Have any of you tried this with your babies? At what age do you start? Do you find it beneficial?

Thank you!
Melinda

Hi Mommy 2 be,

I don't have any experience in it myself, but my best friend did it with her son, and she wished she didn't, because he had a very delayed speech problem, because he could communicate with sign. I'm sure it was great for a lot of mom's out there, but it's just her experience.

dizzygirl, it's interesting that you posted about the speech delay. I have no comments or knowledge about the sign language, but my husband and I were just talking about this last night...we came to the same conclusion you posted just in our uneducated discussion.

We were talking about this becasue we feel DD is a little behind in just her cooing (she's 3 months old) compared to what we hear from others. We are convinced she's behind in it because she's spent most of her life with colic so far. If she wasn't sleeping, she was screaming. Now that the screaming has passed, she is having mostly calm and happy days and is finally starting to discover her voice. The cooing is now getting better as the weeks go by.

I think there are pro's and con's to everything...pacifier or thumb...breastfeed or formula...CIO or not...it goes on and on.

Hi,

l have been told at my mums group to start sign language or baby signing at 6 months, the most basic words being food , home no food finish etc. I will be trying it though l think its really good. good luck :)

I never used it, but here are two stories from those I know who have.

1 is a friend who started her son at 6 months. He was pretty good at signing, but like Dizzygirls friend, her son had major speech delay. At 2 he was barely talking, mostly grunting and still using the signs. Fine for everyone who knew the signs. Really hard if you didn't know the signs. Now at almost 3 he is still behind, but catching up.

But I know another lady who's daughter really did well with it. At 1 year she had 5 spoken words but 50 signed words. She didn't have a problem transitioning. But her mom was also a teacher, so that may have helped.

I have heard the same thing with speech delay but have also heard that it's easier if you start them later than 6 months, although the research indicates that you can teach it to a 6-month-old. Our Gymboree just introduced the class and one of the moms who's baby was 7 months old said her son had a hard time learning it and is 9 1/2 months old and, although she uses it with him every time he still doesn't show any signs of understanding it or wanting to use it. The 14-month-old in the class picked it up without a problem and uses it all the time. Now, time will tell if she will have delayed speech as a result; it's only been a couple months since they took the class. I don't see any of the other moms who took that class.

Glad to see this thread! I'm using it for my 4th baby now. She's 8 months. I started from about 4 months BUT I'm limiting it to hungry, thirsty and all done. I also ALWAYS say the words as I'm doing the signs. The reason I'm limiting it to those words is hopefully obvious, it's the primary things a baby will need and get frustrated when trying to tell you when they don't yet have the ability to speak.

I was thinking that she wasn't really getting it at all, but all of a sudden, in the past couple of weeks, when she's fussing and I hit on the right sign, say for "thirsty", she stops fussing and smiles and gets all excited, so I give her a drink! I've also noticed she's trying to do the sign for "all done".

I made it through without signing with my other kids, so who knows if this will be helpful or not helpful in the long run.

FYI - my nephew signed, they had about 15 signs they used. He was not speech delayed at all, and at a year never fussed at all in frustration, he would sign and try to say the word to express his need, want or emotion. He also would sign to people that didn't know the sign, but he quickly learned that not everyone understands the sign and would take them over and point at what he wanted while continuing to sign and also try and say the word.

The other poster was right, there are pros and cons to everything, do what feels comfortable to you and your family.