Another ?? for Signing Mamas

what book? You can start signing with your baby whenever you want. Choose signs that you'd use often & come naturally, like "milk," "more," "all done/finished" etc. signing consistently with your baby will allow him to soak it in the way he soaks in spoken language. Typically, a baby is ready to sign back to you before s/he is ready to speak.

In our case, dd signed "more" at 8 months, & spoke her first 2 words at 9 months. Not a big difference but she had gross motor developmental delays & needed a year of PT. while she was focused on motor development, her expressive language slowed down greatly. Signing saved us from a lot of frustration! Again, when she was 2.5, she developed chronic fluid in her ears & had a moderate hearing loss for 3 months before she got tubes. Again, signing to the rescue

Ok, blathering on about us (insert blushing smilie). Sorry about that. Definitely sign to him in naturally occuring contexts (nursing, diaper changes, etc.). The more you sign the more comfortable you'll become signing & the easier it will be for all of you!

The book I have suggests starting around 6 months, but I figured it wouldn't hurt her in any way if I started earlier. I'd guess I started around 4 months, but kept forgetting and wasn't really consistent until closer to 5. DD is now 8 months, and has understood the milk sign for a long time. She also understands the verbal word "nurse" (which I say when I sign the milk sign). If I say the word or show the sign and she's hungry, she makes little grunty noises, or plows her head into my chest if she's on my lap. Or sometimes she just gives me a huge grin, lol. No sign of her signing back at this point, but I'm not concerned. We just started introducing the "bath" sign (she stares at me intently when I do it), and I also sign "kitty", except she's usually looking at the cat and not me, lol.