Apparently, once your baby can wave “hello”, he can begin signing other things, too. If you’re convinced that your baby has something to say, but just doesn’t have the words, consider getting with the signing program.
The experts on baby stuff, say that you should start signing a few things consistently around 8 months. I followed this advice, but also want to debunk it.
We started with “more” and “eat” and “nursing”. Julian started responding around 11 months by doing these signs back to us. I have to admit that his “nursing” looked very much like “bye-bye” and sometimes I thought he was telling total strangers that he wanted to nurse.
At 14 months, his vocab was still limited to about 5 words, so the signs were really amazing. Our number one favorite baby sign is “help”, which is tapping both hands against one’s chest, like our friend Norrie is doing when her walker got stuck in the picture above. Our Rookie Kids all used this “help” sign to tell us that he wants us to open a drawer, help with a toy, or reach something that he can’t reach. MUCH MORE CIVILIZED THAN POINTING AND GRUNTING!
Rookie Moms Unpopular Opinion #49: You don’t have to start signing months in advance to get your baby to catch on.
If you show her the sign, right when she needs it, a few times over a couple of days, she may try it out herself. I have heard so many parents say that they “messed up” in someway and didn’t teach their baby the signs, and I don’t mean to sound like a crazy hippie/signing evangelist, BUT, if your baby is still not using a lot of words, why not try signing for a few days starting now? I’m guessing most one-year olds will catch on to the “more” pretty quick if you do a little Pavlov’s dog-style experiment with them. (Uh, no, do not blow a whistle or give your child doggie treats. Use something a little more exciting than cheerios – say raisins – and show your baby how the “more” sign earns her more raisins.)
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We started consistently using sign with my daughter (now 8.5 months) when she started solids (4 months, on the doctor’s recommendation), and she actually started signing before she could wave or clap. She knows “drink,” “more,” and we’re working on “eat,” “nurse,” and “sleep.” She kind of took a break from signing so that she could learn to clap and wave, and those have been her obsessions lately.
There is an excellent resource for sign at:
http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm
Some must be adapted for little hands.
We’ve been doing baby signs with my son Nick and it’s wonderful – he did his first signs at around 8 months – ceiling fan and light. Those were his only signs for a long time, but in the last month (since he turned 11 months), he’s really taken off. He’s made up his own signs, like turning both hands for “Where is it?” and even makes little sentences, like “Where is the train?” It’s so amazing to see him able to communicate at such an early point, and I feel like it deepens our relationship with him. He’s now doing signs for: more, bird, wheel, tree, doggie, gentle, hat, diaper change, and yucky. It is certainly true that you need to know what you’re looking for – sometimes the signs are very generalized, but when I use context clues, I can usually figure out what Nick means.
We are HUGE fans of Signing Time stuff. Especially the board books and DVDs. Love the DVDs for more than the signs – nice quality slow moving educational viewing that doesn’t seem to be rotting their brains at the same rate as your average kiddo video. My kids love to see the kids on the videos and pick up signs way faster than when I teach them. Great post.
Hey, so happy to pop over to your blog and see a photo of our Cheeky Baby back before she told us endless stories about fairies, hedgehogs, and houseboats.
Not that I am complaining about her verbosity. It’s really fun. And I’m sure some of it came about as a result of signing!
xo
Isobel
Signs have been amazing for us. My older daughter had a speech delay, and I’m sure ‘help’ especially saved endless amounts of frustration – on all our parts! She knows lots of signs, but now they’re being replaced with words. Fun stuff! One sign in particular that lingers is ‘wait’ – it’s so cute that she uses it when we ask her a question while her mouth is full.
We did start at the traditional time with signs for her (6-9 months, starting with two signs, then adding more as she started to show the ones we had demonstrated). BUT I’m sure you’re right, that you can start any time, particularly if you’re paying attention to what signs would most help your child communicate something important to him/her!
My husband and I sometimes use signs learned in this whole baby signing process if we need to say something across the room to each other without the kids hearing. Of course we have to make sure they aren’t looking!
We started signing with our daughter at 6.5 months. She is now 15 months, and knows over 50 signs. She also has 15-20 words, and I am convinced it is due to signing.
I would like to sign with our son when he gets old enough. He will be three months next week and I can’t wait until I can use the signs with him to understand what he wants! I had not heard about them being ready to sign when they can wave, but that makes sense. I had wondered when I should start…now I know. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for this reminder that it’s not too late to start on the later side! That’s something I’ve been thinking about recently as my 22-month-old toddler is having a sign explosion. We started young with him, but it’s so gratifying to have him learning signs so much more quickly now, and I believe, as you do, that it would be possible to start at an older age and get that effect right away. So I wrote a post about it and referenced yours! Thanks so much for the inspiration. We’ve lurved baby sign, because our toddler has so few spoken words still that it’s the only way we know what’s going on in his head — and it’s fascinating!
I am a former special education teacher and I know quite a bit of sign. I knew from the beginning I wanted to use sign with my son. I started early and he is 18 months and knows about 15 signs. He has about 10 words and none of the words are the signs and vice versa. Actually I’m a little worried now that he is leaning on the signs. When I ask him to say ____ . HE will only sign it and not try to say it even if i say ” like mommy” or “use your words ” and point to his mouth etc. However he uses words that he doesn’t have a sign for and were completely on his own like turtle, hot, dada, uh oh, clock….. any suggestions? email me or go to my website! thanks! for now i’ve cut back on any new signs and really trying to push language even if it is just a sound….he is 19 months and was born at 34 weeks.