This review is from: Sign with your Baby - Baby Sign Language (ASL) Training Video
I'd heard about signing with the baby from several friends and I was very intrigued with the idea. The science - that babies can understand far earlier than speaking, and that they want to communicate before they can vocalize - made perfect sense to us. We had trouble finding materials online, and we bought this set as a leap of faith.
The DVD was very well done - we get a bit of the expert opinion from child development experts, but it mainly focuses on how the signs are taught, like the little game with Mr. Potato Head and his shoes to teach "shoes" We were completely won over with the clips of little children signing. My husband got a bit teary-eyed when a baby signed, "More Daddy!"
We started at about 7 months, and we realized by 10 or 11 months, that our son understood the three signs we were using. We started adding more, and we were amazed that he actually understood the signs. He would be crying and we would be frustrated at what he wanted, and out of frustration, I would make the sign for "milk" - and he would calm down instantly! At about a year, he made the sign for milk, and "finished" but it was sporadic. We were a little discouraged that he was about 13 or 14 months and still not signing, but it was like a switch turned on suddenly one day. He was suddenly signing everything back, learning new signs easily.
Many people said that teaching him signs would slow down his verbal speech, but that doesn't seem to be the case. At about 20 months, my son knows more signs than words, but he uses words correctly (usually with the sign). I agree with Garcia's view that when kids use sign, we as parents talk to them more, so they are actually getting exposed to more speech, which is how they learn to speak. Like if my son makes a sign for "bird" I will say, "That's right! That's a bird on the tree! It's black bird - it's a crow. Do you know what crows say? They saw caw! caw! caw!" so a simple sign is giving me the chance to really engage with my son.
Sign language has helped my son avoid frustrations by telling us when he has a dirty diaper, or is hungry, or wants to wash his hands. The DVD and dictionary of signs, and the mat with simple signs are all great!
