http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/babysign/

Have any of you heard about this and/or tried it? I think it sounds really cool and I think if I ever do have a baby I will try it. What do you all think?

My nephew and his wife have taught their daughter Laken to sign, she turned 2 last week. She is really good at responding to signing. I am very impressed. She is also taking Karate and is very coordinated because of it. She is very small and danty so her doctor thinks this is great for her too.

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Did your friends start teaching Laken to sign as soon as she was born or did they wait awhile? Does she communicate back with the signing - like if she's hungry or tired? I think it's so cool and can't wait to try it someday!

I taught my dog hand signs (not the official ones) and he mostly understands them. He understands when I snap my fingers and point to where I want him to go and he knows down and wait. Oh and he also knows "no barking!" hehe. But he has to really fight to obey that one sometimes. (Wait, that one's not a hand sign. Neither are these, but it's cute that he knows.) He also knows "eat" which is very funny because a lot of the time he wants to play and would rather play than eat so he runs over to his bowl, puts his face in it (but doesn't take any food) and then comes back to play. It's so funny. Other times he will obey even if he wants to play instead.

Wendy - My sister went to school to learn sign language (she's a special ed teacher). All of her kids learned signing from the time they were able to sit. Since they weren't talking yet, that was how she taught them to say 'more' or 'done'... stuff like that.

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http://rchiprean.abmp.com/index.html

They started from day one and she signs back really good, better than me!

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Does it take a long time to learn?

Wow! That is so cool! I hope DH and I can learn it so we can teach our baby (if we have one).

Wendy - It's pretty simple. You can get a book from the library to see what some of the signs are.

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http://rchiprean.abmp.com/index.html

Thanks I think I'll check out Amazon.com. Do you have any book recommendations?

http://www.mybabycantalk.com/content...a-6322f9a75fac

I just found this site that has a video dictionary showing the hand signs for babies. It's really cool!

Both of my kids signed as babies and we still do some like when we are in a crowd instead of yelling at them to stop I sign No and they stop

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That's really cool, Lisa. I've read that they can start learning at like 4 months - do you find that to be true?

I started signing with my ds as soon as he came home form the hospital. He now "talks" to me with words and signing. it is wonderful and I will do it again if we have another child. It made the temper tantrums so much easier and shorter b/c he could tell me what he wanted.

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jvbmom, how soon was he able to start signing back to you? Sorry everyone if I'm asking too many questions, but I find this to be fascinating.

My kids could both do 3 or 4 signs by about 8mths. They started to understand them much earlier. My nephew is non-verbal autistic so we as a family use a lot of signs. There is a great video series for kids that teaches signs called "Signing Time" there is a lot of singing and dancing and the kids love it.

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My nephew said Laken was signing early on like at 2 months. I can't say because I did not see it. She now signs when we are talking not to interupt us. She knows it well as well as they are also teaching her Spanish too. She can say her abc and count in Spanish. She ask for something to drink and eat and is becoming pretty good speaking it too. I am amazed but they tell me now is the time to introduce her to these things and they will be second nature to her. I have to agree after seeing and being around her. She is well developed in learning and picks things up quickly.

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Lisa, that is great they are teaching Spanish too! My kids speak a lot of spanish (Dave is fluent) and when they are older we plan on taking some mission trips to Guatemala with them so they can understand how great it is to live here.

Dave and the girls speak spanish and I dont understand a word of it and the girls think it is great that I dont.

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Time for you to teach yourself and surprise them.

I think it is wonderful when we can train our children to communicate with anybody regardless of nationality. I love it they taught her signing too and karate for her own well being too. I think children need all the extras today in this world they can get for their future careers especially.

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