Baby Sign

Abigail did her first sign yesterday! And I got it on video. All done. Abigail is just two days over eight months old.

For those of you who aren't familiar with baby sign, let me provide a brief overview. Firstly, here is a great website providing a fantastic description and sign illustrations.

To answer the first question that everyone asks me, no, signing with babies does not slow down the speed at which they speak. Here is some information on research done on just that.  "Research on baby sign language has found that teaching baby signs improved cognitive and emotional development. Far from slowing down speech, baby sign language actually increases the rate of verbal development and at the same time increases the parent/child bond."

I could not agree more. Both of my boys spoke at very normal, age-appropriate stages as I show below:

We noticed Isaac recognizing signs when he was about eight months old. Isaac's first sign was milk when he was 8.5 months old. By 10.5 months he had three signs. By 11 months, he was recognizing and/or using approximately five signs.  

Here is a video of Isaac signing please just before his first birthday. By one, he was stringing two signs together.  At 13 months, I captured in words his desire to please have his shoes put on. At 16 months, he had added airplane to his arsenal.

When it comes to speaking, by the time he was one, Isaac already had a few words.  By one and a half he was chattering away, so much so that we couldn't even write down how many words he was saying. Developmental milestones say that children should have one or more words by 13 to 18 months. Isaac had far surpassed that.

With Elijah, he was "sort of" making a sign around ten months old.  By the time 11 months came around, he was signing all done.  We laughed that more was his second sign. Man he loved to eat! He had two signs by the time he turned one.


Elijah was saying a few words at one, but they weren't very clear. But by 2 he was stringing together words. He wasn't as clear as Isaac had been, but his language was right on track. 

The boys talked fairly early, obviously nixing the idea that signs delay speech.

JB and I first witnessed sign from my friend Beth's little girl. She was still crawling, but when she saw a piece of cake, and she wanted it, she started rubbing her belly. No screaming. Just asking please. John and I were amazed and immediately started researching this fascinating ability for a crawling baby to make her needs known.

I can't tell you whether or not to use sign. But here's what I can tell you. My boys seem like very normal, run-of-the-mill three year olds. But as of today, neither of them has thrown a true temper tantrum. Okay, so yes, Elijah once lost his mind in Istanbul.  (And forever ever, anything closely resembling that performance is called an istanbul). But I could definitely tell that both of my boys were much less frustrated than children I saw who did not sign. They seemed to be able to communicate their needs as early as eight months. And that felt good. It did make me feel like I was understanding them as their Mom. JB agrees. It's a decision we love, and we'll never be persuaded otherwise. 


So there you have it. Any other signers out there? I'd love to hear from you.