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Rating: 
Summary: not real Sign Language
Review: Baby likes it but not all of the signs are ASL. Usefulness depends on your decision to use made up signs with ASL. For example: HOT has blowing puffs of air instead of signing. Our house has babysigns as well as ASL, just as we speak clearly while Baby uses babytalk. I'm disappointed that I need to teach each member of the family how to supplement this board book. I would like to see a small ASL diagram in the corner for reference. On the other hand, the pictures (photos) engage Baby and this is clearly one of his favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: Must have book, not intended to be ASL book
Review: Baby sign is not straight up American Sign Language, nor does it admit to be. Baby sign is for your toddler to be able to tell you things that they can not yet say. The signs are simple and helps the parents and the frustrations of your child with less tears, pointing and grunting. It also lets your child tell you things, wich in my eyes is so awesome! My daughter can tell me if she sees a dog or horse, she can tell me if she wants a drink, says please, thank you, she can tell me she wants me to read her a book or if she wants more of something. I love that the book is a board book which is perfect for a toddler. My daughter was adopted from China when she was 10 months old and for us, Baby Sign is awesome. Yes, it is not true ASL, but at least we are also teaching our daughter who is thriving and speaking that there are other people who can't talk and sign instead. There are other books that are ASL based, but for toddler hands are more complex and difficult.
One more thing... baby sign is not highly know about and people who see our daughter sign ask if she's deaf. When we explain, I think they see how neat it is that our daughter can do the signs. We also happened to be at Mc Donald's the other day and a deaf couple sat down and began to sign. Well, my daughter's eyes lit up and as we where leaving she toddled up to this couple. At first the couple was annoyed, I guess thinking she was staring ( she's only 19 months), but when I explained she knew some baby sign and did a few signs the couples eyes lite and I think it made them feel that sign was important, they didn't comment that the signs wheren't ASL, but where happy someone was teaching sign.
I hope this helps. It also helps to have the Baby Sign book as well as the board book. If I have a complaint it is that some signs are repeated in some other other board book! There is nothing better that seeing your daughter sign " dog sleeping" and I think it actually makes her feel like she has something important to say!!!
Rating:
Summary: Good Book for Starters
Review: I am a child development teacher with an emphasis in infants and toddlers. I have always fully supported the idea of teaching infants to sign and have seen wonderful results over and over. I recently found this book at my local bookstore and was very pleased with it. Although not all of the signs used are ASL, they are signs that young children are capable of. In general practice, many children will make up their own variations to any given sign. Most signs are approximations, but some are very different than the sign that was initially introduced, thus the ones that vary from ASL can be corrected once a child is learning to sign properly, if needed. The biggest rule for hearing children when signing is to always, I repeat, always say the word as you are signing it. This way the child is given a way to express themselves, but is also hearing the word that is associated with the need. I highly recommend this book for parents who want to teach their babies (starting age about 8 months) to sign.
Rating:
Summary: not real Sign Language
Review: I feel there should be a disclaimer making it clear that these signs are not all the signs being used by the Deaf Community. We have Deaf people in our family so we would prefer to use real American Sign Language Signs to teach babies. In the event the baby encounters a real Deaf person, they would share the same signs.
Rating:
Summary: Must Have Book(s)!!!
Review: I have just been introduced to the wonderful world of BABY SIGNS, and I LOVE it!! I have a background in American Sign Language and have always intended to teach my children to sign. Baby Signs allows you to begin signing at such an early age, and it's so easy. For those of you who worry that some of the signs are not true ASL, don't. The reason the signs are modified is so that little fingers can do them. You can always choose to model the true signs as your child gets older and can communicate with less frustration. After all, that's the purpose of Baby Signs, to reduce frustration and tantrums in babies who cannot yet express their desires in words. I have the full set of (four) board books, and my daughter loves them. She can turn the pages by herself, and she loves to look at the pictures and the signs. Better yet, she loves it when I sign to her. Babies are mesmerized by hands and never pay more attention to you than when you use your hands to communicate. (Try doing the hand motions for "itsy-bitsy spider" and you'll see what I mean.) Anyone who desires a less frusterating relationship with their youngsters (and who doesn't?) should get involved in Baby Signs. These board books are sturdy enough to live through several children, and will definately help to make your life easier.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for toddlers!
Review: My son (16 months old) loves these board books. He is always bringing me one of them (we have mealtime, bedtime and animals) to read to him. Although some of the signs are different than the ones we have already learned, that doesn't seem to be a problem for him. His big brother(4 yrs old) enjoys 'reading' the books to him as well. I only wish they had a little box in the corner showing an adult making the sign, so I would be sure that I am doing it correctly).
Rating:
Summary: Baby signs, not sign language for babies
Review: This is a great book. We didn't have the board book for our oldest daughter, now 6, but we had the textbook for parents. The premise is that you learn to communicate with your baby sooner, and facilitate their language development. Your child will slowly stop using the baby signs once they start speaking. Our daughter used baby signs 3 months before she started speaking. We made up some signs, as needed for our family. We have pictures of her using her baby signs now, which are so cute to look back on.
The board book is a great idea, because it plays on baby's attraction to pictures of other babies. My 7-month-old enjoys it, and she really soaks it up. She watches me like a hawk when I make the sign and say the word. I can tell that she really gets it.
From experience, if you want to teach your child ASL or any other language, you will need to use that language at home constantly. If you stop, they will forget everything. So, to teach your child ASL, first you need to learn it. This is definitely not the book for that.
It is, however, a great book for its purpose of helping baby to communicate earlier with family members.
Rating:
Summary: Great addition to learning baby signs
Review: We started out with the "My first baby signs" board book, and once our daughter got a pretty good handle on those signs, I bought the mealtime and the animals books. I wish I'd bought the bedtime book while I was at it. The baby signs books are her favorite books to look at... and now that she knows the sign for "baby", she'll sign "baby" and then what she sees on the page. Even on the front cover of the Animals book, she signs cat because the baby is signing cat.Some of the words in this book don't make a lot of sense to a baby. The "all gone" page, she doesn't sign "all gone" but she signs "drink" and says "ga ga" (means crackers) because that's what's on the page. But you know what, that's ok because 1. She enjoys these books immensely and 2. She's learned a LOT of signs from reading the books constantly. She's been signing 1 month (17 mos old) and knows 35 signs. Once your baby gets a handle on signing, these books won't even be enough, you'll want to find signs for other things that aren't even in the books. I would start with the "First Signs" board book, and see how your baby picks them up (some kids never get an interest in signing so I'm told). Or you can take a chance and buy all 4 books. Don't do what I did and just get a couple because then if your baby really starts catching on you'll be kicking yourself that you didn't get the rest. This book is a great book, but I think the "first signs" book is a better introduction to get your baby interested in signing.
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