For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

What books to you recommend getting.

I might be a little late in the game. but DH and I were discussing this morning, that it won't hurt to try and start.

Anything else you can recommend?

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

I don't have any specific baby books (I'm a speech therapist-with birth-5 year olds) but I don't think its too late to start with your daughter at all. My son was 11 months when I started.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

JMO of course, but I started with the sign for "more" he was motivated by food, so he picked up the sign very quickly- "more" gerber puffs for sure!!! I would keep the amount of sign limited- meaning teach one at a time...I chose functional words and he now uses 6 consistently: more, all done, eat, open, give me, and help. .. and always say the words as you teach her so she can hear the verbal model.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

just curious, but why teach "more" and not the actual sign for the object/food he wants? i am taking a baby signs class starting this sunday.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

I have Baby Signing by Andrea Fixell & Ted Stafford. I got it as a gift and just started flipping through it but it looks pretty interesting so far.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

We got a book as a gift so we just went with that. It's called Baby Sign Language Basics. It's got about 60 basic ASL signs in the back of the book. We're really only using food associated ones for now and the one for cat b/c ours are always around. We'll add more as time goes on.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

the reason why i asked is because to me it seems like teaching "more" is not any easier than the actual sign for the food and the word "more" is only good if the child already had what they are asking "more" for. KWIM? otherwise isnt it possible that a child could walk around saying "more" and the parent is still left trying to figure out what they wanted to begin with?

it just seems to me that teaching the actual label of the food they want is more salient than an abstract concept of "more." i thought the idea of teaching signs was to eliminate frustration on the part of the child who may not be able to communicate other than thru crying or tantrum and reduce the frustration on the caregiver's part too b/c they would be able to understand their child's need.

sorry, didnt mean to start a debate or hijack the thread LOL! i am actually working on a case where sign lanuage is being used and this has been on my mind for a while.

i have the baby signs book and i will get some more books at this class on sunday.

Message edited 2/15/2007 10:24:44 PM.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

I totally understand what you mean about why not teach the sign for the actual food, but I think it depends on what you plan on using sign language for. For me, I guess it's a matter of not having the time to invest in learning all the signs and also in teaching her. I am not with her all day, so to try to reinforce all those signs would just be a chore if she's not going to be using sign language as her means of communication from now on. It's just supplementary, as far as we're concerned with Ava. I also think that the concept of "more" is important for them to learn at 6, 7, 8 months old, and not so much "apple". Because you're not really making the connection if they keep signing "apple" everytime they want another piece of apple. Does that make sense? To me, if I wanted more of soemthing, I say more, not "chicken" or "apple" or "tickle". She also does the sign for drink and for all done.
Again, like I said, I really think that it depends on what you are using sign language for. If I had a speech delayed child, of course I would teach them more signs, and infact, I would use it in conjuction with other techniques like pictures of their favorite foods and toys on a tablet or what not. But as far as we can tell, Ava's not speech delayed, so I don't plan on treating her as if she is. I'm sure she would benefit from knowing more signs, but ehh, she'll be fine.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

thanks rachel, i appreciate the response back

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Posted by groovypeg

thanks rachel, i appreciate the response back

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Baby Signs is a good book and Signing Smart with Babies and Toddlers is nice as well. The Signing Smart book I think gives a detailed approach about how to teach your baby including tons of activities and how you can incorporate sign into them. It's definitely not too late to start!

I know I’m just adding to the “more” debate, but I’m also a speech pathologist and I personally don’t like to teach more as an initial sign. Sorry Erin! In my experience when more is taught first, children tend to overgeneralize the sign and use it for everything. The sign for more basically becomes a way of saying “I want.” It doesn’t tell you what they want more of and often they use they sign when they don’t have anything to begin with so they’re not really asking for more. I’ve had a lot of kids come to me in preschool that were taught to sign more by their EI therapists and had A LOT of problems learning to use any other signs because they would just use more for EVERYTHING. Keep in mind though that my experience has been with autistic and language delayed children so maybe typically developing children won’t have so much of a problem with this. There’s nothing wrong with teaching more, but personally I would just wait until the child had a handful of other signs first. I’ve been signing with my DS really since birth. Not expecting him to sign back initially, but just pairing signs with my spoken language. He didn’t start signing back until 10 months when he did his first sign for “lights” (his favorite thing in the world) and within a few weeks he’s now got about 6-7 signs that he uses.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

I hear there is a video that is great. Has anyone heard of this?

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Message edited 2/16/2007 6:17:15 AM.

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Thanks Everyone.

I just want to teach her a few things, and then we will decide if we will teach her everything
I appreciate all of your help

Re: For moms that are teaching/or have taught sign language

Posted by Marcie

Thanks Everyone.

I just want to teach her a few things, and then we will decide if we will teach her everything
I appreciate all of your help