For those of you who did baby sign from an early age?

[DoubleCarrick]

Good morning!

I've been going to baby sign with Ds since he was about ten weeks old.

Just wondering how quickly your baby started to sign? How many signs did your baby do? Did you find it useful for communication?

Ds will be six months next week

My DD is nearly 14 months and we have only done a half a term of stage one and half a term of stage two at sing and sign. She has a lot more words and a few phrases then her peers but she signs a lot and I find that really helpful. She puts signs and words together so will sign where and say cat.

It the last week she has used 6 new signs without prompts.

We didn't do classes but taught DS signs for food and finished and milk just by doing them when we said them. There might have been others but those are the ones I remember.

He started using them way before he started talking which was great as he was a late talker. Finished was particularly good as it meant he didn't resort to throwing food to show he was done.

I've never taken dd to proper baby sign classes, but started doing some basic signs with her at home from 6/7 months. The main ones I do are milk, sleep, eat, drink & change. At 12 months she regularly signs for milk, and has since about 9 or 10 months. She's also recently started signing for food, and doesn't sign any others but understands what they all mean.

I find it's nice for her to communicate with me what she wants, and I hope she picks up some more soon. I'm not sure if she will rely on them too much though, as she seems such a natural with language and can say quite a lot of words. I'm definitely glad we've done it though.

Ah yes we also do all done/finished and thank you, which she seems to be getting the hang of too.

Oh yes we did thank you too. He still uses that sign at 2 when he forgets to say ta.

My two did their first truly independent signs at ten months.

However they used quite a few signs (more, enough, animal signs etc) long before that in response to my signing to them.

My son was born with a cleft lip and palate, which likely contributed to his speech delay (didn't even babble). On advice of our cleft nurse I took him to sing and sign classes since he was 12 weeks old and he started signing at about 10 months, starting with 'milk' and 'more'. At one point he could sign approx. 120 words! I am absolutely sure that without that means of communication he would have been very frustrated. Now he's two and a half he's started talking but still uses signs for words I can't understand or for emphasis, particularly please and thank you, and will sign sorry if he doesn't want to say it.

Neither of mine signed til about 18 months, by which time they had a fair few words. But it was still useful, especially signing yes and no!

Thank you all for your input I'm going to persevere with the signing. Currently he waves hello/goodbye and signs "daddy" (although it's a very rough sign as obviously he doesn't use fingers yet) and I've been trying to teach milk but he hasn't picked it up yet and I was getting a little disheartened. Sounds like my expectations are too high

Ds didn't really take any notice until about 15mo when he suddenly signed and started using words at the same time. He seemed to understand some earlier and his signs helped me understand toddler speech. He signed until over 3, especially for emphasis.
Dd used a few from 9mo. Mostly 'no' and 'daddy'... As soon as she was more articulate in words around 12mo she didnt sign except when deaf mummy couldnt understand.

I did signing with DD from four months. She enjoyed the classes but did he first sign at about 14 months and said the word at the same time, also for the first time. Very good I suppose as she knew what they meant all along but she never bothered to do them until she could speak it wasn't that useful.

bluebells you don't need to worry, research shows that kids who sign pick up language faster and have wider vocabulary than those that don't use early signs, so will only aid her language acquisition

Don't forget there's value in signing for telling your LO what you're doing as much as your LO expressing themselves. So signing more? Finished? To LO is helping them.

My DD is 12 months. We've been going to Sing and Sign since she was 8 weeks old. She signs for milk. That's it. She does clearly recognise what some other signs mean, but she doesn't do them.

Our son went to sing and sign from about 6 months. He started signing independently about 12 months - "more" and "all gone". At 6 he still signs "thank you"!

DS starting signing "up" at 7 months. By 12 months he was talking in sentences but we carried on signing at home as it seemed to help with his understanding.