Monthly Archives: February 2010

So the Kid is not really talking yet, and to compensate, I’ve been teaching him to sign so he has some way to communicate. It started out slow at first, but now he’s able to learn one or two new signs a day. He’s even made up some signs himself.

The easiest signs for the Kid to learn were signs that he could relate to an object or picture. He learned several animal signs (dog, elephant) and favorite things (book) right away. Concept signs takes longer, but it feels good to see it “click” for him after working on it for a while. Combining a sign with a verbal phrase helps (such as “All done!), and it encourages him to talk. At first, he just parroted the signs back to us, but now he uses them as language, to indicate what he wants or answer a question.

Interestingly, he took a very long time to learn Mommy and Daddy, but now he uses them a lot, especially when he hears one of us in the other room or is asking for one of us. The sign for Daddy is pointing at the forehead with the thumb, and the sign for Mommy is pointing at the chin with the thumb. But the Kid points at his neck when he wants to say “Mommy.” So I think he’s saying that Mommy is a pain in the neck, which I guess is true sometimes.

I recommend focusing on one or two signs at a time and not moving on to the next until the child is using those really well. It’s best to start with signs that relate to immediate needs (eat, drink, more) or for which you can find concrete examples (animals, objects). Then move on to more abstract concepts such as “all done,” “help” and “thank you.”

Use the sign every time you say the word or see a picture of it, and make sure the child is looking at you when you sign. I’ve found that showing the Kid the sign using his own hands, rather than just making the sign myself, helps him learn it faster. It’s important to reign in our tendency to guess what our children want and to make them request it specifically with the sign; for instance, I might ask, “Do you need help?” but I wait until he makes the sign for “help” before I actually do help him.

There are many well-established signs, but I see nothing wrong with making up our own when it suits us. We made up signs for giraffe, elephant and helicopter, for instance — some of the Kid’s favorite things. He even made up his own sign for fish. He moves his hands up and down while singing “mmm mmm, mmm mmm.” I don’t get it, but it works for him. (Maybe it’s meant to mean fish swimming.)

You don’t need to buy a book or video or take a class to start signing. Here are a few good online resources that are FREE (although they are all selling something, of course), which also have a lot more information about signing and language development:

• Baby Sign Language Dictionary
• Signing with Your Baby
• American Sign Language Browser — if you can’t find the sign somewhere else; you may have to modify more complex signs
• Teach Me to Talk – a great resource if you are worried about speech delays