Yes.  Absolutely.  While I might be getting ahead of myself, I do think that all babies can use sign language.  For while there will always be some minor exceptions, the overwhelming majority of babies will have no problem at all picking up baby sign language.  In fact, many speech pathologists will at times recommend toddlers pick up baby sign language in order to facilitate language development.  So while more children suffer from speech concerns, far fewer still will be unable to sign.  In other words, those babies that can’t sign, also will have issues related to speech too.  In a lot of instances, signing can help a baby by providing them with an outlet as their spoken vocabulary catches up.

While some babies, less than 10% will suffer a speech delay, even less than this will be unable to sign.  Yes, some babies will take longer to sign back, but just as many will sign back even quicker than average.  Since every baby is different, you and I will never really know when a baby is ready to sign back until you give it a shot.

I always say that you really need to stay focused and diligent when you take up signing because it does sometimes take longer than you might think.  Some babies can take 8 weeks, some might even take 8 months!  It really depends on your baby.  What is known for sure is that no baby will sign back until they are ready.  You can ramp up your efforts, blame your instructor (wink), or call witchcraft, but all babies are on their own time-line and there’s nothing you can do to speed that up.  All you can hope for is your interest and your baby’s ability to coincide.  That is when success will occur.  So while you can’t push your baby beyond their abilities, you can wait patiently in the wings prepared to pounce when baby is receptive.  There are many clues to uncovering your baby’s signing receptivity – the online course covers many of the clues you might see when your baby is ready, set, go!

This is probably impossible!  For starters if you have time to read this blog article you have time to sign to your baby.  Here let me start the ball rolling.

First learn these three signs, EAT, MORE, MILK.  To sign EAT bring the fingertips to the mouth.  Simple!  Next sign MORE by bringing the fingertips of each hand together.  Simple!  Now sign MILK by opening and closing your fist as if milking a cow.  Simple!  Now just do this 20-30 times a day and you’re teaching sign language!  Okay so not every parent is around all day long to sign with their baby, but someone else is, so just pass along these three signs and pick up when you get your baby back from their caregiver.

Signing is pretty easy.  Just get your hands on a baby sign dictionary, hint, hint, learn a word and sign it like you mean it.  Signing with a baby does not require learning ASL, it only requires learning as many signs as you like and then showing them to your baby.  Many programs might try to muddle things, but signing doesn’t require a whole lot of tools.  If you want to master signing, or want to learn quicker and more convenient strategies to signing while avoiding the pitfalls, then by all means sign up to a baby sign language course.  These can be fun and a way to bond to other parents, but doing a course online is much more convenient, wink!

The major reason why babies suddenly stop using signs is because parents do.  Pretty simple right?  A baby looks up to his parents as a role model of what to do, so if you stop, they stop too.  The best way to keep your baby signing, is to continue signing along with your baby.  You can’t really expect babies to do as they are told and not as you do!

Other times, babies stop using signs because they’ve lost interest in saying the word – they’ve moved on.  That doesn’t mean they wont come back to the sign – because eventually, so long as you keep using it, so will they.  Babies also sometimes forget what the sign is when they learn to say words.  This is pretty normal and not always something you can prevent from happening.  Rather then force your baby to sign, if they prefer not to, you should celebrate the development of their spoken vocabulary.  In the long run, speaking is what the aim of signing is really all about.

Other times a baby can become distracted by other tasks such as learning to walk or crawl, playing with new toys, and so forth.  Important milestones can often put a baby off signing temporarily.  So if you want your baby to continue to sign, then just keep signing without him, eventually your baby will regain his interest.