Before babies learn to use language to tell us what they want or what is wrong it can be very difficult to understand your little one. When babies are very little they will use variations of crying to get their message across. After a few weeks with you’re little one and you’ll figure out what each cry means and be able to met their needs based on responding to those cries. However, that useful tool disappears as your baby gets older. You’ll need to figure out new ways to decipher what your baby is trying to tell you. Sign language is a great way to teach your baby a way to communicate with you before they can use words.

Sign language can be taught to babies very early on. They may not be able to sign back to you before they are 9-12 months old, however, by using the signs from the beginning your baby will better be able to figure out the act, object, etc associated with each sign. When your baby final figures out how to manipulate their hands into the different signs you’ll be amazed how easy it is to communicate with your little one.

There are many different books and videos out there with different signing techniques. Some encourage using the traditional American Sign Language while others encourage you to make up your own signs. You may need to do a little research to determine what works best for you.

Here are a few of the different books and videos available:

I purchased the Sign with Your Baby Starter Kit. I liked it, however, I didn’t really teach my daughter any of the signs. I opted for making up a few signs that worked for us. So far she has a sign for wanting up and for when she is “all done”. She uses the sign for “up” all the time and is quickly learning how to use the “all done” sign.

Using sign language can be so helpful in communicating with your little one and is fun to learn as well. It is so wonderful to see your child repeat back a sign that you have been working on teaching them.

Have you taught your baby to sign? What book, video, etc did you use? Has signing been helpful?