Too Late to Start Teaching Sign Language

[Trinity]

My daughter is eight months old.  Is is it too late to start teaching her sign language?  I think it would be useful, but maybe reading and math should be the priority.

[Lappy]

Hi Trinity!

Personally I think that no, it's never too late to teach your daughter a skill as useful and as fun to teach as sign language!  Plus, there are so many tools that can help facilitate teaching it too - I do hope you have a look at our partner Signing Time, they provide an excellent line of educational shows which can make learning sign language fun for you and your daughter.

And i also believe that you can teach your child reading, math and sign language at the same time - the lessons don't have to take so much time!

[nhockaday]

No way is it too late. I started teaching my son at 6 months and it took him several months to catch on.

[norcalmommy]

Definitely not too late.  In fact, it might just be a perfect time since you're more likely to see evidence of understanding a bit sooner.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sign language for babies. 

Here's some suggestions:
#1 - Start with only a few signs.   I started with only three signs for my son:  eat, more and all-done.  I used those three because they were very different.  I believe you can overwhelm your child with too many and when they try to use them, some look so similar it's difficult to understand what they're signing. This leads to confusion and frustration.

#2 - Look for Sign Approximation.  Like speaking, babies don't sign perfectly when they start. Be on the look out for sign approximation which is like baby-talk in sign language.  My son's sign for eat looked like he was waving his arm at first.  (Eat is really signed by putting your fingers to your mouth.)  Pretty close, but it still took me awhile before I realized he was signing eat since I didn't know much about sign approximation! 

#3 - Encourage their signing. Once I noticed that my son was doing one of the three signs (more, for instance), I would say "More, you want more" (while doing the sign) in a super happy voice. Give him a big kiss and give him more.  Then you see the light bulb go off for them - they really understand they're communicating and they realize they can influence their world. 

#4 - Add more signs once you see understanding.  Once you see some understanding through the use of one or more signs, start adding others.   Most of our first signs were eating related. Then we added others like, Bath, Help, Flower etc.  These were REALLY helpful!  Even today, my son will say the word and do the sign for many words, such as bath.  Since he says bath like "ba", it could be a variety of things, however I see the sign too and know exactly what he wants.

#5 - Only use signs that allow your child to also say the word at the same time.  I had a bad piece of advice on the sign for dog that basically taught the child to pant with their tongue out.  While cute at first, not very practical since he couldn't do the 'sign' and say the word at the same time. 

#6 - Watch videos of babies signing to help you learn sign approximation. These were by far my favorite videos to watch because both the baby and the Mom did the signs so I learned both the real sign and an example of approximation.  I didn't really learn signs from books, mostly just this person's videos.  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/7gSZfW4gVhI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/7gSZfW4gVhI&rel=1</a>

I believe signing was a huge reason my son was such an early talker. He understands communication because we've been doing it so early and without much frustration for so long.   

Best of luck to you!!!

[norcalmommy]

Oh, if you want to see my son signing, here's another video for you.  If you know any of these 'real' signs, you'll really notice his signs are still very "baby talk" but we understood each other!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/60fOxN8txJQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/60fOxN8txJQ&rel=1</a>

[LongTallDrink]

I agree - you're in plenty of time, Trinity! I didn't start showing Marina the baby einstein My First Signs dvd I was given as a shower gift until she was 8 months old. She loved (and still does) that but didn't start showing the signs right away.

When she started showing me the words she could read (YBCR) before she could say them by signing them, I wanted to go all the way with it so I opted for Series One Signing Time dvds instead of Baby Signing Time.

So far, we've got 1-6 and she loves them! I'm trying to find more work so I can afford to get the next batch - I can't recommend them highly enough. I finally got around to printing out the series one review chart the other day and the kid can sign 80 and understands many more. I'm also finding this an invaluable tool in teaching her other languages - signing acts like a bridge of sorts.

Here is another great online resource that I frequently use as a reference for words that haven't been covered yet in Signing Time:

http://www.lifeprint.com/

Good luck and have fun with it!

[LongTallDrink]

I forgot to mention another huge benefit - no tantrums!! Marina's able to communicate nearly all of her needs and when we run into glitches (usually because mama's being dense), she doesn't freak because she knows I'm trying and I'll get it eventually.

If this was the only plus to teaching your child ASL, it would be enough!

[Trinity]

Thanks for everyone's incredible replies!  Norcalmommy -- I love the video of your son!  I hadn't heard of the concept of sign approximation, but it makes perfect sense.  LongTallDrink -- I am so glad that your daughter started at the same age as my is. . .I'm going to check out those DVDs.

[rose08]

My daughter is 11months...so u dont think that that is too old to learn?

[nhockaday]

My daughter is 11months...so u dont think that that is too old to learn?

NO! Since she is older, she should catch on faster. Try it! It's a lot of fun, and it's great to be able to communicate with your baby before she can say a lot. Most of us recommend trying some Baby Signing Time or Signing Time DVDs. They really work wonders. BST is great for starting out b/c they cover the basic signs that are important to know, and they have easier signs for a baby to master.

[trinity papa]

Rose luckily you dug up this post ....... initially i wasn't sure about signing, becoz my girl was able to blabble alot from 4mths+, and i tot she would learn to speak very quickly, ...... if she learn signing she might go into signing more than trying to speak ..... how wrong i was ...... i did some research on my own only lately .... meaning this week ..... and this is my own opinion ......

1) I tot by teaching her words and she being able to pick things up for me was communication. But it isn't .... becoz she couldn't tell us what she wants ....., its more of a one way comm..... i mean simple sound like mumm mumm is for hungry, or rubbing tummy means she wants to go ....., but for others ....??

2) Maddy and others have shown, and like the research i read (many references etc) says that because you are teaching signs for everyday living stuff, you keep repeating the words to them while teaching and repeating them day in day out, very soon when signing, they will learn to speak those phrases too since they have been signing and listening to you signing to them hundreds of time .... like eating, more, water etc ..... looks like constant repetition helps .....

3) Never to late to learn. Yeah did regret not teaching earlier, so never too late to start, i just started signing with her on yesterday and she is doing eat, water and more now .... so the later they are the faster they learn ... surprise surprise ..... also i saw "my baby can talk - first signs" they say auditory and motor skills are better at 10 mth and they recommend teaching from 10mths ....

4) Yes babies wants to comm with you, but they can't vocal it yet so signing helps to lessen tantrums, but there are other ways to reduce tantrums too.... look for Happiest toddler on the block ..... by Harvey Karp, alternatively you can try, like me, alternative means .... by sensing ...

[purplefungi]

No, it's not too late at all! Actually in one of the signing for babies books that I read (unsure of which one) they say to start signing to and with your baby at nine months of age. You might not actually see a baby sign until after a month or two of signing. This is about right for what happened with my oldest, Dirk.

Dirk is now two, and we have just started Signing Time with him. He really liked it and was trying to do some of the signs from the movie. It was neat to see him try to do different things.

One of the best resources for learning ASL was a community education program that I took. The class learned about 40-50 different signs a week and met on Tuesdays. The cost was 30 USD which was way worth it. Our teacher was fabulous. If you do want the child to learn ASL for future use then it is probably best to teach ASL from the beginning, however, sometimes made-up signs work best. We made up signs for Stargate (the TV show) and some other things that I can't remember now. If learning to sign is going to be used only as a means to better communicate with you then following your child's lead is the best option. Some ASL signs are hard for me to do as an adult when I can make up a sign that would make more sense maybe and the baby could learn it faster.

One problem that we had with signing was that I knew what my baby was trying to say, however my parents and inlaws did not beyond the sign "milk." It was frustrating for family members to see that my child was trying to communicate with them, but they could not understand. I tried showing them different signs, but I think that it was too overwhelming for them. That's okay, though. You can only do so much.

Keep us posted on how all the signing goes. It's a wonderful and beautiful way to communicate!

[saniso]

NOt too late at all,

think about it this way:

You will be teaching your child another language: ASL by which he/she will be able to communicate with children who  are hearing impaired.
 What a great benefit!
 Infact once I organize my life a bit , I plan to continue to teach my child ASL, and learn it myself too,

[Kyles Mom]

OK now this is a new and interesting topic for me, I left it cos I really wanted the reading and math on track before I start on others......

Can some one please tell me why to teach sign language and if I can start with my almost 28month old son?

[nhockaday]

OK now this is a new and interesting topic for me, I left it cos I really wanted the reading and math on track before I start on others......

Can some one please tell me why to teach sign language and if I can start with my almost 28month old son?

http://forum.brillkids.com/teaching-your-child-other-topics/signing-with-your-child/ Read through this thread. There are some facts and helpful info on it. At 28 months, Kyle is probably communicating pretty well, so you could teach him signs for fun, but I don't think it will help too much with language unless he is delayed.

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