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Sign With Your Baby: How to Communicate With Infants Before They Can Speak
Babies have control over their hands long before they develop the fine motor skills required for speech. By teaching their infants to sign, starting as early as eight months, more and more parents, grandparents and caregivers are recognizing the many benefits of this early communication.
In Sign with your Baby, author and researcher Joseph Garcia offers a straightforward and lighthearted approach to teaching infants how to communicate using simple sign language. Mr. Garcia's system draws from his years of research in early childhood development and from his own personal experience teaching his two sons. This method does not require learning an entire new language. Rather, Joseph teaches how using a few simple gestures can make a big difference in empowering and meeting the needs of your baby.
106 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
February 18, 2025
Quick simple read. Good refresher from the basic ASL i learned in college and forgot. Can’t wait to try with my baby!
June 18, 2012
I decided years ago, that when I had a child I wanted to try out baby sign language. I guess some of my interest evolved out of reading the Clan of the Cave Bear, as a teenager. In the book the children of the clan learn to talk their sign language much sooner than the "others'" children and so when I came across an infomercial for baby sign language not long after it made sense. Now, my daughter is not quite old enough to sign yet, so I can't really say yet if sign is the way to go, or if I am wasting my time. Anyway, I thought I would get learning and get my girl used to seeing the signs.
This little book has been very informative. The baby sign language is based on the American standard signs, so, even if my daughter never really uses it, at least I may have learned a few useful signs. The book is divided into two sections, the first part deals with the meat of the book - the when, why and how and the second is the drawings of the signs. One of the nice things about this book is that it isn't very long. The first part is only 50 odd pages, something a new mother can sit down and read while baby is taking a nap. The simple line drawings are well done and easy to understand with arrows that show the movement and a key to understand the arrows(better than the app on my ipad that has a cartoon child doing each sign!)
Now to just see if learning the signs actually benefits future conversations with my baby!
This little book has been very informative. The baby sign language is based on the American standard signs, so, even if my daughter never really uses it, at least I may have learned a few useful signs. The book is divided into two sections, the first part deals with the meat of the book - the when, why and how and the second is the drawings of the signs. One of the nice things about this book is that it isn't very long. The first part is only 50 odd pages, something a new mother can sit down and read while baby is taking a nap. The simple line drawings are well done and easy to understand with arrows that show the movement and a key to understand the arrows(better than the app on my ipad that has a cartoon child doing each sign!)
Now to just see if learning the signs actually benefits future conversations with my baby!
April 10, 2023
Just what I needed to get the basics of signing with my little. Cute and effective messaging from the writer. Finally, an appropriately-lengthed baby book! Almost half the book is just vocab, which is appropriate! The framework was encouraging and inviting and didn’t focus on perfection.
I have been trying signs with my 10-month old since I started the book about four months ago and they just signed back to me the first time this month. 🥹 It was incredible!
I have been trying signs with my 10-month old since I started the book about four months ago and they just signed back to me the first time this month. 🥹 It was incredible!
February 27, 2018
A nice brief summary with clear signs and a good list including most of the ones you'd probably want to teach, and not too many extra to overwhelm. A lot of them I'm familiar from the ASL class with Zack.
The main thing I learned was that signing probably won't start until 7-8 months, but I'll probably incorporate a few before then to get into the habit.
The main thing I learned was that signing probably won't start until 7-8 months, but I'll probably incorporate a few before then to get into the habit.
September 21, 2022
Quick read. Lots of examples. Supplemental video would be helpful.
November 7, 2008
This is a really quick, easy to use reference. Because I'm already really familiar with sign language, the sign illustrations are only a reference and reminder, but are very well done. Still, I think a more complete reference might be handy for parents unfamiliar with signs.
Dr. Garcia's approach is easy and both parent and toddler-friendly. He reminds parents not to take signing too seriously, but not to underestimate the value of giving your children an opportunity to communicate and initiate conversation. He insists on starting slow and being consistent. The key, he writes, is to make it fun for your baby so he learns that there are effective ways to make himself understood.
Also - Dr. Garcia uses ASL signs. This is highly effective both for parents (consistency helps us remember things) and children (they'll be able not only to communicate with immediate members of their family network, but with others as well). Using a universally understood sign language as a base gives your baby signing endeavor both credibility and long-term effectiveness.
Dr. Garcia's approach is easy and both parent and toddler-friendly. He reminds parents not to take signing too seriously, but not to underestimate the value of giving your children an opportunity to communicate and initiate conversation. He insists on starting slow and being consistent. The key, he writes, is to make it fun for your baby so he learns that there are effective ways to make himself understood.
Also - Dr. Garcia uses ASL signs. This is highly effective both for parents (consistency helps us remember things) and children (they'll be able not only to communicate with immediate members of their family network, but with others as well). Using a universally understood sign language as a base gives your baby signing endeavor both credibility and long-term effectiveness.
October 17, 2012
When we sign with our baby, it gives us more options for communication before he might need to rely on 'the cry.'
It's also really cool when he enthusiastically signs at us what we realized he needs. It's as if he's saying to us, "Yes! You got it! I was hungry and I needed milk! Now I'm having milk! Yes! Milk! Milk! Milk!"
If you saw his look, you would understand all the exclamation marks.
By the way, we got a video with the book. It's really helpful for learning the basic signs more quickly and starting the signing process. Then it becomes motivating to learn more signs as we see the earlier ones paying off.
It's also really cool when he enthusiastically signs at us what we realized he needs. It's as if he's saying to us, "Yes! You got it! I was hungry and I needed milk! Now I'm having milk! Yes! Milk! Milk! Milk!"
If you saw his look, you would understand all the exclamation marks.
By the way, we got a video with the book. It's really helpful for learning the basic signs more quickly and starting the signing process. Then it becomes motivating to learn more signs as we see the earlier ones paying off.
December 22, 2019
A major benefit of this book is that the text to read is less than 50 pages, and that's nothing to shake a stick at when you're a parent with little uninterrupted reading time. The rest of the book is a glossary of signs.
This pairs well with Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, New Edition. In fact, Dr. Garcia mentions and recommends Baby Signs!
This pairs well with Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, New Edition. In fact, Dr. Garcia mentions and recommends Baby Signs!
August 23, 2009
I used this with my first baby, before the big signing surge, and afterwards with my other children. It seemed like such a revolutionary idea to use signing with young children who had no other way to communicate except to point or cry and I loved the idea. I only taught basic signs, but even that was wonderful. I would highly recommend this book or one like it to any parent.
January 12, 2020
While I’m interested in baby sign language and want to try it with my child, I found this book overwhelming and intimidating. I don’t want to learn to converse in ASL - just a few signs to make the baby’s life easier. This book goes into far more depth than I needed, and I came out of it without actually learning any signs. Some of the illustrations were simple enough, but I found quite a few of them hard to follow. The book mentioned an accompanying video, but my hand-me-down copy didn’t come with it. I suspect the video would have helped me get more out of it.
August 31, 2017
Looking forward to using signs with our baby who just turned six months. Book is well written and it's adherence to ASL (American Sign Language) makes it a skill that kids can use later in life. We picked the first 5 words for him: EAT, MORE, MILK, PAPA and MOM. Looking forward to see when he signs first.
January 1, 2020
Very good starter text for someone wanting to know a bit of the child-development theory, but then jump right in to building a simple set of tools to try out this teaching technique. Great read for expecting parents, aunts, uncles and grand-parents.
October 26, 2018
This book helped me to communicate with my babies.
June 14, 2020
Good resource for teaching your baby to help communicate before they are verbal
June 9, 2022
A lot of sign tips and a lot of signs to learn. Good basic book
November 11, 2023
Whimsical illustrations were helpful; however, our baby started speaking at the same time as he started signing—and then gave up on signing.
January 4, 2024
Very simple approach. Diagrams for learning signs were better than other books I've read (obviously not optimal to learn ASL from pictures) excitedly beginning this with my baby
February 21, 2024
Very concise helpful book about how to introduce signs to your baby. I cannot wait to try it out myself!!
November 8, 2019
Great resource. Emphasized signing starting around 7-8 months and being persistent despite not seeing any reciprocation for months. I'd say I now use 10 signs with my son on a regular basis (more, water, play, toilet, don't touch, etc.) and I know about 30 more that I use sporadically (airplane, sit, car, dog, moon, etc.) He's nine-and-a-half months old and I'm already seeing the spark of recognition and the yearn to interact intellectually. Very excited for two-way communication to begin, whether signing or verbal.
October 19, 2017
Brief, helpful overview.
March 1, 2017
Helpful book, easy to read, found some new and good information. I will let you know if this worked with my child, who is now 10 months.
February 20, 2017
I think this book has some great points about how to incorporate signing into every day life with your baby. I didn't know before reading it that you can & should start signing before or around 7 months of age!
September 21, 2008
What I liked about the book:
1. Clear plan for teaching sign language to baby
2. ASL rather than modified or invented signs
3. Illustrated sign instructions
It gives you some ideas for what signs to introduce first and a few games to play to reinforce the signs.
I LOVED the opportune moments to introduce signs! Expressive gazes, mutual gazes, and pointed gazes. The examples were so clear that I could picture teaching my baby that way and it made so much more sense than how I'd previously thought of just showing my baby signs.
Not too much reading for the new busy parent, as only 50 pages are actual reading, and the rest is the sign dictionary for reference of signs commonly used by the little ones. I think the dictionary organization in this book is easier to find things than in Beyer's "Teach Your Baby to Sign" book, although her dictionary is much larger.
What I didn't like about book:
Perhaps because this book is older than some newer signing information... it contained a two ideas I disagree with:
1. Only sign the word, do not speak it at the same time - I think you should always say and sign together.
2. He listed a specific age (can't remember if it was 6 or 8 months?) to start signing, and I thought it was too old because I've seen some babies sign as early as 6 months. While your baby is never too old to start teaching signing, I also believe it is never too early to start, as long as you don't expect them to sign back earlier just because you started earlier.
1. Clear plan for teaching sign language to baby
2. ASL rather than modified or invented signs
3. Illustrated sign instructions
It gives you some ideas for what signs to introduce first and a few games to play to reinforce the signs.
I LOVED the opportune moments to introduce signs! Expressive gazes, mutual gazes, and pointed gazes. The examples were so clear that I could picture teaching my baby that way and it made so much more sense than how I'd previously thought of just showing my baby signs.
Not too much reading for the new busy parent, as only 50 pages are actual reading, and the rest is the sign dictionary for reference of signs commonly used by the little ones. I think the dictionary organization in this book is easier to find things than in Beyer's "Teach Your Baby to Sign" book, although her dictionary is much larger.
What I didn't like about book:
Perhaps because this book is older than some newer signing information... it contained a two ideas I disagree with:
1. Only sign the word, do not speak it at the same time - I think you should always say and sign together.
2. He listed a specific age (can't remember if it was 6 or 8 months?) to start signing, and I thought it was too old because I've seen some babies sign as early as 6 months. While your baby is never too old to start teaching signing, I also believe it is never too early to start, as long as you don't expect them to sign back earlier just because you started earlier.
March 3, 2008
I got the book and DVD set and found the two together to be incredibly helpful in teaching my daughter ASL signs. Some of those first signs are very subtle, and seeing the DVD really helped me recognize when she was trying to make a sign versus when she was just kind of moving her hands around. Signing really enriched our interactions and reduced frustration in those pre-verbal months. She's nearly three now and quite verbal, but there are still a few signs she uses, sometimes for novelty, sometimes for emphasis, and sometimes because she's feeling shy and doesn't want to say "thank you" out loud to a stranger.
July 31, 2024
Buku yang bikin penasaran. Menurut hasil penelitian Joseph Garcia, bayi yang diajari bahasa isyarat jumlah kosakatanya akan bertambah lebih banyak dan cepat daripada bayi yang tidak diajari bahasa isyarat. Bahasa isyarat bisa diajarkan sejak bayi berusia 7 bulan, tapi bisa jadi mereka baru menggunakan bahasa isyarat itu di usia 8 atau 9 bulan. Bahasa isyarat bisa membantu bayi menyampaikan maksudnya pada kita ketika dia belum bisa berkomunikasi secara verbal. Dalam buku ini, sekitar 53 halaman diisi dengan berbagai bahasa isyarat yang diambil dari ASL atau American Sign Language. Jadi pingin eksperimen ama ponakan, deh.
July 8, 2008
I read this before our first child was born and just got it out again to study up a little before our next one comes. I thought it was great. Our daughter just started signing one day and as soon as she did her first sign, she learned about one new one a day. Some family members tried to tell me it would keep her from talking but she seemed to talk as soon as all her friends if not sooner so I did not see where it slowed her speech at all. The neat part was that it was kind of the first feedback we got from her so it was neat to see her learning new things and communicating so soon.
April 9, 2009
Very quick read.
I have been signing with my baby since birth (just the word "nurse"). As a preschool teacher I really believe that speech and signing helps bridge language differences, helps young children with reading readiness (e.g. the manual alphabet), and creating a "quiet" time or voice.
As a parent of a 10 month old who likes to sit and be cute... It's a different story. My son can sign the word "nurse" (while he nurses) and "more" (though he usually grunts or cries). He understands more signs than he communicates...
I have been signing with my baby since birth (just the word "nurse"). As a preschool teacher I really believe that speech and signing helps bridge language differences, helps young children with reading readiness (e.g. the manual alphabet), and creating a "quiet" time or voice.
As a parent of a 10 month old who likes to sit and be cute... It's a different story. My son can sign the word "nurse" (while he nurses) and "more" (though he usually grunts or cries). He understands more signs than he communicates...
August 9, 2009
Teaching babies ASL (or other sign languages) is, I think, the kind of thing that is completely revolutionary, but afterwards you think about it and you wonder why it took so long for people to catch on to it. I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to use this with my little one once he's born and old enough.
Three stars for this book just because it seems like it's part of a larger system/kit that the authors want you to buy, so by reading the book you're only really getting half of the story.
Three stars for this book just because it seems like it's part of a larger system/kit that the authors want you to buy, so by reading the book you're only really getting half of the story.
July 8, 2008
A nice and potentially useful book. According to this book, babies can learn to sign fairly articulately long before they are able to form words with their mouths. Contains a sizable glossary of signs, including words like 'good,' 'more,' 'eat,' 'hurt' and many other words that would be useful for baby/caregiver communication. Makes me wish I knew a baby I could learn sign language with. I am not sure, but I guess it's ASL used in this book?
October 15, 2007
We had a great time using signs with our first-born. It really helped with the frustration during the time when kids have so much to say and just can't make the words clearly with their voices yet. Eventually, we needed to supplement with ASL dictionary, videos, etc.
With my son, we only ended up using a few signs. Ah, those poor second-borns!
With my son, we only ended up using a few signs. Ah, those poor second-borns!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews