I’m thinking of teaching my 1 year old, I know that they say that once they start waving bye-bye they are capable of doing it. I just want to see whats the appropiate age to actually learn it!
Thanks in Advance
.
Join the Conversation
Leave a comment
Even earlier than a year. Get the book Baby Signs for some good tips.
yeah
as long as they have coordination with their hands and can mimic your movements they can begin to learn. the best way i can think of to teach it is do the sign with the words as you say them and eventually they’ll start doing it. they may not fully comprehend that the movements are the words until they are older but it will get them on the right track
i actually have no idea, but what a great idea. the more languages a person knows, the smarter they are.
Typically around 9 mos children begin to have the ability to communicate with nonverbal communication. Signs we take for granted such as waving, pointing and holding arms up to indicate a wish to be carried may indicate your infant may be ready to add a few more. I often recommend “Signing time” videos to my patients. Its a great series; my patients and my own children enjoy them. Teaching them to sign is a great way to start communicating with your child. I applaud you for looking into it.
robnshrn
Pediatric MD
My daughter didn’t want to talk so I taught her a few basic signs. She was 1 when I started and used them daily within a month (my daycare helped as well). The only problem was when it really was time to talk she would only sign, she wouldn’t even try to talk. But now she is 3 and has an incredible vocabulary.
6 – 8 months old. my 17 month old knows over 50 signs but now she likes to talk and talk and talk. she still uses some signs like poo and milk and all done.
just be consistent. if you make up a sign, just remember to use it ALL the time. talk and sign every chance you get and get one of those $5 bargain books with american sign language. it’s probably the best and cheapest and easiest way to learn especially since each word has a real picture to demonstrate.
As soon as they track. Seriously, if you can sign when you are talking to them, they will start to associate. My children could ‘read’ sign from six months, and started using basic signs before nine months…like ‘please’, ‘thank you’, ‘eat’, ‘drink’, ‘more’, ‘down’, all the fruits, colors and animals like fish, snake, dog, duck, cat. It’s not ASL yet, but grammer comes later for nearly everyone.
Babysigns is a good start. I have several friends who use those.
I’ve read about kids signing back as early as 5 1/2 months. My son first signed “change” at around 8 months, I think. Kudos to you for teaching signs; I feel like it’s made our lives a lot easier!
Be on the lookout for signs that aren’t quite what you might expect; most kids start signing “bird” backward, for instance.
I started teaching my daughter sign language at 5 months, but my friend started at 4 months. They both picked it up easily.