Signing Time

I took Sign Language in high school and fell in love. I really enjoyed learning the language and culture. When I got pregnant with my first child I knew I wanted to teach him sign language as a baby to help him communicate with me and I with him. I did a little research about teaching it to young kids and what the benefits would be. That's when I happened upon Signing Time's website, www.signingtime.com and was able to see their program and the benefits of teaching it to my child. Here is a small paragraph from the website about teaching sign language to your baby:

 

(Courtesy of signingtime.com)

Your baby can communicate with you before he can talk. Children learn to point, wave goodbye and blow kisses before they speak. Your child uses gestures to communicate while his verbal abilities catch up with his intellectual abilities. Baby sign language enables your child to tell you if he is hungry, thirsty or needs a diaper change. Baby sign language research suggests that infants who use sign language speak sooner and score higher, when tested after second grade. Baby Signing Time encourages signing and speaking together. Children hear the word, see the word, say the word, and model the word with their hands. You do not need to become fluent in baby signing, even learning a few signs like ‘milk’, ‘more’ and ‘diaper’ can help. Baby Signing Time teaches American Sign Language signs because if you are going to learn signs, you should learn signs for a real language rather than a made up signs. Learning ASL will enable your child to communicate with thousands who are hard of hearing or deaf. ASL signs are natural, easy and fun for babies.

The lines I highlighted are what stuck out to me so I thought why not give it a try. I started my son a little later than I wanted to with the DVDs (about 6 months) but was signing "eat" and "milk" to him. When he started watching the DVDs he fell in love with the music, songs and bright colors. He was watching but I didn't think he was getting it, only because I would try to sign with him after and he wouldn't do anything. After a few months of one DVD, one time a day, he was sitting there watching and the word "milk" came on the screen. Now before it was signed or spoken, it was just the word on the screen, my son looked at it and signed "milk"! I was amazed. I could not believe that he recognized the word and remembered the sign for it. He started signing a lot more after that and we never had a problem communicating with him. He started to speak around 13 months and has a very large vocabulary now at 3 yrs old. He has had no speech problems and learns and understands what we are saying. I never went though a "baby talk" period with him or a tantrum stage. He was able to communicate his needs and I was able to understand.

Signing Time has many different programs for all ages and even programs to help with specific issues, such as:

American Sign Language

Autism

Baby Sign Language

Classroom Management

Language Development

Music and Movement

Reading and Literacy

Speech Delays

Tantrums

 

Rating: Perfect, I would recommend this program to anyone with small children, are about to have a kid, or are having issues communicating with their kids. It has helped so much in my home and I intend to use it with my daughter when she is born.

 

Tips:

1. Be persistent with teaching them the signs
2. Learn along with them
3. Speak and sign with them

Price: It depends on the program you are look for but it can range any where from $20 for a DVD/CD set to $850 for the full set. You will need to look over the website to find the right program and price range for you.

 

Happy Testing!!

Katelyn