Does anyone here sign to their baby? After seeing a neat PBS special, I got a book from our library, this one,

Amazon.com: Baby Talk: A Guide to Using Basic Sign Language to Communicate with Your Baby: Monica Beyer: Books

And Ilove it. Only been doing it a few days now, but the signs are simple, and its pretty fun!! I'm hoping for less fussing, eventually when he can tell me if he's hungry, or if its a dirty diaper,he's done, wants to play, or the like.

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"And the state of his bathroom -- I'm not one to gossip, but there are things crusted on his sink that have not simply developed intelligent life but have in all probability by now evolved their own political systems." Cain describes Abel in in SANDMAN #70

Daycare taught my ds the basic signs when he was b/w 9 and 12 mths. They really did help him communicate better. Both of us were less frustrated when he was trying to say or get something. At 20mths, he still does the signs now when he is saying the actual words. Its adorable!

I have friends who have done it. I never did. Though I have to say I am pretty good at knowing what they want -- I kind of think we've developed our own sort of sign language. Currently the baby, when he wants picked up, will grunt at me and then hold out his little chubby arms.

I will say, if you baby is in day care, I do think baby sign language is a great idea. It just helps having a set sign for everyone involved.

I always thought it was a neat idea but never did it either. I also figured out what my kids wanted from the sounds and motions they were making, so we had our own little sign language going as well!

I taught my girls the basics, milk, done, eat, more, etc. My 2 year old still signs for eat when she says it.

My youngest DD who is almost 21 months old knows some basic sign language. She goes to an excellent daycare center and they teach her soooooooooo much. It took us awhile to figure out she was signing for certain things. But now she will sign eat while I am breastfeeding the new baby, sign eat cookie, when she wants desert or a snack. She can sign love, baby, mommy, daddy, eat, cookie, dance, jump & hop.

I love it!!!!!!!

I have my DS (12 mos.) watch "Signing Time" DVDs and he loves them. The two signs I know he uses are "milk" (when he wants something) and "airplane". I'm sure he's trying to sign other things, too, but I haven't been able to distinguish them yet.

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Trust God. Whatever risk there is in doing so, the risk of not trusting in him is far greater. - Spurgeon

I was able to teach my dd (15 mon.) a few signs...eat, more, please, and all done. It has been very helpful when feeding her.

I also use the signing time dvds!! Actually, I bought the "Baby Signing Time" Dvds. You can get them at signingtime.com...or I just went to Amazon.com and got free supersaver shipping! I started my daughter on the 1st one when she was about 8 months old.

What's great about them, is that every sign goes w/ a song! That helps me to remember them and we sing the songs in the car and everything. There is a song about eating and drinking..and to help her remember and learn the sign from the dvd...I would sing a segment of the song while doing the signs for "eat" and "drink" during appropriate times during the meal. That way it would help her make the connection. I also like the "baby signing time" because they are geared towards words for toddlers..whereas the other signing time dvds (there are ALOT now!) go into more detailed signs that toddlers don't even need to worry about.

My daughter is now 14 months old...and she signs: more, milk, eat, cookie, and please. There were a couple signs a tried to teach her, but she found actually saying them easier! She now actually says, "Cracker" (cah-cah) and "Bath" (bah). Those signs were on the DVD, but hey..if she can say them instead of signing...more power to her! She also says and signs "cookie" together!

I love it and encourage anyone to use signs! It really is helpful because she knows that she can communicate w/ me. Even if I don't understand her all the time..i think that knowledge still helps her not tantrum as much.

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Bekah
Co-founder and CEO of the NOVITZKE FAMILY INC.

We're teaching it to dd. We haven't really gotten anywhere with it just yet, but she's starting to do more with her hands, and mimicking us. So whenever she's ready, she's becoming more capable of doing it. I'm also hoping it'll cut help her to learn how to relay her needs without fussing. We use the Signing Time dvds from the library. They're great.