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Originally Posted by AnalBumCover
Has anyone here tried using baby sign language as an early form of communication? I was talking with my coworkers about my having to learn my 11-month-old's "language", and he mentioned I should try out sign language, which was incredibly successful with his sister's two kids. Are there any low cost/free sources out there that I can use?
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We did signs with both of our kids, as did a lot of our friends. No need to spend much on resources, and really you could always just make up your own signs even. Just signing to them as you talk, they are able to pick up the signs sooner than they can talk, which is fantastic. Our kids both made up their own signs as well once they had success communciating this way.
http://signwithme.com/images/SWM_cheat_sheet.jpg
There's one example of a sheet. We did buy something that had a little list of signs like that, and then you can find pictures or videos online to show you how to do the signs. The thing is, yo'ure only talking to your baby so it hardly matters if you get it right, as long as you're consistent. But there's tons of free sign language stuff out there, so just crib it from there.
All you do is use the sign as you're talking about stuff: "cat", "dog", "truck", "food". Big ones they love of course are "More" "eat" "drink" "sleep", but you'll be surprised by some of the ways they use them.
It was just really nice to be able to understand what they needed before they were old enough to formulate words. And no, it doesn't stunt their speech. Of course always keep talking even as you use the signs, they will too.