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Summary: Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your baby Before Your Baby Can
Review: I was very disappointed with this book. The content could have been summed up in a few pages. I already knew my 10 month old could learn signs and was looking for practical suggestions for going further than bye-bye. I don't agree with the suggestion to make up signs that make sense to you and your baby. I would rather use the established sign language for more consistancy and universal understanding. I found a simple sign language book to be much more helpful.
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Summary: Baby Signs: How to Talk With Your Baby Before Your Baby Can
Review: We were disappointed in this book. There were a lot of cute pictures of toddlers signing, but very little substance. There are only a small number of signs illustrated and many of them are animals you would find at the zoo. It lacks day to day usefulness. Now that I've read it, I think a book on American Sign Language would have been a better choice.
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Summary: This is A VERY practical book!
Review: Baby Signs is a wonderful book! It's chock-full of photographs, "how-to's," and interesting information about how babies use Baby Signs and it's actually based on research studies. What's more, I found the "Baby Sign Nursery Rhymes" in Chapter 10 and the "50 Sign Suggestions" included in Chapter 9 helpful and extremely "practical." In fact, I really don't understand the last reviewer's comment at all given that the Baby Sign glossary DOES specifically include "all gone," "hungry," and "sleepy" -- along with 47 others! Also, what could be more "practical" than the freedom to come up with easy-to-remember, common sense signs for things when the time is right instead of having to run home first to check in a formal sign language book!
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Summary: Not very practical
Review: If you're already convinced that it's possible and desirable to teach a baby signs, you needn't bother with this book. I bought it hoping for specific, practical how-tos, but instead it's 90% cheerleading on the method. And the small glossary of signs doesn't include many of the ones that I would find most useful as a parent -- such as "all done," "hungry," and "sleepy."I had better results by just buying a pocket dictionary of American Sign Language and simplifying the signs a bit.
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Summary: A true help to the frustrated parent and child
Review: I had heard of sign language for babies before my son was born and was convinced that I would try it when our baby was old enough. I started showing our son a few signs at six months and I must say that although this method takes much patience and effort, BOY DOES IT HAVE A GREAT PAYOFF! Our son started to sign back to us right after his first birthday and by the time he was 14 months old, he had over 20 signs in his repetoire! He could tell us when he was thirsty, hungry, wanted more or was finished, and when he wanted his blanket. He can tell us about Barney and Elmo and airplanes. Now that he's 19 months old, he is trying to say the words rather than sign them, but he still uses 10 or so signs. Once he began signing our stress level really decreased. He wasn't screaming for a vague item, but telling us calmly what he wanted. I would recommend this book for its encouragement to stay with it as well as its encouragement of parents to be creative with making up signs that don't exist. I initially used a book called Signing with Your Baby. Its approach is different in that it uses pure established signs. (If you are looking for more of an actual handbook, that's the one to use). We ended up using a combo of both methods. I would highly recommend Baby Signs to anyone with an infant, young toddler, or expecting a baby.
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Summary: My baby talked to me before he could speak!
Review: We used this book with my first son. His first sign was fish at ten months old. By the time he was 18 months he knew over 50 signs. I was so eager to DO SOMETHING with him. He was too young to color with or play ball. Baby signs was the perfect thing for us! Baby Signs really helped his language development. Now my son is four and is as smart as a whip. We are teaching my 11 month old baby signs now, too - with my four year old's help! So far our baby can sign dog, frog, fish, eat, duck, and all done! You will feel so much more connected to your child by using baby signs. It's great fun!
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Summary: amazing!
Review: My husband and I LOVED this book and what it did for our relationship with our child. The book gives good arguments for why teaching your child baby signs can be very fruitful, and gives clear instructions for going about it. We started in earnest with our daughter at about 8 months; by 15 months she was learning new signs *every day* and had a vocabulary of over 50 signs. After a slow start, she quickly grasped the concept of baby signs and used them to the utmost. It was extremely rewarding to see her be able to communicate so effectively. The book tauts how this method will accelerate your child's verbal development; at the time I remember thinking that it didn't matter if this were the case--it was just so much fun signing with her! Now she is 22 mos, and is talking up a storm. Many folks have commented on her large vocabulary. Was it due to Baby Signs? Who knows--whether it was or not, the experience we had because of this book was well worth the effort.
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Summary: signing constantly with my baby
Review: At almost 14 months my daughter can sign 40 words! It has been an incredible experience for our family. I "talk" (sign) with my daughter all day. Now I know the things she notices on our walks, when she wants a drink, more food, what kind of food, and when she's finished eating and those are just the highlights. We bought the book read it, and were very devoted to always signing so she could pick it up, and now she makes up her own signs. It is an excellent idea, and to those people who say it's not real sign language--you have small minds---English is not the only language in the world either. Different groups of people have different languages, why couldn't your baby? The bottom line--it works, and you get to communicate with your baby sooner and share the world together.
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Summary: Regarding whether to use ASL or these home-made Baby Signs:
Review: I see in these reviews some differences of opinion about whether to use "correct" ASL signs, or the made-up (and simpler to do) Baby Signs suggested by the authors of this book. After reading this book, we got an ASL dictionary and tried using ASL signs, but found that our baby at 1 year didn't have the manual dexterity to do many of the ASL signs. With our next child I will try using more of the Baby Signs. This book was a quick read (important for those sleep-deprived new parents!). The information was easy to understand yet backed up by plenty of research to convince me that it wasn't just someone's crazy idea. It worked great and was such a pleasant addition to our lives! Like other reviewers, I recommend this book to all new parents. It is so fun to see other babies signing "more" to their folks and remembering when my sweetie was little...
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Summary: Easy to read and very well researched
Review: When we bought this book three years ago it was for several reasons. First, a good friend highly recommended the book. Second, it was the easiest to use and seemed to be the most well researched of the baby signs books available at the time. Other books, such as those by Joseph Garcia, did not spend as much time researching the results of using baby signs. Also, other methods seemed restricted to American Sign Language, whereas this book encourages you to learn signs from your child as well as teach them. Last, this book was the most economical. This book taught me how to communicate with my children before they could talk. It's great to see our oldest (three years)signing with his 17 month old brother. We've recommended this book to family and friends and even given it as a gift to parents-to-be. Everyone we know who owns this book has nothing but postitive results.
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