sign language for babies

lola_2-2

Thank you all very much! It all sounds very interesting - I am only planning to have a baby soon and was looking at books thinking about what i need to buy, read and courses to attend. This is a whole new world to me! (and I love it so far)... I am definitely going to try this, just not sure if I can learn enough from books or if I should attend a course. There are some inexpensive books on the market and there are books that come with dvd (which is probably more useful) This may be a good time to learn, before I get too busy...

bylromarha

lola wrote:

Thank you all very much! It all sounds very interesting - I am only planning to have a baby soon and was looking at books thinking about what i need to buy, read and courses to attend. This is a whole new world to me! (and I love it so far)... I am definitely going to try this, just not sure if I can learn enough from books or if I should attend a course. There are some inexpensive books on the market and there are books that come with dvd (which is probably more useful) This may be a good time to learn, before I get too busy...

Sounds a good idea to learn pre baby...in theory!

however, I don't know about the others on here, but I am not yet using all the signs I have been taught and have forgotten most of them. Pregnancy fried the once functioning brain!

I'd advise learning sign closer to the time when you'll be using it regularly, else you may end up having to relearn a lot...I am currently going through the animal signs again as I have "misplaced" them all!

lola_2-2

bylromarha wrote:

Sounds a good idea to learn pre baby...in theory!

however, I don't know about the others on here, but I am not yet using all the signs I have been taught and have forgotten most of them. Pregnancy fried the once functioning brain!

I'd advise learning sign closer to the time when you'll be using it regularly, else you may end up having to relearn a lot...I am currently going through the animal signs again as I have "misplaced" them all!

Good point, i will wait then - there is still plenty of time but not usre if I am going to take the course or get a book only. Did you find that course was much better than what you would learn from the book only?

bylromarha

lola wrote:

Good point, i will wait then - there is still plenty of time but not usre if I am going to take the course or get a book only. Did you find that course was much better than what you would learn from the book only?

The course was much better than the book. Most signs are hard to draw clearly, so the pictures I'm using to relearn have lots of arrows in different directions to show what to do for the sign.

The course also means you can check things with your teacher and get answers to questions you would never find in books...where else can someone "easily" find you the sign for butternut squash?!

Like I said before, do investigate what the local council can offer...the midwife and/or health visitor will be able to point you in the right direction. My friend was going to pay someone privately to do £5 for 1 hour...I had 10 hours + childcare for free.

crispeater

hi, i took my daughter to sing and sign classes when she was about 6 months. i only did the one term as i couldnt afford any more. but i looked up and booked marked the british sign language website. my dd is now 22 months and signs very well! i have to say it has probably helped lessen the tantrums as she can express herself and get across to me what she wants.
the nursery she attends also does sign and is encouraged. im not pregnant with no2 and will definately sign with this one too

Trix

My youngest has cerebral palsy and we used sign for her (as well as speaking the words of course) from early on as part of her speech therapy. It helped loads until she managed to talk when she slowly dropped the signing. The school she is at now uses signing and she understands loads but uses only a little. The signing used by us, the speech therapist and the school is Makaton though not BSL. BSL involves more facial and upper body movements and more conversational words whereas Makaton uses more just basic hand gestures but was derived from BSL. Cbeebies use Makaton on their 'Something Special' programmes.

See HERE for more info on Makaton.

Edit to say - I forgot Makaton uses pictures as well that my daughters friends have in a book to help them communicate when they can't speak and don't have full control of their hands. These can be used to help make 'timetables' of days events for children that help them understand their day.