Mom Review: Baby Sign Language

About a year ago, Kevin and I made the decision to teach Kennedy sign language.  It was a little slow to start and took her a while before she was able to sign back, but we are so glad that we made this decision!  As of right now, she is able to sign almost 20 different signs and understand even more from us.  As she hits her 15 month "Language Explosion", it seems like she is adding a new sign to her vocabulary almost every day.    

We used a combination of books, web resources and Baby Signing Time videos to teach her (and us!).  The videos were, by far, her favorite.  It's pretty exciting to know that Kevin and I are learning another language as well.  We plan to continue with it and maybe take formal ASL (American Sign Language) classes eventually.

Sign language has made communication so much easier and saved us many frustrations (on both sides).  Babies are able to express themselves with sign much sooner than with verbal language, so she is able to tell me what she wants or needs without me having to figure out what her cries and tantrums mean.  Some people are afraid that if their baby learns to sign, it will delay their speaking, but Kennedy talks up a storm.  We encourage Kennedy to sign and speak by signing and speaking ourselves.  She does this with about half of her signs, but the rest will follow soon, I'm sure.  

What a wonderful gift to be able to communicate with and understand your baby!

Here is a video of Kennedy signing

Kennedy's signing vocabulary
(to the best I can remember, in the order she learned them)

1. puppy
2. milk
3. more
4. all done
5. hi and bye
6. please
7. thank you
8. eat
9. bird
10. horse
11. water
12. mama
13. dada
14. bath
15. sleep
16. potty
17. wash hands
18. brush teeth
19. shoes
20. socks