Amazing Baby Signing Stories: Part 2
Baby Sign Language Success Stories
Our instructors take a lot of pride in what they do, and love hearing updates and feedback from past students! Here are some Baby Sign Language Success Stories.
“B-A-N-A-N-A-S!”
“We started signing with our daughter Sophie when she was 8 months old. Her first sign, ‘Milk’, came on very quick, only 3 weeks after we started! She continued on to learn ‘More’ and ‘Help’, and used them quite constantly. We were also working on her food signs over the next couple of months, but she didn’t seem to want to use them. She was so focused on eating! We kept it up, knowing that eventually she would get it. When she was about 10.5 months old we had her at a family event, and during dinner she was extremely upset, and refused to eat anything! We didn’t know what was wrong, and she kept just signing ‘Help’.
Just when I was about to give up and take her out of her highchair she signed ‘Banana’, which she had started eating in small pieces a couple weeks before. When I spoke the word back to her, the tears stopped, she smiled and clapped her hands, going on to sign it over and over again until we got her Banana! I was so proud, and our family members were all amazed. What a smart little girl! Once she really understood that she could get her needs across more, the signs just started to explode. She is just over a year now and can sign over 35 signs! That memory still brings tears to my eyes! Thank you for all of your great videos and your website. We love signing!” -Stacy
“Extra love for Daddy!”
My daughter Bailey did her first sign, ‘milk’, at 7.5 months old. We had been working on that, along with Mommy, Daddy and eat. By 9 months she didn’t show much interested in the other signs at all, or so we thought! Her Daddy often goes away on business, and had a flight cancellation the last time he left. I had Bailey sitting beside me playing with her toys happily when I placed a video call to chat with him. As soon as she heard his voice she looked right at him and started signing ‘Daddy’ and saying ‘Dada’ with a huge smile on her face! It was the first time we even saw her attempt it. Daddy was so moved he actually had tears in his eyes! Thank you so much My Smart Hands for your great videos and encouraging us to sign with our daughter! -Clara
“Signing ‘Hurt‘ and how it helped.”
We love signing with our daughter Ralee. She had about 15 signs by the time she turned one, with her first being at 7 months – the sign for milk! When Ralee started climbing and attempting to walk, she would fall down a lot, and we would work on the sigh for ‘hurt’ so she could tell us if she hurt herself. Or if I found her crying, I would ask her where she hurt, while showing her the sign! At around 14 months, Ralee had a cold. I went into her room when she was crying one night, and she was doing hurt by her throat.
The next morning, I booked her a doctor’s appointment and found out she had a throat infection! I would have had no idea had she not done that – I just thought it was a common cold! I can’t explain how much we appreciate signing with our daughter, and how much it has helped! Thank you so much for all your great video’s! -Kim, Max and Ralee.
“Please! Cheese!”
Before my daughter was born, I knew I wanted to teach her to sign. I had always been fascinated with the research on signing for hearing babies. We loved watching Firese’s videos and enjoyed other baby signing books and videos.
I started signing “more” to my daughter at about 6 or 7 months but it wasn’t until 9 or 10 months that she really started to pick up on it. Once I knew she got it with “more” we moved onto “milk”, “all-done”, and her favorite- “dog”! She will be one this Friday and she’s up to 8 signs and loves it!
Funny story, we’re teaching her to sign “O” for Cheerios and she doesn’t do it yet but when she saw me pull out the box of Cheerios yesterday, she frantically signed “please” “cheese”!!!! Haha! She knows that signing sometimes gets her a snack so I guess she just substituted a sign she knew in hopes it would work!
Here are a couple clips of her signing at 11 months.
These are amazing Baby Sign Language Success stories! Click here for some more of these heartwarming stories. If you have a signing story to share, send it to us at rcdirector(@)mysmarthands.com. You could be featured!