M.S.
Baby signing times and signing times (for toddler age, I believe) - hands down. They were instrumental in my son (and many of his friends) getting thru speech delays. BIG FANS!
Anyone have recommendations of good books/tools for teaching a baby sign language? I never did it with my babies, but would like to give that gift to my sister. (or, also what to stay away from) Thanks!
Baby signing times and signing times (for toddler age, I believe) - hands down. They were instrumental in my son (and many of his friends) getting thru speech delays. BIG FANS!
We used the baby signing times dvds. You could give her the first one as a gift and if she likes it, she can get the others from the library.
I also vote for the Signing Time videos. They also have a website. The aslpro.com is wonderful, a visual dictionary of signs, love it.
Some Kindermusik groups will offer a baby signs class which is good, but will not cover as much as the Signing Time.
I taught both my kids to sign when they were infants and we still use a good deal of it at 6 & 3.
baby einstines my first signs movie :)
I also highly recommend Baby Signing Time videos. They are fun, and entertaining for little ones. They show many children doing the signs which really gets babies, toddlers, and even big kids attention. There are songs and pictures as well. I still play them for my dd who is now 3 and my 9 mo dd as well. my 3yo who watches the older kids regular Signing Time videos knows more signs than I do now! Really!
The Signing Time videos are amazing. My 21-month-old daughter loves them, and she has learned so much from them. She both speaks and signs so well now; it's so easy to understand her and is so much fun.
We started with Baby Signing Time, and those were fine, but she really loves the regular Signing Time ones.
Definitely Baby Signing Time & Signing Time series! They have a lot of DVDs available now, as well as other products. http://www.signingtime.com
My daughter watched these since she was 9 months old. Learned a LOT of signs. She LOVED it. And I think it even helped her build her vocabulary!
I LOVE baby signs. My Gymboree offered the class and it was AWESOME! highly recommend it, it was so helpful and cut down a lot of tantrums once my daughter got the hang of it. We still practice just for fun.
We used sign for my daughter but found we really only needed to teach her a handful. Eat, Sleep, Drink, More and Thank You were all we used with her and it was perfect. And her vocabulary now astounds adults around her. (she just turned 4) AND we realized after she started speaking that we were using the incorrect sign for drink all along. My point is - it doesn't really matter what the sign is. Be consistent with what ever signs you teach. Do them every time you say the word and VERY quickly your baby will be able to communicate with you and it makes you all feel so much better!
aslpro.com may have some resources of this.
I got a book, but never used it. It came with Flashcards, which was nice. And the info about how to teach this many at a time at this age, etc, was nice. But I could've read all that on the internet. This is what I have: http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Sign-Language-Whats-Babys/dp/0...
But if you wanted, search on amazon "baby sign language in books" and then narrow your search by rating and pick 4+ stars.
When my son was 1 year old we started watching Signing Time dvds. LOVE them. I'd get the songs stuck in my head, but oh well. My son is 3.5 and we will still rent some from the library. Every night now, he and I tell eachother and sign eachother "Sweet dreams!" (his new favorite sign). I never watched the "BABY Signing Time" versions, but I can recommend the regular ones.
I love the idea of baby sign language! I agree, the Baby Einstein video was a good one, my youngest son loved it and really picked up on some of the signs. I also had some sign lanuage flash cards
(like these: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId... ) that I used with the little girl I used to babysit. Her parents didn't even know we were using the cards during the day until the little one's mom saw her do the sign for "more" in her highchair! Fortunatly, her mom is a teacher and knew some of the basic signs, lol! But I do think they can be very helpful and a fun way to engage and communicate with your baby!