Baby Signing for Dummies

by Jennifer Watson

Have you thought about signing with your baby or toddler? Parents and caregivers are discovering the benefits of using American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with children long before they can speak. Some studies show that signing babies talk sooner, have larger vocabularies, and have fewer tantrums "Baby Signing For Dummies" gives you the skills to connect in a meaningful way with your hearing baby or toddler. Packed with more than 150 illustrated signs, this friendly, easy-to-follow guide shows you how to use simple hand gestures and baby-specific signing techniques to start interacting with your baby. Every sign is accompanied by step-by-step directions and an illustration--from meeting and greeting, people, and mealtime signs to clothes, animals, outdoor signs, and, of course, bath time and bedtime. You'll discover how to: Introduce signs to your babyIncorporate signing into daily lifeMake everyday events easier with signsOvercome stumbling blocksDecrease fussing and crying through signingHelp your baby sign combinations of wordsKeep your baby safe with signingGet the whole family involvedFind outside help (Web sites, videos, and signing schools and courses)

Complete with illustrations of the entire ASL alphabet, signing dos and don'ts, and ten songs to sign along with, "Baby Signing For Dummies" is the key to enhancing communication with your child and increasing his/her intelligence in a simple, fun, and rewarding way

Genres: Parenting, Linguistics, Nonfiction

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of this and Baby Sign Language Basics, I think the latter is the better overall guide. Both are acceptable, however.

The Dummies book does actually do a better job of explaining how to physically make many of the signs, which is very helpful for someone who's new to sign language. (Oh, I've been taught the alphabet, which I've repeatedly forgotten, but that's about it.) The other book, however, has far more signs organized in a manner that is more likely to be helpful on the fly. Baby Sign Language Basics's second half is an alphabetical dictionary of signs. The For Dummies book, on the other hand, organizes by category. More annoyingly, each sign is introduced with a cutesy paragraph. So while I appreciate the more sophisticated description of how to form the sign for "hat", when my kid is pointing to his head and demanding to know what the sign is for the thing I just stuck on him, I don't think I'm going to want to flip through the chapter on clothing and then wade through a reminder that hats are good for keeping your head warm and also a fun part of costumes! I'm just going to want to turn to the right letter of the alphabet, see the sign, and answer my kid's question.

Essentially, a huge amount of this book is filler.

The tone is very much the standard "for Dummies" tone--slightly lame jokes and personal anecdotes and all. Some people find this non-threatening, some people find it annoying. You'll have to evaluate for yourself.

Having both books is valuable, since this one's explanations of the words it shows are clearer. But if I had to pick only one, I'd pick the one with the bigger vocabulary, and this one isn't it.

[Felyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caveat: I am neither a parent nor a child caregiver.

What I am is someone learning ASL from books who saw this on Scribd and though it would be an excellent resource for basic, everyday signs. And that's exactly what I got out of it! My reasoning here is that when you're learning to communicate with your pre-verbal child, you've got priorities, namely: food and safety. Yes, toys and animals are great and could very well be some of the first signs your child learns, but the author also gives us hurt, safe, medicine, hot, cold, and various other signs to get you through very basic needs.

It really gave me a jumpstart on my own signing vocabulary and learning progress, which as stalled a bit with the other book I'm currently reading. (It's presently discussing classifiers, which are great and very important, but also personally a little overwhelming.)

I enjoyed the personal style and anecdotes, but agree with other reviews that it loses its charm quickly when you're trying to reference back to something. I think it would benefit greatly from a general reference section for the signs (or better yet, a pull-out poster) or a more robust index.

If you are going to use this as a Baby ASL primer, I would also recommend looking up the words on YouTube or another Baby Sign resource for examples of how actual babies and toddlers make them so you can more readily recognise signs when a child is trying to communicate with you.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little introduction. It teaches you the most useful signs for baby. Very handy.

[Canoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this from the library along with some other baby signing books. This one had, by far, the best selection of signs to teach your baby, at least to start. I wanted everyday words, not 50 different types of animals or fruit and veggies that my daughter was only eating in puree form at the time. I can see where those things would be fun later on, but to start with I wanted some basics which some of the other books seemed to lack.

This book also had the alphabet and colors in it unlike most of the other baby signing books. This greatly helps since a lot of the signs say to start by signing for "C" or "A", etc.

I wound up with Baby Signing 1 2 3 and an American Sign Language Dictionary. If I had known better, I may have bought this book instead of the 1 2 3, but 1 2 3 had enough of the basics in it for me as well.

[Berryblndgirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I thought it was a great introduction to signing with your baby. It covers how and why you should do it and includes pretty detailed illustrations and descriptions for the most common signs a parent would want to teach their child.

I still think it's easier to learn how to sign by watching someone do it than seeing a book illustration, though.

Also, I thought it was unusual that the author recommends starting signing at birth but only starting with 5 or 6 signs. Her logic is that parents talk their child from infancy even though babies can't yet respond. That makes sense, but why only teach 5 or 6 signs? I don't know of any parent that would only use 5 or 6 spoken words with their child, so why should it be any different with signing?

[Armando Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally worth the Money

I struggled between giving the book 3 or 5 stars. I have it 5 stars because I bought this Kindle edition for around $1 and it's completely worth it. But the argument for 3 stars as opposed to 5 would be that it's not the complete book; it's a mini version and so the content is extremely limited. That said, this mini Kindle version covers some of the basics and works as a great trial to see if you want to invest in the full book.

We used the full version paperback book with my son when he was a baby; he's 10+ now. We were astonished how well we were able to communicate with him before he could speak. I like the system so much, I plan on purchasing the ASL for dummies Kindle edition.

[Brittany K · Rating 5 out of 5]

The illustrations for hand movements were very clear and easy to follow. I used this book when I worked in Special Education so I could use basic signs to communicate with deaf students. I like the 'Dummies' books because they aren't pushy or confrontational. I also used this book to teach my baby sign language. We did sign religiously until he turned ten months. He never caught on so I gave up. Yes, I'm lazy, and so's my kid so we're just doomed either way.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to learn baby sign language for the baby and I liked this book becuse it has lots of pictures and easy for the siblings to pick up the sign language also.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reminds me of Meet The Fockers. Too funny.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of basic signs for baby