Baby Sign Language: More Milk, Please!

Baby Sign LanguageImmy at the breakfast table, signing ‘more.’

When Immy was 13 months old I was fortunate to receive from the authors a copy of Toddler Interpreter: A Parent’s Guide to Baby SIgn Language for Hearing Babies and Toddlers for a magazine article I was researching.

From the authors:

A “how to” guide for teaching your baby sign language. It guides you through the steps of teaching your baby to sign and includes many handy tips to make signing easy to learn and fun. At the back of the book there are 60 baby signs set out in 5 easy to learn stages so that you can target signing at an age appropriate level. This book is perfect for introducing baby sign language into your home.

Toddler Interpreter® teaches your baby to communicate with you using hand expressions until they have the ability to say the words. Baby signing is used to help your baby and toddlers express a range of wants and needs. The baby signs used in Toddler Interpreter® are all based on natural gestures so that everyone can understand your babies needs.

Prior to receiving the book, I had never really thought about the whole baby sign language idea but seeing as I had the book, I was curious and decided to give it a go.

We started with the sign for ‘milk,’ as I thought that it was an easy sign to make (you open and close your hands to mimic milking a cow), one we would use very regularly and (most importantly!) one that I could actually remember the action for signing without too much trouble.

To introduce it I simply started using the sign when talking to Immy as I was getting her a drink of milk. I also showed her how to make the sign with her own hand (the authors recommend using only one hand is simpler for younger children). She actually picked it up really easily and began to use it herself within a few days.

The next sign I introduced was ‘more,’ this time as I thought it was a word that would be really helpful for a toddler to know and use. Again, Immy picked up the sign quite quickly and would sign back to me in agreement whenever I used it. It wasn’t too long however before she began initiating it herself in the correct context of actually wanting more of something, whether it be more food or drink, or more singing, dancing or swinging.

We have since added signs for ‘please,’ ‘smelly’ (which we use for ‘poo’), ‘drink’ and ‘I love you.’ I have recently started to use the sign for ‘stop’ and realising how quickly frustrated Immy becomes when she cannot do something herself (I think she has definitely inherited her father’s short temper!), I am also now introducing the sign for ‘help.’ Even though she is now beginning to use verbal speech, I think it is helpful for her to also be able to sign these words as when (as a typical toddler) she is too cross or frustrated to communicated verbally, she will still be able to sign her needs or intention to me.

As a natural progression, Immy is now beginning to verbalise the words together with the sign, though it is interesting that often the sign comes a moment before the word. The sign has become second nature to her whilst her use of verbal language is newly developing.

Even though I started using baby sign language out of curiosity, I am glad that I did as Immy was not ready to communicate verbally with us until very recently. I am sure that these signs have saved us more than a few frustrated tantrums as they have allowed her to communicate non-verbally before she had the words to actually say.

I would love to hear about the experiences of others who have used baby sign language. Please leave a comment below to share.

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9 Comments

  1. katepickle says:

    We signed a lot when the girls were little, they even signed to each other which I thought was cool. We've been much slacker with M… but he knows and still uses the sign for 'finished' despite being a total chatter box now!

  2. SquiggleMum says:

    I started a little baby sign out of curiosity too, and found it very helpful. My daughter signed more, finished, milk, drink, eat and sorry. Introducing the sign for sorry worked so well for us as the toddler years approached. Now I'm doing it all over again, and my son currently signs more and finished.

  3. Anne - mommyhastowork says:

    We started signing with more, thank you, milk, bird. fish. We really enjoyed signed, I wish we had doen more. Now my little one is 21 months and talking, but we still use it on occasion. I think it's wonderfult to teach to our children.

  4. I have loved signing with my kids and the day care kids I watch. Our old standbys have always been "eat," "drink," "more" and "all done." I tried "milk," but it got a little confusing because I like to start with the first signs well before their first birthday, and they're often nursing. So I got confused with "nurse," "bottle," "milk," etc. "Help" is a great one too, which helps to avoid a lot of frustration.

    When my oldest son was born, I thought maybe this was a bunch of "flashcards for babies" nonsense, but in my experience, it really is wonderful. It improves behavior, helps them on the road toward spoken language because they can see the benefits of using words, and makes all of you feel so much more confident that you understand what the other one wants.

  5. As an elderly lady I must admit that none of this signing with babies even existed in the world outside those who were handicapped.
    My one question is this: if you teach the little ones this sign language can it possibly mean they may begin to 'talk' with word later in their life? This is not a criticism, far from it, but from someone trying to understand what is to me a totally new concept of communication with little ones. Please don't get me wrong as I think it absolutely wonderful.

  6. May I please ask another question? Is this sign language international? In other words does this mean that children from different countries could communicate using this signing?
    With such a mixture of cultures in so many countries in the world today, this I imagine would be a wonderful way of bringing people together who otherwise would have language difficulties.

  7. I used ASL with mothe my children and I loved it! I think my two little ones had fewer frustrations and tantrums because they were able to communicate with me. We were the first ones in our town to try it – and people were amazed. I'm glad to see a few other parents trying it now.

  8. Christie Burnett says:

    Interesting to hear that so many of us choose similar signs to introduce.

    Mimsie, I think the research about whether signing delays verbal speech is pretty inconclusive and difficult to assess anyway as babies/toddlers begin to communicate at their own rate anyway. I think the point is that it enables a baby/toddler to communicate needs and wants whilst they are pre-verbal.

    There are a number of different baby signing programs available, I am unsure how international they are but the one we are using seems pretty universal as it uses gestures that seem to make sense (like milking the cow for 'milk')

  9. Thank you Christie for your reply to my queries.
    Yes, children use speech at different ages….my two spoke at 11 months and 18 months respectively and strangely enough I think the youngest may even have used his own kind of signing as his sister seemed to know what he wanted whereas I didn't.
    I do think if the signage is universal it would create a greater understanding betwen youngsters of different nationalities which in turn could perhaps bring a little much needed peace and understanding to the world.
    You are all wonderful mothers and I envy the knowledge you now have compared to us back in the 1950s.

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