Baby signing resources

[paintedpanda]

I’m hoping to teach my twin boys some basic signs to aid their communication but all I can seem to find is ASL signs and I’d like to teach them BSL. Does anyone have any British sign language resources or materials they can recommend please?

How old are they? They’d need good fine manipulative skills and to know the alphabet and how to spell for BSL.

Look at Signalong there are free resources online and some videos on You Tube.

https://signalong.org.uk/free-resources

Look at NDCS
https://www.ndcs.org.uk/advice-and-support/language-and-communication/sign-language/british-sign-language-bsl-videos-and-resources
Or classes like sing and sign.

Makaton is sign language for younger children

They’re only babies. I mean more simple signs that I can sign myself along with the words to try and encourage it from them.
Is it Makaton that I need to look for instead then? Thanks!

Yes or Signalong or Baby Sign

https://www.thebump.com/a/how-to-teach-baby-sign-language

Absolute nonsense! You do not need good fine motor skills or to know the alphabet and to be able to sign to learn BSL. Yes, fingerspelling is used in BSL but not for basic day to day conversations and not with babies and toddlers! BSL is a full language just like spoken english and you start at the beginning when teaching it to a baby and the language and their competency develops just as it does with a baby learning to use spoken language. You do not need good fine motor skills any more than a baby using spoken language needs good oral motor skills - a baby learning to talk orally will pronounce some words or letters incorrectly but can still be understood. A baby learning BSL won’t get every hand-shape correct but they can still be understood and they will learn to refine over time. Deaf babies or babies born to deaf parents have no problem learning BSL from the start and a lot of signalong and makaton signs are taken from BSL anyway.

Honestly, if you’re going to teach your babies to sign I would avoid the made up languages like makaton/ signaling and use BSL, which is an officially recognised full language. If you’re going to learn some signs you may as well learn ones that could also be used more widely. There are some good books which introduce BSL to babies, for example this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-First-Signs-Baby-Signing/dp/1904550045

However the best way to learn sign might be to join a class. Tinytalk are a baby sign franchise who use BSL signs and they have classes up and down the country: https://www.tinytalk.co.uk/

Makaton is a sign system for people with learning disabilities, it uses BSL signs but not the grammar.

OP you are not going to be able to teach them BSL unless you are fairly fluent.

Learning basic signs to improve communication is probably want you want.

I did sing and sign with both my little ones, essentially makaton and it was great and it's amazing how young they can do some signs! Even now my youngest talks (he's 2 now) and he still does some of the signs. It is really great for communication and shared interest in the world.l from a young age.

Makaton does not use BSL signs, some signs are the same or similar but others are completely different and were made up by the Makaton company who believed, falsely, those with complex needs would not be able to use BSL signs. Makaton signs are also owned by the makaton company and are not freely available to learn, there are very few freely downloadable resources. For this reason I would not recommend it or teach it to the children I work with because it really limits who they can communicate with outside of school.

You can absolutely use BSL signs without being fluent. Yes, BSL is a full language with its own grammar system but you can still learn individual signs in the same way you could teach your children the French words for animals or colours etc if you wanted without needing to be fluent. Sign Supported English (SSE) is also quite widely used which is where you use the BSL signs but use them alongside speech with the grammar of spoken English, rather than the grammar of BSL. I work in a special school and this is what we use with all children - makaton and signaling are becoming more and more outdated now and BSL (taught as SSE) is the more widely used sign system in the special education field now.

You and baby can learn simple BSL signs, it can definitely help early communication.

Commanding hands on YouTube is good for videos:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1HxgkWOBt8k&pp=ygUUQnNsIHNpZ25zIGZvciBiYWJpZXM%3D#bottom-sheet

However, I did struggle early on to know if my baby was signing or not. It became clearer later and she very quickly was understanding my signs as well as words. But imagine you don't speak very good French and you're trying to understand someone else with poor French,it would be harder than if you were fluent in French understanding a non-native speaker.

I was responding to someone telling the OP that Makaton is for young children when that is not true.

The rest of your post is basically what I said, not knowing the full language but using individual signs.

I would argue that SEE and SSE are not BSL, in fact not any sign language at all. As would many other BSL users.

You said makaton uses BSL signs which is not true, it largely uses its own made up signs which are different to the BSL signs. Some signs are similar or the same but certainly not all.

I agree that SSE is not a language and did not say anywhere that it is. I said that we use the signs from BSL but used as SSE with our students who have complex needs (but no hearing impairment). I do have my BSL L3 and whilst would never call myself a BSL user I do understand the difference and when I have taught deaf children I have used BSL and not SSE, but for hearing children with complex needs SSE works better and I still feel it is more useful to be teaching BSL signs, even if not teaching the full language, than the made up signs from makaton/ signaling.

I did Tiny Talk classes with both my DDs. They picked up a lot of signs (BSL) and the classes were fun.

Level 3, wow.

Don't get so uppity, the important thing is that the OP now knows not to attempt to learn Makaton.

Did you do any Deaf History in your Level 3?

Sorry, I was genuinely not trying to be ‘uppity’ there and apologise if it came across that way, I was just trying to iterate that I do have more than a basic knowledge of BSL but do appreciate that is not the same as being a deaf BSL user.

Yes, I do have knowledge of deaf history and that is partly why I would always advocate for BSL over makaton/ signalong etc. What in my post made you feel that I do not respect/ have an understanding of deaf history? Not trying to be goady but I am autistic and so am always trying to improve my communication if I have accidentally offended someone, it was not intention. What part of deaf history do you feel I have missed/ disrespected?

Fair enough.

But you are typing 'deaf history' you mean Deaf History. 'Big D' from the BSL alphabet is now used in foreign sign languages.

As for your insistence that Makaton does not use any BSL you have yourself have said some signs are shared where do you think they come from? BSL has been around as long as there have been Deaf people.

Also both Makaton.org and the BDA say Makaton uses some signs from BSL. Also, as I hope you know, there are regional variations in BSL they may well be incorporated in to Makaton.