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Summary: Not the best signing book on the market
Review: I bought Baby Signs along with Joseph Garcia's Sign with Your Baby, and what a difference in how useful they are. While Baby Signs offers some good advice, it falls short compared to Sign with Your Baby. The numerous scenerios seem designed to convince a parent that signing is a good idea, something one might already assume about a buyer of a signing book. A significant portion of the book is devoted to the authors' research, which may interest some but did not help me learn to sign effectively.I highly recommend Garcia's Sign with Your Baby. Garcia's book (and video and chart) are clear and were very helpful. Unlike Baby Signs, it is almost entirely devoted to explaining how to sign, including how to create your own signs. Whether parents develop their own signs, as Acredolo and Goodwyn suggest, or uses the simple signs Garcia explains, a baby can learn to communicate. Our son understands and signs for milk, more, all done, diaper change, and many other things.
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Summary: Every parent needs this book!
Review: I can't say enough good things about this book! I began using the signs with my daughter when she was 8 months old and we continued to use them until about 6 months ago(she just turned 2) The signs cut down on frustration(hers and mine)and really enhanced our relationship and communication. It also enhanced her verbal vocabulary tremendously. She's 2 and can say anything she wants to and has a huge and varied vocabulary. I recommend this book to everyone that I know that is expecting a child. In fact, I always include a copy with my baby shower gifts. Buy this book--you will be amazed at your child and her ability to communicate.
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Summary: Boost your child's communication skills.
Review: I found this to be a fascinating and educational book for both me and my daughter. She is now two 1/2 and has been speaking in full sentences since she was 22 months old, in part I think, because I had encouraged her to sign to me from the age of 10 months. It was wonderful for me to be able to understand what she was trying to tell me before she could speak and it really cut down on her frustration level, thus eliminating a few tantrums! At first I taught her some of the signs that are presented in this book, but after awhile, she started making up her own...some of our most frequently used were "drink," "hungry," "tubbies," and "book." The author states in the book that having these early communication skills can help infants learn to use words and understand them at an earlier age and with this I must agree. Because my daughter is very tall and is precociously verbal, most people don't believe me when I tell them that she's not yet three! It takes some time at first to get your child to understand what these symbols are used for, but with patience and work, you'll be communicating with your baby in a whole new way.
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Summary: This is a great guide to learning about your baby.
Review: This book is very informative. Babies are more intelligent then most people think. Many parents wonder what goes on in their babies head, and how they understand certain objects. Babies have their own ways of showing their knowledge. Dr. Linda Acredolo wrote this amazing book on babies and their own sign language. The book shows many different signs to work with your baby on. It also gives you personal stories from parents on how they know what their baby is feeling at all times. This book is by far the best one I have read all year. It was intriguing for me because I love children. Children light up my world. I also think that this proves that babies do more then we know. A baby can recoginize what a bird is by simply flapping their arms. This book is more informative then the others I have read. I am used to reading fictional stories. This book was great, because it made realize that I like to read informative books rather then stories. I love this book. The pictures were great. If I was a real parent it would help me out alot. This book was a resourceful piece of material. The book was created so that parents could incorporate the different signs with songs and poems in the back of the book. I know that by the time I have children that education will be more advanced, but I will refer back to the this book to let me know what my baby is trying to say. This book is great for some who is a parent or is wanting to study children. It is well written and has alot of useful information. The downsides are that it gets repetitive in the since of the personal stories. One or two would of been enough. Overall it was well-balenced and structured very well.
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Summary: Our whole family delight in Signs! Thank You!
Review: My baby is 15 months. She signs me when she wants to eat, sleep and play. She can ask for music, a telephone (constantly!), more, a bath, her favorite songs; she knows about 20 signs and says about 10 words. Most of all, she is confident in her ability to communicate with us. She makes up signs when she needs something new. I encourage her, though I have no idea what she's talking about. I think the baby signs have not only helped her fine motor coordination, but more importantly, her body awareness, and her awareness of others. Our whole family (Me, Father, and big sister and also her grandmother) delight in signs. It has even saved us giving our 5 year old a verbal no! A story: Bracha makes a splashing motion for bath. At around 13 months, I held her as I put clothes into the washing machine. She took one look at it, then at me, and signed for bath. I was amazed at how she made the connection. I have so many stories where it has been so rewarding to use signs. Just tonight, Bracha asked me to go to bed. Suprised, I checked the clock. Sure enough, it was bedtime. Thank you so much for this book.
Rating: 
Summary: It works!
Review: We started signing to our son at about 7 months. It took him a while to start signing back (just like the book said it would), but when he did start, you could see that he loved being able to communicate with us. He's now almost two and most of his signs have been replaced with words, but he still uses the "more/I want" and "hungry" signs daily. We encourage him to "sign, not whine" whenever possible. <g> Teaching him to sign really cut down on MY frustration because I could tell what he wanted, and I'm sure it did the same for him. The only reason I'm giving this book four stars instead of five was because I personally needed more examples of signs. The ones in the book are great, I'm just not creative enough to come up with my own, so I needed a little more guidance in that area. But that's just me. BTW, last week I caught him trying to get his two month old sister to sign "moon" - a sign he hasn't used in ages now that he can say the word. VERY COOL!
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Summary: Hardly any How-to, simply verbose
Review: I found this book annoyingly verbose and lacking in the very substance that it proposes to offer. Mid way through the book I kept wondering when we would get past the simple-minded repetitive merits of signing and on with the "How to" suggested in the book title. I also question the idea of making up signs rather than standardizing on signs such that other children, parents and child care may understand as well. While my baby is eager to sign/communicate, she is easily fustrated when an adult doesn't understand her sign. I recommend teaching your baby to sign, but recommend an alternate source for guidance.
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Summary: A resource to get you excited about signing
Review: Baby signs do work! I found Baby Signs to be a great place to get started, and to get excited about using signs with your baby. It had lots of examples of success stories and how children and parents are using signs to communicate. I was encouraged to try signs with my son. At 8 months, he started to mimic a couple of the signs, but didn't really understand them. Then, at about 11 months, understanding kicked in and he really started to utilize the signs. He's a little over a year now and using signs such as all done, more, rabbit, telephone, drink and sleep/tired. As soon as he is using one really well, we add a new one. It has been SO helpful for him to be able to communicate with us! At the dinner table, he can tell us if he's done or wants more of something. If he's thirsty, he's learning to ask for a drink. And his enjoyment at using the signs is obvious. He is thrilled whenever we understand what he wants. The experience is very near what was recounted by parents in the book. The book shows examples of signs you can use, and we've used a couple, and also made up some of our own (as suggested in the book). As the author points out, it hasn't slowed his verbal vocabulary at all, either; he's a very talkative child and knows quite a few words. My only complaint about Baby Signs was that points tend to be repeated fairly often. It is a very quick read. But I have found the experience of using baby signs wonderful and I don't think I would have been as excited to do it without having read Baby Signs first. I would highly recommend it; read it then have your family and daycare providers read it too!
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Summary: The Single Best Thing we've done for our son
Review: This book transformed the parenting experience for me. We began teaching our 9 month old a few basic signs and as he picked them up we'd teach him a few more. At 15 months he is signing away and teaching US new signs every day. Its incredible. This book is a great tool and leaping-off place for what is actually a very simple concept. You don't need to teach your baby ASL, the sign language used by the hearing impaired, its way too complicated and requires hand gestures babies can't yet make. All you need to do is use the signs in this book, and if you don't find them there, make up your own! You and your baby will quickly have a working language! YOUR BABY CAN'T WAIT TO TALK TO YOU! AND THEY HAVE A LOT TO SAY! It was without doubt the single best thing we've done for our child. P. Spence
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Summary: No need to read it just make up your own signs
Review: I was disappointed with the book.The first three chapters were basically about "how good the book is". I thought it would be using more established or universal signs rather than each individual's making up their own signs. Sure that's great for communicating within a family unit but what about when you've stepped out of the house and others are trying to understand what your child is saying. At least with using Sign Language signs it's a universal language and therefore will broaden our children's lives even more. I think we as parents already communicate naturally with our children. (i.e.)Others couldn't understand what my first son was saying while our family could understand each other and communicate fine. My 3 month old rubs her face against my arm when she's ready for sleep. I don't need this book to tell me that.
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