Sign us up

When I was pregnant, I spent  large part of my gym time on the elliptical, thumbing through magazines. In addition to my normal favorites of Self, Glamour and Health, I read quite a bit of American Baby, Fit Pregnancy and Parents. I found a lot of information that didn't apply to me at the time, but there was a plethora of information that did apply. Tips for reducing swelling. "The truth about epidurals." What to eat. What not to eat. Stretches to alleviate back pain. Checklists for childproofing.

Among the articles that jumped out to me in the "You don't need this now but want to think about it later" category was one about using sign language with your baby. One of Tim's friends had done a bit of signing with his kids, and he told us a story of how his son signed that he wanted "more" potato chips on a road trip - and how cool it was that even at a young age, with limited verbal vocabulary, his son could communicate with them. I have friends who have toddlers that sign to their infants, and eventually, the infants pick up on the signs that way, too.

After Elle was born, Tim and I talked about it and did some research. Most of the information I found said that the best time to introduce signs is between 6 and 12 months old. We started around three months, largely so WE could practice :) Our first signs were extremely basic - "more" and "full."

For a while, I think Elle saw signing as something we did only when she ate. We slowly added more signs that we can use at other times, and now have an arsenal that includes Mom, Dad, cat, done/finished, milk, eat, diaper, bath, drink, hungry and sleep in addition to the first two signs of more and full. If Tim walks in to the nursery, I'll ask Elle if she sees "Daddy." Or I'll say and sign "All done" as I take her out of her jumperoo. She gets this look of intense and amused curiosity whenever we use our hands, whether we sign or not - she loves it when we clap, smiles slyly when I ask "Finished? Done?" after a meal, and looks at me like I'm crazy when I tell her "Dada is coming home for lunch."

"No, Daddy, no words. Zip it. Use your signs."

But over the last few months, she's definitely been getting it. She'll kick excitedly and have a big, eager grin when I ask her if she wants to eat or have some milk and sign it to her. When I merely say the words "Elle, do you want to eat?" she turns toward me and gets this crazed look in her eyes as she immediately looks at my hands, knowing what she'll find. I'll repeat the question, signing "eat," and you would think I just told her she won a trip to Disney Land.

You can practically see the gears moving in her head as she makes the connection that we're communicating with her, and she's slowly piecing it together. It is fascinating, and I love it. The other day, we both thought we saw her signing for milk - and I really don't think the day she purposefully signs for things is all that far away. We don't always remember to sign the words to her, and we're not trained ASL professionals, but at least we're creating a language that she can share with us. As Elle has developed motor skills and awareness of her limbs, you can also see her trying to make the connection between what we are doing with our hands and what her hands could do.  

Some of the touted advantages of signing to your child include the development of communication skills, reduced frustration because your child can express his or her basic needs, increased creative thinking, sense of accomplishment, increased literacy skills, heightened verbal skills, higher IQ, etc. (You know how all of these things work - a theory can be built up or torn down by "experts" in a quick Google search.) I don't know if I buy all of that, but I can totally see how communication skills would develop (heck, I see it already) and frustration would be reduced for both parent and child.

But regardless of the possible pros to signing with Elle, I just think it is really cool :)

There are DVDs that help teach signing (like Baby Sign Time), but for now, we've just been looking up individual signs on Web sites. I love this site and have used this site, too.

Any one else use sign language with their little one(s)? What signs do you use most frequently? At what age did they start signing back?