Many parents don't know how beneficial sign language can be to both their child and themselves. It is a great communication tool to use prior to your baby having the ability to talk and let you know exactly what he wants. They know what they want at a very early age, they just can't tell you.

So you’ve read about baby sign language and are excited to empower your little one with the gift of communication. Now you just need the tools to get started and a little encouragement. This article was designed to get you off and signing.

Although the techniques for signing with different ages may vary, I have listed the most useful tips for getting started with all ages.

Start with just a few signs.

I suggest starting with the signs for milk, eat, more and all done. These signs will probably have the most relevance in your baby’s routine and fulfill her most common needs in the beginning. You may add more signs, once she begins to use these. It is not necessary to limit your child to just a few signs as she is more than capable of naturally picking up a completely new language before age five with literally no effort. But, for your own learning curve, start with an amount that you can handle.

Use signs every day by incorporating them into your daily routine.

You may start signing with your baby as early as six months. Try using signs every day and as often as possible. Make it part of you daily routine. Ask your baby, “would you like to eat” right before a meal. Ask your baby if she would like some “milk” when you give her a bottle. Ask her if she would like “more” after a few bites of her snack. You may also want to teach her the sign for all done so that she can let you know when she’s full or wants to stop doing something. Repetition is the mother of learning. Repeat, be consistent and most of all be patient. It may take a while, but the signs will come. Most often signs first appear around 9-10 months.

Watch your baby’s favorite sign language video.

Choose a baby sign language video to watch with your child (Baby Signing Time is my favorite). Until you have learned all the signs in the video it is important that you watch it with your child. First of all, if you seat your child in your lap while watching, you are spending valuable time together. You will also be able to demonstrate the signs for your baby and help her form the signs if she cannot do it by herself. Finally, you can provide valuable feedback and positive reinforcement. After signing with my child for some time, I made the mistake of sitting my baby in front of a new video while I made dinner. He began signing new signs that I did not know and became frustrated when I didn’t understand his attempts to communicate. This of course, defeats the purpose of teaching your baby to sign in the first place. Make sure you know all the signs your baby is learning so you can avoid making the same mistake I did.

Speak, read or sing and sign together.

Always say the word you are signing. This allows your child to hear the word and see the sign together and make the connection. Also try to sign in context; in other words, sign eat when you are about to eat, sign flower when you see one (this pretty much comes naturally). For added reinforcement, you may look for opportunities to use signs when you are playing games, outdoors, in the car or in the store. You might sing songs and use signs, and don’t forget to sign when you read together. Research has shown that reading while signing may make children more interested in books and signing makes reading more fun because your child can participate. Signing reinforces language; your baby hears the word, sees the object or action and then makes a kinesthetic gesture. This actually speeds up the learning process. Signing offers you a multisensory teaching tool that not only triples the connections made in your baby’s brain but also makes learning easier!

Help your baby form the signs if she cannot

Sometimes it is hard for babies to form the shapes of the signs with their little hands even if they can make the motion that goes along with it. You can take their little hands in yours and help them form the signs. Eventually you will be able to figure out the signs they are attempting even if the hand shape isn’t quite right yet.

Watch out for signs

Signs may first appear out of context. Your baby may sign more more more on the changing table, or eat while watching TV. Watch closely, if you see it again she may be practicing. Some signs are more difficult to form than others. So watch for something similar that may be a personalized modification. For example, if your baby brings one finger to her mouth while you are drinking from a bottle of water, she may be signing water. Also look for sign substitution. My baby would sign bath when he wanted to go in the pool, bike if he saw a motorcycle or knife when he wanted the scissors. To him these are similar items and since he did not know the signs for pool, motorcycle, or scissors, he substituted the signs he did know. On this same note, when your child begins to communicate with signs, she will become more confident. She will realize that she can communicate with hand signals and if she does not know the sign for a concept she wishes to communicate, she may make up her own. My son made up a number of his own signs. You will be amazed at this, but since you are watching out for signs, you will also be able to pick up your child’s own language pretty quickly.

Always offer positive reinforcement.

Always praise your baby for any effort to sign, even if the sign isn’t exactly correct. There is no need to correct her. Simply offer positive reinforcement and continue to model the sign correctly. Remember, the goal is communication, not perfect signs. Also, avoid the urge to test your child. Testing (and correcting) can introduce anxiety into the equation and anxiety can destroy your child’s desire to learn new things.

Always have fun.

Signing is a fun activity that you can share with your child. Look for ways to use it in games and songs. Signing should never be a chore, so make sure you are having lots of fun!

Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up!

Remember that signing is a fun activity, so don’t get discouraged if your child doesn’t sign back right away. Eventually she will want to communicate with you. Communication is one of the ways we (humans) bond! There are a couple of other pitfalls that I will mention here as they are common and easy to overcome.

You are pretty much guaranteed to hear the following if you sign with your baby, “Well, aren’t you going to delay your child’s speech? I mean if you give her a tool to communicate she won’t want to learn how to talk.” Oh, I heard that so many times I wanted to scream. Arm yourself with the research. Baby signing pioneers like Dr. Linda Acredolo and Dr. Joseph Garcia put that concern to rest in their research. They found that signing has no delaying affect on children’s speech and may actually help accelerate it as they become more confident.

While every child is different, somewhere around her first birthday she will begin to work on new motor skills such as walking. This takes effort and concentration. I often hear from parents that their child just stopped signing about this time. It is sad when I hear that the parents gave up and stopped signing too. It is common that when your child is working on another new skill that she will stop working on skills that she has already begun to develop. The sad part is that after the new skill is mastered (such as walking) you are in for a real treat. This is what is called the signing explosion. This is when your child may begin to master a new sign every day. She may even begin to use them in pairs in an attempt to make sentences. So, if your child stops signing, don’t give up. Continue to sign to her, and when she is ready she will sign back.

Finally, signing can empower your child to communicate but if her caregivers do not understand the signs, your child will get frustrated. If you are serious about signing, it is helpful if all her caregivers are also committed to learning. If your child’s nanny or daycare uses sign language make sure you learn it too and visa versa and make sure to teach grandma and grandpa a few signs too.

Introduce colors, feelings and the alphabet

When your child is a little older and has built up a good vocabulary, you may want to introduce colors, feelings and the alphabet. Teaching the signs for colors helps your child learn her colors. It also gives her another tool to describe her environment. Teaching your child the signs for feeling will help toddlers identify their feelings. This is extremely useful and I have written a whole article on this topic. Finally, the alphabet is very useful for many reasons. One reason is that many signs require you to know your sign language alphabet. But the manual alphabet as it is called, can also help your child with spelling once she has learned to read and offers her that same multisensory learning tool that helps make learning easier.

Good luck, have fun and happy signing!

By Monika Mira via http://www.ZiggityZoom.com