Signing with your child

[heyblue41]

We love Signing Time in our house!  Baby Signing Time is great, too.  Signing was our savior for my late talker.   My ds would pick up signs so fast, sometimes I would have to have him show me which video he learned the sign from!  I would say ds has over 300 signs just from the ST series.

[cynlim78]

Hi All,

The Book by Joseph Garcia called Sign with your baby is not bad too.

It teached on How to communicate with infants before they can speak.

Cheers,
Cyn

[Buckeroo]

I actually started with Dr. Linda Acredolo and Dr. Goodwyn's BABY SIGNS: HOW TO TALK WITH YOUR BABY BEFORE YOUR BABY CAN TALK.  They are the pioneers of the infant signing movement and whose research all other signing programs (including Joseph Garcia's, et.c) use and cite to tout the benefits of signing with hearing babies.

I wish I had the Baby Signs® Complete Starter Kit when I first learned about signing with my son; it would have come in so handy with the manual, DVD, board books, video dictionary, and the Signs at a Glance™ Flip Guide. 

[CTZuraimah]

wow...lots to learn...thanks for sharing

[rafikipaka]

I have used American Sign Language with both my daughters, 4 & 2, since birth.  I researched the different methods while still pregnant with the first and determined that I would not be using any "Baby Signs" materials since the use of American Sign Language was so important to me as a Sign Language Interpreter.  I understand that some of the signs that are modified for "Baby Signs" make it easier for the baby to reproduce the sign, but it bothers me that some of the modified signs are so close to vulgar words in American Sign Language.  Because my children and I are often signing around Deaf adults, it would mortify me to have my children reproduce some of those signs.  If you are not around Deaf people often, and you are not planning on building your child's skills to use American Sign Language as a second language, then this may not be important to you.

While researching, a friend of a friend introduced me to "Sign With Your Baby" by Joseph Garcia.  I didn't like the book as much as I liked the Complete Learning Kit.  For beginner signers, the pencil drawings in the book can be hard to figure out, but the Kit comes with a DVD that shows a real person signing each word.  It also includes a laminated card that lets you keep track of your baby's signing milestones.  This is what I started using with my first daughter, and I was incredibly pleased with the products, and her success!  Similar to other posts, she began signing back to me around 8 months of age.  She was pretty consistent with at least 5 signs by 10 months old.  By 22 months she didn't speak a lot, but she could sign over 300 words!  By the time she started talking, we couldn't get her to stop!  People now comment on how short my poor daughter is because she speaks much better than an almost-4-year-old normally would!  My almost-2-year-old speaks in full sentences and is constantly amazing strangers.  "I don't want that.  I want this.  Are you OK, Momma?  I'm sad.  You funny!  Want [TV] show please."  She can speak so much better than my first daughter did at that age!  It's really amazing...

But I don't think that there's anything special about my children.  I believe that any child given the opportunity to sign with their parent from an early age will have this same type of result.  A dozen of my friends use "Sign With Your Baby" and "Signing Time" and "Baby Signing Time" Videos, and their results are just like ours.  It's really cute to watch the kids play together.  The 4-year-olds have little adult-like conversations while the 2-year-olds scream because one of their toys has been taken from them.  So they run to grab it back, hollering, and signing "SHARE!!!"

As someone else stated previously, "Baby Signing Time" is best for 1 year and under, "Signing Time" is best for 1 and older.  However, if you are interested in continuing your American Sign Langauge experience, "Signing Time" has just released Series 2 which is made up of 13 DVD's that are GREAT for older kids (and adults).  My 4-year-old likes them, but they're a bit above the 2-year-old's head.  We also have an 8-year-old neighbor who's always at our house; she'll watch "Signing Time," but really enjoys Series 2.  Rather than teaching individual words, it teaches whole sentences and phrases, like:  "My name is Rachel, what's your name?"

Wow, I didn't realize how long this was, I gotta go!  Check out these sites for more info...
www.Sign2Me.com
http://www.sign2me.com/shop/page11.html
www.SigningTime.com
www.BabySigningTime.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Signwithyourbaby/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=1

[rafikipaka]

For those of you who might use Little Reader, I've finally figured out how to upload my American Sign Language categories!  You see and hear the written word, see a picture and hear the word, and see a short video clip of me signing the word or phrase.  I've only got 4 up there right now, but by tomorrow morning I should have all 14 of the ones I've made.  The word lists come from the Sign2Me Lessons 1-6 (based on "Sign With Your Baby" by Joseph Garcia).  Just search for uploads by RafikiPaka.  Enjoy :-)

[KL]

Or better still, just click on your name next to your post, and scroll down to the Downloads by Member section!

I checked them out - BRILLIANT! They'll be very popular I'm sure! And you converted your videos into swf format! Well done!! Which tool did you use?

btw, the only suggestion I could give you to make them even better is to use Easy Voice Recorder to trim the audio files - take out the long silence in the beginning so they play immediately. Just use EVR to select the beginning part of the waveform with your mouse, and hit DELETE!

Well done again!

[rafikipaka]

neat! I had no idea you could search for member downloads that quickly!!  I'll have to give it a try :-)

I'm SO thrilled about the software Lappy suggested in post:  http://forum.brillkids.com/little-reader/useful-resources-section/  I've already downloaded, installed, and successfully used 2 of the products.  They are SIMPLE and work AMAZINGLY well!!!  I got K-Lite Codec Pack so that my computer could "see" the .swf files, and I got FREE Video To Flash Converter to turn the .avi's to .swf's.

I hadn't posted ANY files because all of mine were SO enormous, and I'd been waiting to hear back from you guys about the few I'd turned in on the "Large File" site.  As soon as I saw that post, I started working on the conversions, and I should have all 16 categories uploaded by the time I hit the hay tonight :-)  (I'm so glad I was finally able to get them up here before the BETA ended so that I could get some points!)

I feel badly about the 2-second silences because I figured a lot of people may not like them, but I did it for a reason.  We use the "Your Baby Can Read" DVD's in our home, and since my children are 2 and 4, once they've learned the words, it gives them a chance to say or sign the word on the screen before they are told the correct answer (just like on their DVD's).  If I say the word immediately, I don't know if they are just repeating what they hear, or if they actually recognize the word.  So I always leave a 2-second silence on ALL my flash cards.  I figured that if it really bothered anyone too much, they'd just re-record their own voices anyway...that's one of the amazing features in your program - being so customizable!! :-)

and thanks for the compliments - I hope they are popular :-)

[KL]

Ah I see!

Anyway, well done again!

For all of you interested in teaching signing, do check out Rafipaka's amazing Little Reader Categories!
(here's another plug for ya! )

[rafikipaka]

heheheh :-)  THANKS!!  I was just searching the forums, and I've been amazed how many hits I've gotten for "sign language, american sign language, baby signing, etc!  I can't believe I never thought to look it up on you guys' site!  Gotta run...got lots of browsing to do now! :-)

[patience]

Hello Everyone!

I have heard about most of the signing dvd's and books mentioned, but the only one my son will give the time of day is Say It With A Sign Vol 1,2,and 3. No matter what he is doing if he hears it come on he stops whatever he is doing to come and watch. I called the company to see if there would be more, but unfortunately these are the only three. There are a total of 150 signs that are taught on the DVD's altogether and the thing that I like most is the repetition (each word is signed and spoken 6 times). These have been great for him, but I do think as he gets older (he is 10 months now) I will have to try something new. For more information you can go to: http://www.sayitvideos.com/

[Maddy]

Hi everybody

For anyone starting out with baby signing, check out the new Signing article on BrillBaby!

It covers the history of baby signing, tips on getting started, plus scientific research into the benefits of signing with hearing babies.

I'm a big fan of baby signing myself, and my 12-month-old daughter uses nearly 30 signs (see my blog for details). If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

Happy signing, everyone!

Maddy

[nhockaday]

rafikipaka-- can you do a signing category for colors?

[rafikipaka]

Definately!!  It might take me about a week just  because we're working on our house this week (we'll be listing it soon) so it might take me slightly longer than my last set - but that'll be the next ones I do!  Thanks :-)

[nhockaday]

Thanks, that will be awesome!

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