I taught my now 4 year old son sign language as a baby for several reasons. First of all it's a great bonding activity, it promotes positive interactions. Second, it eased his frustrations by enabling him to communicate with me non-verbally as early as 10 months old. Third, it's just plain fun!
I started using it with my son at 6 months old to demonstrate things like, eat, drink, please, thank you, cat, dog, ball, so on and so forth. By 8 months old he responded to me but didn't sign back. By 10 months old he would sign eat, drink, and more. By 18 months of age he was saying and signing a huge vocabulary.
My little girl is going to be 6 months in February and that's when her big brother is going to start teaching her sign language...what a fun way to build their relationship :)
2007-01-24 09:13:48
·
answer #1
·
answered by totspotathome 5
·
4⤊
0⤋
Babies know what they want to tell you well before they have the ability to do so in words. Teaching them some simple signs is a good way to help them express themselves before they have the ability to talk.
It also helps them to learn to talk faster because it teaches them to associate things, actions, needs, etc. with signs that represent them... much like words represent meaning later on.
We have taught my 11 month old son several signs, and I am so glad that we did. We haven't gone all out with it, but he knows some. Today, he suddenly started signing "milk" frantically... I didn't have any milk on hand to give him, so I handed him a sippy cup full of water. Sure enough, he started gulping away at it! He sure was able to get across the idea that he was thirsty, and I was able to respond to that need. If that had not been in place, I think we would have had a temper tantrum on our hands.
Not only did knowing "milk" give little Robbie a way to ask me for a drink, it also shows that he gets the concept of what milk is, that it has a name (or a sign), and it is the appropriate thing to ask for when you are thirsty.
Robbie knows Mommy, Daddy, milk, eat, Peanut (our dog), more, hello, cookie, and tickle really well. We are working on drink, sleep, no, don't touch, hurt, and a couple of others. He will hopefully be able to communicate with us very well long before he can speak full sentences. Maybe that will avoid a little of the frustration that can lead to tantrums for baby and headaches for Mommy!
2007-01-28 11:20:05
·
answer #2
·
answered by Emily C 2
·
0⤊
0⤋
Babies have an amazing ability to remember. Just because they haven't quit figured out how to talk yet doesn't mean they don't understand or don't want to communicate. They are able to clap and wave bye-bye long before they can speak. By signing to the child you are providing another way of communicating, and after awile the child will be able to desiffer which hand motions go with what. Like bottle, or change, dog, or even mom. Later when they are able to speak youe child will be head of most childern because they are already in the process of learning two lanuages.
2007-01-24 09:15:17
·
answer #3
·
answered by Beautiful_nightmare 3
·
2⤊
0⤋
Because they learn familiar motions the same way they learn language.....they are much more physically able to make the hand motions and know what they mean then it is for them to develop speech.PEOPLE ARE TEACHING SIGN BECAUSE IT WORKS!!!
My best friend growing up was raised by a deaf mother...the mom had very little speech development...my friend learned more language through sign originally and she also learned spoken language. She was able to communicate better with her mother than most babies..who are never taught sign...and at a younger age.
2007-01-24 09:19:34
·
answer #4
·
answered by yidlmama 5
·
1⤊
0⤋
I hadn't planned to teach my infant sign language but during the days I worked with autistic children. I spent all day speaking and signing simultaneously. When I got home from work I'd often sign automatically. My kid picked up on it and began using it. She was only 6 or 7 months old when she was signing complete sentences, asking for what she wanted, explaining her wishes. It wasn't long until she began to speak but until then giving her the ability to communicate helped both her and me to have smoother days. You know how frustrating it can be to have a crying baby and not know how to soothe it.
Now my granddaughter uses an extensive vocabulary of sign and my daughter finds it extremely helpful to know what her child wants.
2007-01-24 09:14:21
·
answer #5
·
answered by CosmicKiss 6
·
2⤊
0⤋
Sign language is a very good way infants can communicate effectively. Infants are like sponges, they retain everything. Besides, it is a skill they can use during their whole life.
I plan on teaching my child(ren) sign language and at least one foreign language. It seems that the (unofficial) national languages of the US will be both English and Spanish, due to the current trend of Mexican and South American immigration.
2007-01-24 09:12:49
·
answer #6
·
answered by Anonymous
·
2⤊
0⤋
opposite to the common conception that getting to understand to signal has a adverse impact on the variety of speech, a tremendous variety of present day study is asking that it easily encourages a baby to advance language even as allowing them to talk. My boys both have extreme language issues afftecting both receptive and expressive speech and they experienced mammoth frustraion in the course of the first 2 years of their lives. We were no longer suggested to signal and that i change into reassured by potential of Drs that the lads' speech might want to advance (which it did not) - now I choose we had taught them uncomplicated indications. i'm particular it would want to have helped their frustration and our misery. My understand-how from the untimely toddler crew I belong to is that a tremendous variety of the children who signal (on that record) do no longer no longer have the coordination, muscle tone or potential to talk on an identical age as their friends and yet they study the indicators right away and with relative ease. So perchance different children you've encountered might want to nevertheless no longer have spoken till later no matter if or not they were taught to signal or no longer.
2016-10-17 03:10:42
·
answer #7
·
answered by catharine 4
·
0⤊
0⤋
i have a niece who took baby sign classes, and she remembers them. she has been using the signs for "more" and "all done" and a few others since she was five or six months old.
the intelligence behind this is that the desire to communicate and the ability to do so with sign develops before a baby's ability to use her/his tongue to communicate. speech is a more difficult skill than the understanding needed to use hand signals. the reason one does this is that babies *want* to communicate with you--their tongues and brains just aren't developed enough to do it. so being able to sign to you relieves some of the frustration.
why wouldn't you want your child to communicate with you with whatever tools available?
2007-01-24 09:17:08
·
answer #8
·
answered by jezebelring 4
·
2⤊
0⤋
It's a very simplified version of sign language to help the baby express their thoughts even though the thoughts don't take the form of words as you would understand them.
2007-01-24 09:09:52
·
answer #9
·
answered by Anonymous
·
6⤊
0⤋
My cousin is deaf. Her sister is trying to teach her two year old son sign lanuage. That's the only way he would be able to talk to her. Sign lanuage is a good thing to know.
2007-01-31 10:21:54
·
answer #10
·
answered by wetcat2009 4
·
0⤊
0⤋