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Baby sign language!

3 replies

lizzyttc2017 · 12/08/2018 12:30

Hi ladies,

Interested in doing baby sign with my little one, she's almost three months. When is s good time to start and any tips?

Thanks!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
InNeedOfALieInNow · 12/08/2018 12:32

Start ASAP. We did tiny talk (BSL) and it was excellent - my daughter loved the classes, she had lots of signs before she spoke but she also spoke early too. She learned over 100 signs in total and continued to sign for a good while after she could take fluently (out of habit, or when she forgot a word)

Kokapetl · 12/08/2018 17:41

We did sing and sign which was good fun and I still sing some of the songs with my kids! About 6 months is a good time to start because that's when they can usually sit up and when they start to be able use their hands more deliberately. It was great for DC because they could communicate their needs and also fun thing a like animals before they could talk. One was able to let us know that he had dropped a toy dog where he couldn't reach it for example. Reduces frustration I think.

lechhy · 12/08/2018 18:20

We did baby sign with both my DC. DD1 particularly took to it and had over a hundred signs. She even combined them to make specific demands (like asking to go and feed the ducks).

We never did classes. We had some children's signing books that we looked at and we just signed every time we talked. That's the key. Whenever you say food, sign food etc...

But my overriding memory of it being worth its weight in gold was when she signed at about 12 months (no older than 13 months). She had been waking at night (and I'd not been long back at work). We had tried everything- dummy, hunger, nappy etc etc. To no avail, and I was at my wits end.... then one night we were traveling home cross country, when Dd started screaming. Couldn't work out what was wrong with her, when she signed light. We turned on the car interior light, and she stopped crying, turned off the light and she started crying again. Turns out she was scared of the dark. That night, we left the landing light on, and she never woke again at night. She's now a teen, still scared of the dark, and still sleeps with the landing light on! But what baby can vocalise their fear of the dark?

We did find that initially she was slower to speak, because she signed at first. But by two her language was way, way ahead of schedule. At her two year check, she should have had 50 - 75 words, and she had over 500 (we know as she was talking part in a university research project on baby language and we had to record all of her words).

Our experience was great and I would highly recommend it!

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