Teaching Your Baby Sign Language - DON'T GIVE UP!!!

One of the BEST things I ever did with raising my children (from number one) was to teach them sign language. Children are able to communicate with their hands before they are able to form speech. I have had the temper tantrums from a child not getting their way, but I rarely had a temper tantrum from a child not being understood (and not once after they learned to sign).

I knew when they wanted more food, more drink, tooth hurt, medicine please, all done, more more, up please, down, Mommy, Daddy. And when I was cooking or tending to something else, the older children could read the signs of baby for me "Mom, Baby wants more food." "Mom, baby wants down, he's all done."

Now don't get me wrong, while the rewards of your child knowing sign language are WONDERFUL and do make life easier for you AND for baby, it is not easy work. It takes a lot of TIME and effort on your part to teach baby.

I started teaching each of my children when they were six months old. The first of course picked it up right away. She was doing several signs by the time she was one year old. Sign language was a life saver for our second. She had a mild form of apraxia and was still not speaking more than three of four words by the time she was two years old. It took her longer to learn sign, but once she did she BEGGED for more. We had to learn many more signs simply because she couldn't speak the word, but she wanted to sign it.

Our third picked it up pretty quick too, which was good since she had a little bit of a lisp and it was difficult to understand her most of the time. It still can be sometimes, but she is so patient and will repeat herself several times when asked to and not get angry at all.

Baby JJ is now 13.5 months. I thought he would NEVER sign. But perseverance paid off. He is now picking up signs faster than I can teach them! Out of no where he is signing:
more please
all done
up Mommy
Daddy
medicine
drink

Now this is me singing "more" after EVERY bite at EVERY meal (just like I did with the other children). It is signing "Mommy" every time I say the word. Singing "medicine" every time I give him some (even the homeopathic teething tablets). Even the girls would sign to him. And sometimes even move his hands to make the sign. It was AMAZING to see him catch on that he could SIGN and I could UNDERSTAND instead of him screaming and me not knowing what he wanted. I could SEE the light bulb moment going off in his head. And now, even though he may not know the sign for something, he keeps trying to use his hands to talk to me. The amount of screaming he was doing went down to almost nothing, and the smiles he is smiling have really increased to almost double what they were! It is WONDERFUL!

I also want to let you know to be very watchful of your baby while they are learning to sign. Not every baby will sign the word properly. AA would sign "more" by pointing one finger to her hand. Baby JJ claps his hands once or twice to sign "more." He cannot move his hands in a circle for "please" so he rubs his chest and belly up and down rapidly. (How cute is THAT?) Your child will even invent signs to talk to you if you are paying enough attention.

So if you are teaching your baby sign (and if you aren't , then why not? ;-) ) have patience and stick with it. I know too many people who gave up after only one or two months saying that their baby would never sign. Your baby WILL learn to sign. Sometimes after only a few months and sometimes after several months of working on it. But they will learn! And in the process they also learn patience. :) It takes TIME and PATIENCE or your part and it is so worth them both!