Anyone signing?

We are signing, and have been for a few months here. We use verbal cues while we sign so our LO is receiving both visual and auditory ways to help him communicate his needs/desires. I can't speak to long-term deficits in verbal language development because we are just in the beginning stages here but I can tell you it has been a god-send. He can't say "drink" but he sure can sign it!

I'm not interested in signing as a second language, long-term. Not that there isn't value in it, but instead we are focused on short-term essential signs (hungry, tired, happy, momma, daddy, drink, nurse, etc.). My hope is that once the oral development catches up to his brain, we'll be able to drop the signing.

It definitely has not slowed down his talking. Little guy talks all day long...

I did some basic "baby signs" with DD starting around 9 months. It took awhile for her to use them but once she got the idea it was great. More and all done where favorites.

I started to use signs with both kids around the time that peek-a-boo became a reciprocal game (if that makes sense.) Both kids picked up on them soon after. So maybe 9 months ish for DD and a bit later for DS (who has Ds).

I think it helped DD to be able to communicate very clearly some basic desires before she was able to verbalize them. I do not think it hindered her verbal abilities one bit. If anything, it helped me to recognize her early verbalizations as words since they always accompanied signs.

Something interesting I have noticed, as an older child she would use her signs when she was flooded and unable to speak (temper tantrum type times). She also seems to be using them more now that she has a baby brother who is learning them. At no point does she seem to prefer to sign, they just started appearing along with her speech as DS started using them.

I am signing with my 15month old and it REALLY helps us cut down on tantrums. She speaks some words but mostly signs. For us it really helped mostly because she has a speech delay and so we avoided a lot of the tantrums that come with not being able to communicate. She recognizes probably 30 signs and signs back about 10 right now. She's learning very very quickly though. Her big sisters are the best at teaching her new signs. I think we started around 5 or 6 months and she was signing back at 9 months. I know people say that they speak less because they can sign but I think it's what you make of it. If you solely taught sign and didn't speak to them, well they would think that that's how we communicate. If you sign AND speak, they learn the sign faster most times and then learn the word while signing it. My middle daughter never really liked to sign and only learned to do a few of them so she got away from signing by age 2. The littlest has trouble with spoken words so she signs WAY more than she speaks and she's just really starting to babble to us and says 3 words consistently so she's nowhere near getting ready to stop signing. When I first started signing to my middle daughter, their dad called me crazy, laughed at me, etc. Thought it was stupid and she just needed to speak. Now he's convinced seeing our last daughter signing back to us. He signs to her all the time and is still committed to teaching her to rely on speaking but he regards sign as an important communication tool now.

By the way, after toddlerhood when they are speaking well, having older children know sign is quite useful. Just yesterday I silently and discreetly reminded my 8 year old to thank our friend for a gift without embarrassing her. And later on in the evening I warned my 4 year old to be careful and pay attention to the little ones on the gym equipment at the Y without even getting up from my position with her baby sister about 20 feet away in a noisy gym. So it is helpful for all ages regardless of speaking ability.

Yes, he knows "milk" but he only uses it WHILE he's nursing He doesn't use it to ask to nurse. I want to get the Baby Signing Time video. That reminds me to order it. Off to Amazon!

We've just started. I use Milk, All Done, More so far but need to ramp it up a bit I do say the word when I sign. So far, DD is not signing back but she does seem to know what Milk means...

we sign i started signing "nurse" when he was 2 months old. Everyone thought I was nuts but now he signs back at 6 months old. Its cool, when someone else is holding him and he is thinking about food he starts signing "nurse" (to himself its so cute) and I feed him before he gets to the crying point.
I have read that it actually helps them speak sooner as it develops the communication area of their brain

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Yay! I don't feel weird now for signing to my baby at 2 months. He's three months now, and I SWEAR he recognizes the "milk" sign...he has started smiling when I ask him if he wants to nurse while making the sign. Could be a coincidence...but, it's still cool to think about. We also sign "mommy" and "daddy" but that's it for now.
I have friends who have signed w/their babes...they all agree that the signs just phase out as verbal language ramps up, and that signing has helped with LOs frustration with communication and made life smoother. So, I'm looking forward to doing more and more.

We're learning and having great fun. Before she nurses I always try to sign 'milk' and I thought for sure she mirrored me earlier today, but she hasn't done it since. It's fun and we have a good time watching the Signing Time DVDs together.

"It's signing time with Alex and Leah!" Had that stuck in my head all day yesterday.