Baby signing is not limited to the US: it is taking the world by storm. My experience of using sign language with a baby has been in the South African context. Like many middle-class South African children, my son Alexander stays home with a nanny, and is growing up bilingual in English and her language, Sepedi. I have found sign language to be a useful bridge between English and Sepedi, as the signs are the same, whatever the spoken language.
Some people worry that if their child is looked after by someone else, they won’t get enough exposure to sign language. In my experience, even if nannies or fathers are doubtful at first, they are converted when the baby signs his first sign. I kept a sign language book and a file of Internet printouts in the kitchen for easy reference, and I would also show dad and nanny his new signs as he learnt them.
I started signing with Alexander when he was seven months old and he signed back at nine months. The usefulness of signing was brought home to us that very month when he and Jackie managed to communicate the fact that I hadn't given him breakfast before I left for work. She noticed there was no bowl to wash up, but she checked with Alexander by doing the "eat" sign, and got an enthusiastic response. By the time I phoned home, they’d worked it out.
By the time Alexander was ten months old, Jackie was also a firm believer in signing. She said she wished she had known about it when her three daughters were babies. She stood up in a childcare course and told everyone all about the benefits of signing, in spite of opposition from the person running the course. While she was doing her stand for the benefits of signing, Alexander was demonstrating it to me as a really cool communication tool. We went to fetch his dad's car from a service, and there was a fan in the next room to where we were waiting, which I had not noticed. He signed "fan" to me very clearly, to share with me his exciting discovery. Shortly after that, he demonstrated that signing helps rather than hinders spoken language development (the opposite of what the Child Care "expert" was saying at that very moment), by saying "hello", clear enough for strangers to understand it, twice in ten minutes.
If you are in a country outside of the USA, you should consider teaching your child to sign in your local sign language, rather than American Sign Language (ASL). Contrary to what many hearing people think, sign language is not one language, understood by all deaf people. In fact, the sign languages used in various English-speaking countries are totally different to one another. Deaf people in the USA and Canada use American Sign Language, which has its roots in French Sign Language, whereas the sign languages of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa have their roots in British Sign Language. Irish Sign Language is related to American Sign Language. In Northern Ireland both BSL and ISL are used. You can read up more about Sign Languages around the world on Gallaudet and About.com.
The United Kingdom has good representation of baby signing courses using British Sign
Language. Sing and sign was the first baby signing company in the UK. Others include Sign and Bond, Tiny Talk, Signing Babes, Sign Language Club, Sign2me and Kindersigns. Although Signing Smart books are available in the UK, no courses are running outside of the USA to date.
BSL resources include Deafsign, CACDP, RNID - How to learn BSL and the National Deaf Children's Society.
Sign2me and Kindersigns are both operating in Australia, the former using Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and the latter using Auslan and simplified Auslan signs. New Zealand has Baby Talk, which uses simplified signs based on New Zealand Sign Language.
Signing with hearing babies is new in South Africa, but both Jo’burg and Cape Town have signing courses now. Meredith Bonte is running Sign2Me programmes in Jo’burg and Philippa Newell in Cape Town, using South African Sign Language. Kim Foster of totcom is also running courses in Cape Town. You can get South African Sign Language dictionary on CD from Hennie Laing of Moving Hands Enterprise or contact DEAFSA for South African Sign Language courses in your area.
Signing with babies is not limited to English-speaking countries. http://www.babyzeichen.de/ is a website about signing to your baby in German. There are also mothers teaching their hearing babies French Sign Language in France and Canada.
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