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Baby Sign Language

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When we moved to Massachusetts, Emma (now seven years old) was nine months old. I decided that I wanted to teach her sign language. I taught myself a bunch of signs frequently used with babies, and she learned along with me – with great success! By the time she was 18 months old she could sign over 200 words! Signing with Emma was wonderful – it was so easy to communicate with her! We could tell her to be quiet in church without saying a word, and during play dates I could sign share instead of having to talk to her about it. I planned to do the same with Johnny, but he was an early talker, and just didn’t seem to care much. Then Lily came along and I had three children under four, plus she was another early talker. I didn’t even try. Now Anna is nine months old and not talking, so when I was offered the chance to review the Deluxe Baby Sign Language Kit I jumped at the chance to bring sign language back into our family!

This baby sign language kit comes with a poster of basic signs, a teaching guide, and a signing dictionary, but my favorite feature is the flash cards! These cards are made like very durable board book pages, and Anna loves looking at them. She is a little young to interpret the drawings, but they are fun for her to manipulate and Emma, at age 7, can look at the pictures and learn/re-learn signs. The dictionary has most of the words you would need to sign with your baby, and there are some wonderful signing references online that you can use to expand your vocabulary. Johnny (now 5 years old) and Lily (now 3 years old) weren’t very interested in signing as babies, but they think it is really neat now! I love that this kit has brought sign language back into our home, beyond the few signs we had held onto from Emma’s babyhood!

Did you use sign language with your baby? Have you used it with older children?

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

21 thoughts on “Baby Sign Language”

  1. From what I understand signing with babies is quite controversial. Is it that some people think that signing delays language? I do remember my daughter doing some of it with her oldest but, only a few words and it was really cute, but I wonder how beneficial it is in the end.

    1. The research I have seen shows that, if anything, it helps with language. I do think that babies who are naturally later speakers tend to be more interested in signing, because it can be their only way of communicating. With my daughter who really took to signing, I noticed that she almost always learned to sign a word before speaking it.

  2. I currently sign with my daughter, now a year old. Her brother, who’s now 2.5 years, learned sign rapidly and his first sentences were made by combining signs and the few words he knew at 14 months. My daughter already speaks in phrases, which is great because her signs are illegible! She does understand them, though, and that should help with communication in the future, but she doesn’t seem motivated to use them the way her brother did. Either way, I think you’re opening language pathways in their brain that they’ll be able to access more easily when learning another language. Hopefully, anyway. It’s not like I’m a scientist. ;)

  3. This looks like a nice set. Such a sweet picture too!
    I did sign with my daughter but not so much with my son. The baby has the more sign down and I would like to add others. She seems to have the interest.

  4. I tried using baby sign language with Joshua but he seemed to get frustrated with it rather than enjoy it so I took that as a sign to stop. Turns out he was an early talker, too. I think he wanted to use words instead of his hands! I didn’t even try with Emma. Funny, though, they want to learn it now!

  5. I used it with the boys a little, but Princess was an early talker, and never stopped after that.

    I’ve tried from time to time to introduce the kids to sign language, but never in a formal way. I need to get more formal about it, maybe dig out my college textbooks. I love sign language, I don’t have to worry about mispronouncing it with my horrid inability to pronounce languages.

  6. Baby signing was one of my favorite parenting choices I have made so far. J’s day care started it pretty early with him. At 6 months, I recognized that J was signing milk every time I took a drink in front of him, so we jumped on board with the signs. I signed us up as a family for a playgroup type class for 6 weeks. We used signs until about 17 months when J turned more verbal, but man, it totally helped us before that! Now, J’s becoming interested in signing again because we showed him videos of him talking to us with his hands before he could really talk with his mouth.

  7. I never did the sign language with the babies but my 11-year-old has been learning at school due to a classmate. It’s been a few years of exposure and she has the alphabet down with about a few dozen words and phrases. Their grade also sign songs during the 5th grade concert. Apparently, they can opt to learn sign language during lunch recess! I think it’s wonderful!

  8. what a great kit! i used baby sign with Bear also. my mom thought that i was nuts, but then later admitted to how much it benefitted him because he was more capable of telling me what he needed. his first sign was “milk”. being a nursing momma, it melted my heart :)

  9. Elisa | blissfulE

    Flashcards like board book pages are a terrific idea, and I am super-impressed that you and Emma learned 200 signs!!!

    I have used sign language more or less with each of my children – most with my first, who was a very late talker but signed well. Our favourite signs are “milk” for nursing, “more,” “eat,” “help,” and “toilet.”

  10. I had wonderful plans to sign with my oldest but never actually did and when my second arrived I didn’t even try. I do know many who have used baby sign language and loved it and this looks like a great product. I love that Johnny and Lilly are interested now that they are older.

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