I asked this in another thread, but I guess it would have been better to start a new thread...

At what age did you start using sign with your baby? I never heard of it with DS and would like to start with DD.

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Mari

Proud mama to Liam and Chloe

I think the earlier you start, the better.  Babies are so, so smart and they can take in so much even though we might think that they "can't communicate."  They can, we just can't always understand them

I think I started some basic signing when Brady was around 6 months.  I tried to have him watch some signing DVDs but he was never really into TV until well after a year.  Our dog is deaf so Brady has picked up from the signs that we give our dog. 

Try small signs at first and just repeat them over and over.  Good luck!

 

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Angie

Mom to little monkey Brady (4/04)

I think I started with Jack around 5 or 6 months, however he never made the effort to do it on his own till he was a year or so.  We did just simple ones "milk", "please", "more"....and I'm sure others but thats all I can remember!  Those were some of the biggies!

That being said, he also quit using them around 18 months.

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Jess
Mom to Jack & Quinn

Indy Babywearers--contact me for more info!

DD is four months, so I guess now would be a good time to start looking into some classes or dvds (so mommy can study them too)...

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Mari

Proud mama to Liam and Chloe

mari wrote:

DD is four months, so I guess now would be a good time to start looking into some classes or dvds (so mommy can study them too)...

 

Yup now is a great time to atleast look!

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Jess
Mom to Jack & Quinn

Indy Babywearers--contact me for more info!

We started at 11 months (but planned on starting at 7), and now Satori knows so many words and learns new ones each day. Popping a DVD in or reading books together works well for her to learn. She now probably knows more than her parents! She is 14 months old so it's been 3 months now.

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Angela
Mama to Satori (11/04)

I just started signing with Lilly, she's almost 7mo. Here's a great site for seeing how a sign is done. Click on the word and there is usually a small video of a person doing the sign.

http://www.masterstech-home.com/ASLDict.html

http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/ASL_Dictionary_Project/ASL_Tables/A.html

We started around 7 months with the really basic ones, like more and done when eating. Those were the ones I was really interested in knowing!! DS didn't start doing them back until around a year though. Now he knows maybe 10? I add new ones in as I think about it, but mostly when a situation arises that it owuld be helpful to have his input on then I start working on that sign.

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Carrie
Mama to Rocket Boy, 10/22/04

I also started just the milk sign at 6 mos to reinforce it but started more signs around 9-10 mos like more, finished, mother, father, please. He's 14 mos now and only does milk, more, eat/food, and I think he does mother and father sometimes. My 4 yr old and 7 yr old have really started to do a lot of signs with him (they LOVE Signing Time too ) and I think that really helps. He's never watched TV except for these Signing Time DVDs in the last month so he's not too interested but the older kids are great teachers for me!

With my 2nd child I started around 7-8 mos and she signed a lot by the time she was 1 yr-it was sooo helpful. So each child is different of course. She signed until she was almost 3 yrs as she was talking-it was cute!

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Ann, Full-time mama of 2 crazy kids and a sling'n toddler

We started a week shy of 4 months and at 4 months DD signed. "milk". She's been signing it ever since! We have the Signing Time DVD's volume 1-6 and she loves them! DD signs everything we teach her and she's starting to pick up signs from the DVD's that we don't usually use. 

This ASL browser has helped us a ton too!

 

http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/aslweb/browser.htm

 

HTH

 

Kristen

We startee with Quinn at 6 months.  He started signing back to us "milk" and "more" at arounf 10 months.  He started exploding with signs around 14 months - it was so great how well he was communicating!  We visited my family when he really started to get the hang of siging - it was getting close to bedtime - I asked Quinn by signing if he wanted to take a bath and go to bed.  He shook his head "yes" did the sign for "bath" and "bed" and walked right into the bathroom (1 floor house)  My family was amazed!  And I was so proud and happy that all the signing is working for us.

DH kind of laughed at first when I started to sign with Quinn.  He thought it was kind of silly since he was only 6 months - and for months after I started - Quinn would just just stare at me and not respond.  But now that we all can communicate so well through signing - DH is like the spokesperson for signing with your baby - he tells all of his friends how great it is.  I converted him! Yay!

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Michelle
Mom to Quinn

I started siging "eat" with ds2 at birth, thinking it was the easiest for  baby to do.  He picked it up around 2 months, but only uses it sporadically (probably because I don't use it all the time).  When he does use it, he really does want to eat, though.  I started using "milk" a few weeks ago, to try to differentiate between nursing and eating since we're going to introduce real food in a month or so.  He definitely understands the sign, but hasn't started using it yet.  A couple days ago I added the sign for "poo".  Trying to ec with a baby who doesn't signal is pretty tricky, so I'm hoping signing might help.  I also occasionally use "more", but haven't done it consistantly.

With ds1, we started singing around 8 months, but never were really consistant with using the sign every time we said the word.  He picked it up sometime after a year and had about 20 signs at 18 months.  He didn't use them much, though, and his language skills went from nearly non-existent to almost adult around 2-2 1/2 years, so he didn't use them for long.

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Lisa, mommy to B (8/01) and C (7/05)UBAC!

Well... I'm embarassed to say this, but it's sort of funny, too!

I jokingly said that we could teach dd the sign for "milk" in Meet The Fockers. (For those that don't know, they use the "grabbing boobs" sort of sign to mean milk) I think dd was around 7 months or so.

Fast forward to yesterday... I said the word milk in a sentence and dd (10 months) started going crazy doing that sign. Now, everytime I say milk she starts grabbing at the air. It is so funny. I can't believe she has picked it up when I only joked about it a couple of times.

Moral of the story is... be careful what you say and DO around your younguns! LOL I guess I need to teach her some real sign language now.

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SAHM mom to 2 beautiful girls