I was wondering if anyone uses baby sign with their child? I've heard a lot of good things about it and when I did a breif spell in a nursery working they used it with the 3 months to 2 years age group to aid in their independance. Has anyone used it sucessfully? And if so how do you go about intorducing it to your child?
Also is it ok to use? It doesn't hinder their speech development does it because they are learning to communicate in a different way?

We've been signing since about 6 months - he's 15months now and has only just started signing back so it does take some patience, although some babies sign back a lot earlier. I usually just introduce a few new signs each week, we also attend a class once a week with songs and signs. Its really useful at the moment since LO has started talking but he's not that clear yet but because he does the sign as well I can usually identify the word. Its really important to always say the word as you sign and encourage LO to do the same so they are not missing out on any speech development.

Cool! Thanks Hun! Do you think at a year old I have left it too late to start? I will have a look and see if there are any local signing groups.
Have you found any useful online sites which teach parents the basics at all?

we sign with logan and have found it fantastic ! we started at around 8 months and we are up to about 9 signs which he uses regular

i would totally recommend it ! we started by doing a sing and sign class

we use some signs with Hannah and really like it. We didn't really get started until she was a year old and she picked them up very very quickly. It's easy really we just sign and say the word to her

I started signing with Oscar at about 5 months - but he didn't really get it until around one year old and now he uses quite a few signs. He seems to prefer to try to use his voice, but it's still been very useful and great fun. I made it up - just a really simple action for things and repeat it with the word. He gets it really fast now. It's definitely worth doing as saves a lot of frustration.

I've done it with Poppy since she was 4 months and she started signing back before she was one and can now do quite a few. It's handy for stopping her getting frustrated if she wants something but can't say the word ie a drink, or telling me something is too hot.

The important thing is to look at the LO and say the word as you sign and then they start to pick up both aspects of communication. Poppy is starting to talk now but still signs the words she doesn't know.

We've done it since birth and my LO signs too many words to list now, but I'm fluent in BSL, so she gets a lot of it.

It doesn't hinder speech development at all. Research shows that it supports their speech actually and children who sign usually have better communication skills and more vocabulary than their non-signing peers. As others have said, just say the word as you sign it too. There are a lot of internet resources if you just google baby sign or british sign language, you'll get lots of video clips for different signs.

The actual sign doesn't really matter (if you use baby sign or BSL or Makaton), just as long as both you and your baby understand it.

And 1 year isn't too old to start at all.

We started with Chaise pretty much from birth. He first signed for bottle at 4 months, and now signs frequently. He currently does bottle, nappy, drink, banana, food, mummy and daddy.
we introduced it by doing the sign each time we did the activity... for example signing bottle when we gave him a bottle and he picked it up really quickly.
We now go to sing and sign classes which are a lot of fun, but we used the tiny talk card pack and dvd to learn the signs ourselves

We've been doing baby sign since about 6months. The health nurse sounded a bit concerned when we told her this at dd 18month shots until she saw our interactions and was in the end quite pleased with her language abilities. We have always used both the word and the signs. Both her father and I have at one point or another been fairly fluent in ASL so it's been an ok transition.

Our breakthrough, when we all got it was one afternoon I was prepping dinner and she was inconsolable, I had no idea what she wanted. Her father walked into the kitchen she grabbed her cup and was throwing it at him. He filled it with water and she just chucked it back at him again... we thought it was just a tantrum... She walked over to the fridge, grabbed the handle and started signing "milk". Once she had her cup filled with milk she was more than happy to wander off and play until dinner. Before this she had never shown a preference, a drink was just a drink.

When out in public now she uses her manners and will both sign and say please and thank you among other signs. It's made life a lot less frustrating. We are hoping that we will be able to continue with it and it will meet the requirements for a second language in high school. We were careful from the start to make sure that we used ASL (american sign language) as much as we can and I believe that you have a british version available to you.