I started signing to my daughter when she was a bit older than 6 months as I have read so much about this and I thought to myself "why not"? Of course, there were some skepticism when I first started as Baby Signing is still not very widely known or used in Asia. I chanced upon this reading an UK parenting magazine some time ago when I first found out I was pregnant and was just intrigued with the idea that I can "communicate" with my baby through signing.
I first learnt about signing from a book by Monta Briant and later realised that there was another version available which was a kit that consisted of a book (which covers how to sign, how to tell if baby is signing, the actual signs, etc.), an audio CD of some baby songs and a instructional book that goes along with it that teaches one how to sign to the songs and some ASL flashcards. I got the kit at a huge discount at 40% off from borders (will save that tip for another post).
I started to sign, like most typical parent, the basic stuff first such as "Milk", "Food", "More", etc. And I slowly introduced the "fun" stuff like fish (which my baby loves!), dog, duck, trees, stars, etc.
It took about slightly over a month before she started signing back and her first sign was milk (no surprise there since I am such a glutton and she must have gotten my genes!). Subsequently, she started signing more things - fish (we have a fish tank at home and whenever she wants to be carried out onto the balcony to see the tank, she signs it), dog (we have 2 at home), etc.
2 common questions I get asked about signing is if it hinders her speech development and if it is hard.
My baby has not turned 1 yet so I cannot say for sure about her speech development but so far, she knows and can speak the words "bag", "bear", "duck" in addition to "Mom" and "Papa". So, for the moment, I feel that signing has actually aided her in understanding words and items better. Additionally, when we sign, we sign AND say the word at the same time hence, she is exposed to the sound of the word. One other positive point about signing so far is that she is able to communicate with us better and it seems to reduce her frustration as I am now able to understand if she is hungry (wants "milk") or wants to head out and see the "fish" tank or she is still not full from the porridge and wants "more". If she has not been able to sign these words, I think we would have caught on much later. But of course, there are different school of thoughts out there and different research materials. Some research claims that it actually aids the child in speech development while others think otherwise.
As for the second question if it is hard, well, I read somewhere in a baby magazine that a baby needs to hear the same word about 500 times before he speaks it. So, in the same way, signing requires a lot of repetition. Do not be discouraged if your baby does not signing back at first because it can take many weeks especially since they are still developing their motor skills. So sign sign sign and she will sign back in time.
For those who are keen, this is how the kit looks like.
This is the link should you want to find out more 'product information': http://www.hayhouse.com/details.php?id=2953
Additionally, for parents who do not mind their babies watching DVDs, I would recommend this series called Baby Signing Time. I have not tried out other series as my daughter seems to enjoy this alot. I personally find the songs in the series catchy and there are animation which captures her attention and the word to the sign is always flashed on the screen which I think is useful for her.
This is the link to the website http://www.babysigningtime.com/ and you can even see the videos of other babies signing to some words. I found this useful because a lot of times as the babies are still developing their motor skills, they are unable to achieve the 'perfect' sign as they may sign in close proximity to what the actual sign is or they may use one finger instead of all, etc. So, this gives me a rough idea of what the variances are.
Try it out and let me know how your signing went. =)
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