I must admit that before I had children I thought the idea of babies using sign language was a bit ridiculous and that only really keen mums would make the effort to teach their baby to sign. Even when I had my own child and I saw mums teaching sign language to four month olds I wondered whether it was worth the effort (but I secretly went home and tried to teach Emily some signs).
It wasn’t until I saw a friend’s one year old using some signs that I really started to see the benefits of babies signing. He would walk up to something he wanted and sign “please” and his mum would know exactly what he wanted. I thought to myself “This is brilliant, he can tell us what he wants!”
I did not start signing with Emily until she was thirteen months old and to my surprise she picked up the signs straight away. I was being tight and did not want to purchase a whole signing program (although I hear there are lots that are really great) so I just found some signs on the internet and borrowed a book from a friend. We had signs for please, eat, drink, bath, brush teeth, sleep and milk which were the main ones we thought we would need. We found it amazing that she could now tell us what she needed and did not need to whinge and have me work out what she wanted.
Now, I know there are lots of people who think it delays their speech (which I have heard has been proven untrue) but I think it actually helps with speech as one of Emily’s first words was “Eat”, a sign she used constantly. Even if it did delay her speech she is two and a half now and has been speaking lots since around eighteen months so I don’t think that would count as delayed.
We have been teaching Claire since she was eleven months (she just turned one a couple of weeks ago) and she is doing really well. She even says “drink” when signing drink which we think is exciting. Emily has even gone back to using her signs to teach Claire too.
I wanted to blog about this because I think signing is awesome and life changing (ok maybe that is a bit dramatic). It changes your baby from whinging when they want something, to communicating clearly and makes life easier for the parents. I think anything that makes parenting easier is worth a try and you don’t have to follow a set program. You can just start with a few common signs and make up your own if you want to. My kids ended up making up a few signs of their own or modified the ones we taught them anyway. If you have little ones give it a go and let me know what you think.
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| Claire signing "please" |
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| Signing "eat" |
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| Signing "drink" |
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| I thought I should give her a drink since I made her sign drink about 50 times |
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| Emily wanted to get in on the signing action |
I'm a big fan of baby sign. I agree that it does not delay speech. I remember the light-bulb moment when my son realised if he signed food/eat, then we would get him some food. His language really accelerated from that point. We try to use auslan signs, generally from here http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate. That is a helpful link...I might look up some more for Claire. It is so true about the eat sign. Once they make that link it is the most used sign...eat,eat,eat!
ReplyDeleteI made up a few of my own and it is still helpful even though they can all talk - especially the no!/Stop sign - when we r in public and they do something completely inappropriate!
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa. I signed with all three of our kids and it was great. I mainly used Auslan as well but you don't need any book (even though I bought a couple I never really used them) - as long as the two of you know what is going on. I even made up signs for some things because I wanted signs that used only one hand. I found that they often had something in their hands and a one handed sign is easier. Both Ella and Aidan's first words were "More" which is a signed we used a LOT.
ReplyDeleteIt is great to see so many mums signing with their babies....I am inspired to find a few more.
ReplyDeleteGreat to read about baby sign! I've been a signer for many years so when I had my son it seemed very natural for me to start signing to him very early on.
ReplyDeleteWe only started with milk, eat/food and finish, and he will start signing them both when he wants them or when he hears us use the word (can you get some milk on your way home has him frantically signing!).
We're bringing in please, thank you, bath, bed/sleep, more and where. He doesn't quite have a handle on all of them yet, it's a bit hit and miss, but he's getting there!
My MIL says he doesn't speak because of it. I say he's just 13 months old and has enough words for his age, but way less frustration than his peers because he can tell me what he wants.
Thanks for checking out my blog Where's my glow. Surely your MIL doesn't expect him to be speaking much at 13 months. It is hard to ignore comments like that especially from family. Much better that he can communicate a range of things to you, rather than speak a few words.
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