, and he'd ask for them over and over again.

We went to the sessions because the songs and teacher were great and it was an opportunity to meet other parents. I never bothered with signing outside of the classes and unsurprisingly DD can't do it. Watching "Something Special" has improved my signing though.

Its the best thing I ever chose to do with DD we use a mixture of BSL and Makaton from Something Special and ones she has made up herself.

Started classes at 2 weeks purely for social side for myself as I had no friends with children made some great friends.
DD started signing at 9 months, learnt about one a week untill she was one and then just exploded with them. By 15 months she was signing 3 word sentences 'more milk please' etc. By 18 months had the spoken vocabularly of a 3 year old. At her 2 year check I was told her speech was phenomenal. Signing doesn't hinder her speech and she now signs when we're somewhere noisy or trying to get sentences out quickly enough or to emphasis something.

Some of my friends found that their children relied more on signs between the 1 and 2 yrs but now their speech is at a similar level but they all have a larger vocabulary then children we know who didn't sign. We all found that it was brilliant at reducing tantrums caused purely through frustration of not being able to comunicate what they wanted.

Thanks all, very helpful comments.:)

Useful link re Makaton / signing with babies

I love it, we've just finished our first term (DS is 10.5 months). I've been doing lots at home and so far he does one sign. I thought he was trying to do 'bird' as he loves birds, but it's more like 'milk'. Except I've never signed milk for some reason. He does it when he's looking out of the window or up in the sky, so it must be his version of bird!

I loved signing with DC1, did not hinder language and made communication much easier pre speech.
Also used it with DC2, picked it up well and was signing easily, but speech did not develop, I thought it was because of laziness, but turned out to be a hearing problem, once that was sorted language followed although delayed.
Now I may have noticed the hearing problem earlier had I not been signing, but I would have had a much more frustrated child.
So overall very positive for us

Tbh, I didn't like the classes much. dS wasn't really engaged. But I got DH on board and childminder happened to do it too so it was reinforced there. He did use it as added communication and still does for some words ( like sorry). Overall a good thing ( although I have heard that if children don't have learning/ speech difficulties, it doesn't actually add anything).

I did two terms of Sing and Sign. The teacher was great and I enjoyed having an activity to go to. However, my DS (13mo) doesn't sign - I think because I have been too lax about doing signs with him. Most of the babies crawled around the room not paying much attention to the songs. In that respect it wasn't that useful, but if you put the effort into doing the signs yourself at home you may well get better results. I sometimes think DS must be frustrated because he can't tell me what he wants.