We believe in language exposure, and in baby-sign-language, but didn’t actually do anything about it. My first daughter then just started using her own–rubbing her tummy for ‘hungry/yummy’, et c. When she was about 9 mos old, she started saying “Mama”, and we noticed that *every* time she did, she would pat her chest. Then we realized that Mam would pat her own chest when prompting ‘Mama’. Aoife now uses a host of signs she made up on her own. It’s nonsense to say that that would hold her language development back, and any argument against signing with baby would have to suggest *discouraging* her from incorporating the signs she makes up herself… Not to mention all the non-signing signs *EVERYBODY* uses, from facial expressions to pointing. Arguing against it is like arguing against occupying the left side of a room.

And since they can use the sign before the word, well, why wouldn’t you? (p.s.: that’s rhetorical)

Mise le meas,
Deois “Doc”

Your post is an inspiration. Thank you! Please post more about your progresses since your last post? Thank you again!

Sincerely,

MJ

I also make a point of doing the sign for “thank you” because it is helping to convey the social niceties.

The timing is weird!

Hoping things are going well with you, Mike, and the family.

The sign language has definitely decreased in our house now that the kids are 4 1/2. I still think it was a huge benefit for Pookie to learn the signs he did. I think that helped him understand that communication involved him being able to tell us things that he wanted and was thinking about. I still use the sign for sit every now and again when the kids are getting to rowdy at a family gathering.

We signed with Beth from before she could speak, and we saw no reticence in her to start talking. I would say that signing might even have accelerated her desire to talk. Signing is not a silent sport – along with the sign, the parent repeats the word, and they become the first words a child will say – along with the sign. And today Beth will occasionally ask, “What’s the sign for…?”

We have a couple of those and the kids love them.

Excellent source for learning true ASL (some news shows just make signs up when reporting about sign language children). Rachele Coleman teaches true ASL (American Sign Language) through video and song.

I have seen it happen with my now four year old daughter, she was signing around 8 months for the ‘basics’ (milk, eat, etc). She has taken that and learned up to 100+ signs, and she has no limits when encountering deaf children she can talk to them and allow them to speak to her. This allows the deaf child’s world not to be closed up because they can’t talk vocally.

Not only in that field, but also helps you communicate with your children as they are learning to speak (which helps prevent the terrible 2’s).

Now my son is learning, and he is signing ‘milk’ at 7 months and enjoys (along with my daughter) watching Signing Times.

You can also catch Signing Time on your local PSB station, check the Signing Time web site.

We’ve taught my son (16 months) 4-5 signs (the ones he’s most consistent with are cat and dog). He doesn’t say any words. (No, not even “mama” or “dada.”)

I don’t think these things are connected. He didn’t learn to sign until after he was one (by which time, at least according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, he should have been saying Mama, Dada and a few more words). I doubt that he thinks relying on his few signs to communicate is convenient enough. (I think he might occasionally want to say something other than cat, dog, more, all gone, fan or bye bye. Maybe not, though.)

Instead, I’m grateful that my son’s limited sign vocabulary gives us at least some tiny insight into whatever’s going on in his head. There’s no way for us to undo this “experiment” and try a different “experiment” of not teaching him to sign to see if he’d be speaking by now. There’s no REAL way to know if the children you know who sign and don’t speak would speak if they didn’t know sign.