Let me start of by saying that the title of this blog is a bit tongue and cheek. I’m calling it “Baby Signing for Beginners” because I 
only know a few signs! So let’s begin there. If you know and use others, feel free to laugh at me and teach me a thing or two as well!
I’ve always used the following three baby signs when talking to my babies, starting at around seven or eight months: Eat, Drink and More. I figure, any way they can communicate their needs, the easier life will be for both of us. No matter how in tune I am with my children, I am still often baffled by the frustrated pointing and grunting that can quickly turn to angry howler monkey-like screeches. “How can you not understand me, Mommy! Aren’t we practically the same person??” And yes, while I can often read Cooper’s mind, it also important that he learns how to tell me what he needs with words or signs.
Eat
Signing “eat” is fairly straight forward–Pinch all of your fingers together like you are holding a piece of food and bring it to your mouth. Cooper does his own variations of signs as do other children, so sometimes he points to his mouth, sometimes he holds an imaginary piece food, sometimes his mouth is open, sometimes closed but I know what he wants when he does it.
Drink
To sign “drink” curl your fingers and thumb around an imaginary glass of water. With your left hand you will be forming the letter C (completely unrelated–that’s just the shape you want). Bring your hand to your mouth, touch your thumb to your lip and tilt your hand back as if you were drinking from a cup. Your baby may not be able to mimic your hand movements perfectly, just as if he were speaking verbally, he might be “signing” baby talk, but after a while you’ll catch on.
More
Signing “more” involves keeping the fingers on both of your hands straight and pinching them all together with your thumb. Then bring your hands in front of you and touch the tips of your fingers together. (Does that makes sense?) It’s hard to describe how to sign so what I suggest is to do some searching on YouTube and you’ll find videos of children and babies demonstrating the hand and finger motions. In fact, I just did this a moment ago with Cooper on my lap and he absolutely loved watching the babies. He kept signing “More! More!”
These are the three signs that I use most, though I also know a few others like banana, ball, strawberry, milk and potty. Maybe I’ll add a few more to the repertoire since, unlike the girls, Cooper is a bit of caveman and prefers to point and grunt.
Do you sign with your baby? Which signs are your favorite?
I have been wanting to sign with my new baby as well. My older kids like watching Signing Time, so maybe my baby will pick up some from that as well.
I started signing at 6-7 months with both of my kids. My oldest did not initiate on his own until 10 months. My second initiated asking for more with sign without prompting at 6 months. She learned just from watching her brother who is 13 months older! It has been a fantastic communication tool to reduce screaming and fits, as well as providing a quieter method to speak with my kids in public because although my 2 year old no longer depends on sign to communicate, he still understands it and can use it. I highly recommend the effort to teach sign even if it takes several months to catch on. We have an active vocabulary of 20 or so basic words related to common activities and requests by toddlers. We mostly sign verbs and pleasantries, like Please and thank you.
i tried doing signs with my son, starting when he was about 6 months old, but he was NOT interested. so after almost 6 months, I stopped. And then about a month later, he just started doing them! it was like he just decided to try it. He only knows a few-more, all done and please, but it’s helped a lot!!
we can’t wait to start signing with our daughter. it opens up so much for communication.
We are trying to sign. He hasn’t picked it up yet but it’s still early. My niece knows who signs just from daycare even though my sister never reinforced them at home!
I used sign language with all my children when they were little. It was SO helpful. We had “Sign with your Baby” and it had a great cheat sheet card to show useful signs. Ones that I thought were so helpful were, eat, milk, drink, all done, more, toilet, and tired. Great for baby communicating most of their needs.
I attempted signing with my little one, but he was pretty stubborn about not learning them. He can do his own version of “all done” though. I’m hoping I’ll have more success with Baby #2.
Those three are our main signs that we have done with the kids. Some other ones that have been useful are All Done, Milk, and Please. My son liked the sign for Fish. He also made up a sign for Mama and Dad–patting his chest. Sign was really helpful with my son. We are working on it with our baby, but she is only gradually becoming interested because it’s easier to point and scream. She does like the sign for Please.
Ok, let me first say that literally I just got puked on, I wish there was a “hey mom, I”m about to puke all over you sign” Anyways, my daughter is 5 months old and I’m trying to teach her signs like “more”. It’s not really a sign but we encourage here to stick her arms out when she wants to be picked up or go to someone else…it works very well.
I have used a little bit of sign with all my kids. Really only a few words, All done, More, and Please. I guess its mostly mealtime that sign has been helpful for us. Baby number 4 is only two months so maybe I will be motivated to teach her a couple more words. And her older siblings can help her too.
I started with some basic signs when my LO was about 7 months..he did not have any interest on watching the video with me lol..he uses about 3 of them all done, more, and water.
I try those three first for sure. But when those are mastered I teach please and thank you to start teaching them some manners I want them to learn eventually anyway. My first child picked up on the signs right away. But my second… he’s a different story.
I have watched Baby Signing Time with my DD since she was 1 or 2 months old…At 10 months, she is signing up a storm! She knows at least 10 signs
She is less frustrated since she knows that she can communicate with us.
I signed with all my babies and plan to again with my new little one, but my oldest did it the most, her sisters decided to talk a little earlier. It was neat to see her make the connections and make up her own signs for things, a good sign that she really wanted to comunicate, although sometimes it took a bit to figure out what her new sign meant.
I have always taught sign language to my kids as well as my baby and toddler class i used to teach in daycare. My daughter who is now 13 months knows how to sign milk, more, bird, and all done. And we are working on thank you and a few others right now. Absolutely love it! It really helps her communicate with us without getting too frustrated.
Kyle knows ‘more’ and ‘all done really well… We’re still working on eat and drink. He’ll be 7 months tomorrow so we’ve got lots of time
I am currently using those 3 signs as well. I would like to add more however I am not as dedicated as I would like to be and those 3 are generally used all the time.
I just started signing with my 6 month old. I’m eager for him to start picking some of it up. We didn’t start until a little bit older with our first, but it was still very helpful as he was a late talker.
I’ve tried to incorporate some signing but I just haven’t been very diligent with it. I think that DD grasps some of them, like drink and more, but she has yet to use them.
We’ve been working on it for awhile. More, eat, and all done are the three I know and use (although my “eat” is not the same as yours… mine is more like “milk” – like milking a cow). Our 7 mo hasn’t seemed to do any yet, but I’m fairly certain he understands “eat” because I do it, and then he gets a big stupid grin on his face and pounces my chest. Ahh, understanding
haha
I plan on doing some signing with my baby when he’s old enough. These three will definitely be on the list!
We sign with our daugher and love it! Her first sign was milk and now she does ball, please, thank you, cheese, snack, eat, baby, bath and a few others. It’s so helpful to have her communicate with us with signs even when she can say most words.
we do sign! We started with Baby Signing Time (DVD), then got the regular Signing Time (DVD). It’s been the best investment. Our 19mo knows about 85 signs! I love that he can communicate with us so well, and I love that I can answer my husband’s basic questions now without speaking. (Like when I’m on the phone and he asks who it is, I can just sign “mom” without saying something and interrupting her!)
I also really like all done and milk (which is a nice alternative to my little one groping my chest!)
Signing is such a good tool for babies to communicate before they are able to vocalize and speak words! Milk, more, mama, dada, and eat are popular in our house.
We have signed with both of our kids and it has been a great tool to communicate with them before they could actually verbalize what they needed or wanted. WE love it
Ha! I tried using hand signs at first. I really would love my baby to learn them but I admit Im aweful at using them. I only know a few too like: the alphabet, eat, hungry (which is also wish), drink, more, poop, dance, walk, thank you, Mama, Daddy, brother, sister (which he has neither of LOL), butterfly, and a few others LOL.
It is like MAGIC when they start signing back. I started with my son around 6 months, when he started solids, and it took probably 6-8 weeks before he started doing it back. It was the coolest thing. We had about 10 signs we did with him and it was awesome–so helpful and kept us all from getting too frustrated in the communication realm. My daughter just turned 6 months last week, so I’ll be starting with her too when she starts solids next week. Signing is really worthwhile IME.
I really hope to sign with my daughter. She’s only 10 weeks old at this point, but I’m hoping around 6 months we can start trying!
I can’t imagine not using baby signs! It’s so helpful and I believe it has definitely kept the tantrums to a minimum for us. It relieves so much frustration for them to be able to communicate their needs and be understood.
We use the signs for tired, eat, and all done. I think the more sign would be helpful, though too!
I signed a ton with my kids, but the only ones that stuck were food related!
I want to try this! It seems like fun.
we don’t. i feel i don’t have the time to do it right, as I am working full time. but i like the idea.
We love signing, and it really started blowing up after 18 months. My son is perhaps a bit slow to speak but knows LOTS of signs. He will be two next month and we are still adding new signs each week. It’s especially fun at this age because he picks them up so quickly, after just seeing them a couple of times. It’s very useful! I’ve done a couple of blog posts about signing.
For the commentors who say they don’t have time – If you have time to parent in general you have time to sign! It really doesn’t take much effort to get started, and there’s no all or nothing. Even one sign that aids communication with your child is totally worth it. I will add that my son didn’t pick up on his first sign until 10 months, so stick with it!
We have done all the signs you mentioned but our faves right now are probably “more”, “again”, and “help.”
I have one child and one on the way (due this month!) I would love to sign with this baby! I just think it may be difficult. I’m not going to let that stop me. Thanks for the introduction to signing posted on this blog!
I love Thirsties and my 2 1/2 month old is already growing out of size one! I’d love to win so that I could start getting size two!!
We signed with my first (he is now 3). I have started to introduce it to my six month old as well. The ones we used most often were ‘more’, ‘eat’, and ‘potty’. The only one I am using with the youngest right now is ‘milk’.
We primarily use the three you mentioned, along with “all done” with our 10mo old. Unfortunately the only one he has signed back is “more” — he’s a hungry boy! I recently started adding Mama, Dada and milk to the mix but I don’t think he’s picked up on those yet.
Love the article….wish my daughter would pick up on it though!
We used the basic signs with our son as soon as he started being able to focus on us. It made life a bit easier when he started doing it back, especially with eating and drinking. he loved to sign all done and more! We added mom, dad, ball, light, cracker, and few i can’t remember at the moment from one our children books.
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