When I became pregnant, I had certain plans of things I wanted to do - things that I had heard or read about in the past. One of these things was baby sign language. I decided to go down the route of attending a course aimed at babies, and went
to Sing and Sign . I chose this group as they were available in my area, and I liked the idea of signs based around songs.
We started attending when my daughter was around 10 months old. We already went to another singing group, and I noticed that she felt far less comfortable here. She seemed quite clingy, but that could have been down to the room as much as anything. She did get quite upset one week with the rigid format. After a few songs with musical instruments, the children have to give the instruments back, learning the sign "finished". She was upset that the instrument scetion was so quick, and cried. However, she now clears up after she has finished with things without a fuss - in fact, she quite seems to enjoy it.
She didn't join in with any signs, though, and after a few weeks, my other half was querying the point of paying more than for just a singing group. A few months down the line, however, and we started to get results. She would sign to say she had finished her meal (very useful, as I then took it from her to stop it flying!), that she was hungry, thirsty etc. The number of signs slowly grew. She would tell me she could hear a bird (her first ever sign was duck), that something was hot, (and I could warn her about radiators), that she wanted to go home, and more.
My daughter is now nearly two and has a spoken vocabulary of about 50 words, with around 30 signs, some of which overlap. She still uses signs for certain things (like hot) but speaks and signs things like bear and juice. I think that the signing has helped her avoid so much frustration. She does get frustrated easily when things don't go her way, but I can't imagine what the tantrums would have been like had she not been able to communicate so well. I think that, among her peers, she communicates very well, and we can have mini conversations.
I would add that I am not the most dedicated at times. I signed to her when I remembered, rather than slavishly, and some other parents had far quicker results (one was playing her daughter the DVD regularly - at her daughter's insistance, I might add!) I did become a member so that I could access the dictionary of signs, which I have printed off, and could always pass on to grandparents (although I haven't done so yet...) and I think this is useful. I now have a 3 month old son and will teach him signing. I haven't yet decided if we will go to classes, but we probably will, because I will never find the time to sit down with him and sing the songs otherwise.
I have since looked on the Internet for sites with free signs, and there are some to be found (e.g. http://signwithme.com/default.asp). CBeebies in the Uk also has a series called "Something Special" which does sign language. I would recommend "Sing and Sign" because the sign language they use is based upon British Sign Language, so that if the children later chose to become more proficient signers, they won't be learning a new language. However, the signs could be anything that works for you. My daughter invented some of her own - angry and juice - and as long as you both know what they are, that's fine. I found that making the signs in context (food when she was about to eat, and then eating) and also saying the words out loud is the quickest way to integrate the signs in to the child's vocabulary.
I would imagine that the older child might learn quicker, once they got the hang of things, so it's probably never too late to start.
(March 2006) (
Lexi xxx
