Sign with your Baby

This does not beat out Baby Signing Time (BST) in any possible way but it is informative and my one year old granddaughter does watch it with interest. I would say it's definitely more for the parent than the child and I'm glad I have it. After we watch Baby Signing Time she'll watch this one with me and it gives us both a little break from go, go, go since she's super active unless she's sleeping.With BST She claps and smiles and laughs and now even tries to sign a little but not really with this one. It does hold her attention for a while and I think it may be helpful but only since I have the other DVD. This DVD taught me "help" and "pain" and other signs not on the first BST DVD so I'm teaching her a new sign right now. Knowing when she wants/needs something is vital and when I see her sign milk I can hand her off to her mother to nurse, confident that I know that's what she really wants/needs.I like this video a lot actually and baby can wobble off and come back occasionally and enjoy it for a while but ultimate Baby Signing Time is her absolute favorite. She'll happily watch that twice a day. I try to spread it out over the course of the day, a viewing in the morning, one in the evening perhaps and sometimes she'll watch it one and a half times before she wants to do something else or we switch to this one for a few minutes.I wish I'd known about baby signing when I had my children so I'm thrilled it actually works for my grandchild although at first I didn't think she'd take to it. We're probably on our third week of daily watching with the other DVD and I just started this one last week when she'd just started making the sign for milk. Now thanks to this DVD, when I read a book to her I point out animals she learned signs for from BST and I make the sign and make the sound of the animal like the song that pertains to the "pet" and she gets a kick out of that so it's so nice to know she understands and is retaining all this.One recommendation is that you might want to check with your local library to see if they have this DVD so you can actually watch it with your child, see her/his reaction, and then decide if you want to buy it. I did that with Baby Signing Time along with another recommended DVD, we loved the former but hated the latter. This one wasn't available at our library so I took a chance and I'm not sorry that I did.

Teaching your baby/toddler sign language is so beneficial that I don't understand why everyone isn't doing it. My 21 month old has been signing since she was 9 months old. I think she is so easy going because since understanding the concepts she has been able to ask for what she wants like: "help", "more" food, or tell me when she doesn't like something by signing "finished", etc. I feel like all parents should do whatever they can to make life an enjoyable experience for their children (one that is balanced with play and learning) and this is a great way to make them happier, not to mention you as well.This DVD is 15 mins of how to sign with your baby and the benefits of it and a vocab menu that shows you how to produce certain signs. It isn't difficult to start, you only start with a few signs. The hard part is identifying your baby's version of the sign once they start producing so you can reinforce it.It does not delay speech (my daughter is a chatter box). In fact there are arguments that it enhances speech because the child learns earlier there is a word assigned with an item/concept/etc. and how to manipulate that concept by engaging it through signing.I like Sign with your Baby because it uses real ASL signs (most of which make sense so they're easy to remember) and Joseph Garcia is not annoying to watch.If you cannot afford this you can rent it from your local library.

Wow, really thrilled with this DVD! It is not to show to your child, but rather to teach you as a parent or caretaker how to most effectively go about teaching and communicating via sign language with your hearing (or hearing impaired) baby of age 6 months or above. Bought it used on Amazon for about $1.50 plus shipping, so a real steal. It's so well presented, so educational, you wouldn't really even need to buy a book before applying your knowledge. Several seasoned experts as well as signing parents give tips and demonstrate their points with anecdotes or footage of their own babies. [I did buy another signing video before this one, but it's really not suitable and way overstimulating for baby. Maybe better for little ones age 1-3.] My baby is four months old now, but her dad, grandma, and I are getting started learning the signs so we can communicate with her at the earliest! It's clear she's eager to have more communication options in her repertoire! :) Best wishes to all in their efforts to communicate with their babies and children.

Our 17-month old great-grandson spends 3 days a week in 'Day Care' where 'signing' is taught to all the wee ones from about the age of 9-months I believe... it's fantastic, as they can quickly learn to express their wants and needs through the hand signs, long before they're capable of forming words, so they can communicate without being frustrated, at least at Day Care... At home, once we all began to notice the repetition of certain hand movements on his part, and confirmed through his teachers what it represented, WE all needed to learn what HE knew, then we were all able to share concepts and respond.... What a wonderful bridge of understanding the practice creates, and this DVD made learning it possible and exciting. This should be used universally.

I've begun using this with my one-year old (wish I found it sooner!) and its really helping a lot. It gives great examples and tips on how to use sign language with your baby. It also has a section with a bunch of different signs. I wish that the sample signs would repeat 2-3 times each though. I think that repetitiveness would help with learning for both baby and I. The video is a little dated, but the info is solid! Thanks!

We used this with both of our boys. It takes practice, but it does pay off. Both were telling us what they wanted long before they could verbalize. This saved us from frustration and crying tantrums. That was my main reason for using it. But it is also fun to "see" what the children were thinking about and "talk" to them about it before they had actual language to do so.