Anyone here signing to/with their infants?

[AspenRose]

I'd like to hear about your experience....

[abelenkpe]

1. We just started with Connor

He will be ten months old in a week, so we began about three weeks ago. He started pointing at a lot of things recently so we thought it was a good time to start. So far the only one he has caught on to is eating. He is going through so many changes right now, starting to walk and adventuring all around our place, it might take a some time to see any results but I'll letcha know if we make any progress.

Are you trying it?

[AspenRose]

2. I would like to

I've just started reading up on it and it's my first kid so I'm kinda clueless about when to start. He'll be 4 months Monday.

[OnionPatch]

3. Daughter is four now but

when she was small, I taught her signing. I used the book "Baby Signs." We used signs from about 8 months to about two years. She started using words at around one but still used the signs until she could talk well. I thought it was great. She was able to tell me things she wouldn't have otherwise, so communication was greatly improved. Also, it was just plain fun. I think we used about 30 or more signs before she dropped them for words.

You can start signing now. They can begin learning the signs way before they start to use them. I signed at my daughter from very early on. She didn't start using them until about eight months.

[SCDem]

4. I love signing and so does my son!

My son is 18 months and I started signing to him at 5 months after taking a free class at the local library... Joseph Garcia's Signing with Baby series.

Anyway at nine months he started signing more. He only signed more until he was 12 months. I thought that he would never sign anything else. But I was proud at least that he was able to communicate to me that he wanted more (which always meant food!). I kept on signing to him other signs though.

At 12 months he had a signing explosion and signed three new words to me in one weekend. They say keep on signing even though they are not signing back to you and eventually they'll sign back. Well he did.

And it is still happening to this day. For instance whenever I give him oatmeal in the morning I say hot and sign hot. Yesterday we were sitting outside and he was playing and I said out loud boy is it hot outside. My son started signing hot! I was so excited and proud of him.

Even if your child only signs 4 words but it helps the two of you to communicate better and faster then I think signing is worth the time.

This is my little signing journal for Jonas.... started much later than his first sign though.

Jonas Signs as of 5/1/05
Bath
Eat
Hungry
Milk
More

As of 5/14/05
Cheese

As of 5/23/05
Water
Cookie

As of 5/30/05 (a very long rainy day!)
Rain
Thirsty

As of 6/5/2005
Hot

[AspenRose]

5. Thanks for the feedback and for the names of programs

The only one I've read about is sign2me.com.

This past weekend I learned about an ASL workshop for preschool kindergarten teachers at Santa Fe School for the Arts. I'm not a preeschool teacher but I called them and asked if I could participate in the workshop. They are supposed to teach 50 useful, everyday signs for the preschool kindergarten classroom. I already know the alphabet and a few signs already. They are also supposed to teach some songs and about how to use ASL to teach letter sounds and reading.

When I called they said they'd leave a message for the instructor to call me and let me know if they'd let me attend.

[Ravenseye]

6. We just started

Our daughter is 7 and a half months old now and can definately understand us so we decided it's about time to start signing.

We've been doing a few signs for a while. Diaper, Food/Eat...but now she's starting to get it. I knew she was starting to understand when she was laying on the floor, her 10 little ladybugs book was behind her and I said "Where's your ladybug book?" and she looked at me. "Where's your ladybug book?" and she looked around, and picked the book out of a bunch of toys and roughly handed it to me.

so now we've added in book, diaper, food/eat, drink, milk, more, and big...She's gotten big. She thinks it's funny when we say "How big are you?!" and she does the big sign.

She's not even really crawling yet, but we're starting to communicate with her and she loves it when we do.

oh, she can also shake her head "no". Good start.