This week Elliot and his mom Kayleigh tell us their signing story.

My son Elliott is just over a year (16 months-old to be exact!) and has quite a good sign vocabulary.

We started on signing just at 3 months. We knew he wasn’t going to be able to sign back right away but we decided it was something we wanted to stick with.

Elliott started having troubles with bilateral ear infections when he was 4 months-old and by the time he was 1 year-old we had to go get tubes. The ENT told us earlier before he was old enough to have surgery, that what he was hearing was what we would hear under a small amount of water that’s how bad his ears were.

We were happy at that point that we decided to sign so we were able to communicate with our little guy.

He started signing when he was 9 months-old: milk, more and eat; and since then he’s built onto that list: please, thank you, change, diaper, poop, water, help, smart, ball, sit, the letter “E” since his name is Elliott and dog. I’m sure there is more that I am forgetting.

We are thankful that every day we chose to sign with our baby boy. We are able to communicate with him in a way that has helped temper tantrums come to a close and when we are in an intimate setting at a restaurant and he wants milk or something to snack on he signs to us and it’s a lot easier and less noisy for us to communicate to one another.

Khloie is the second star of our signing stories series. Nicole and her daughter Khloie started signing at 8 months. Read how they got started and check out the video of Khloie showing us how it’s done!

I got interested in BSL when I went to a friend’s house and her 9 month old baby was eating and making these hand movements and her mom was like okay, hold on, I’m getting your milk. I asked her how in the world did you know what she wanted and when I found out she had taught her sign language I was amazed.

I thought it was awesome that she knew exactly what her baby wanted. So when I got pregnant like 3 years later I was excited to try it. I first started consistently introducing signs when she was about 8 months, I had done it a few times before but it wasn’t routine yet. I started with milk and more. I breastfed so whenever I would nurse her I would be signing for milk and saying milk. And when I fed her her Gerber jars, I would sign for more before I gave her some.

When I started it’s amazing how much they pay attention because half the time I never thought she was, but about 3 weeks later she started signing for milk and a couple weeks after that she was signing for more.

Khloie is now 17 months old and knows over 10 signs. Now she’s catching on way faster than I can keep up because it doesn’t take as long to learn a new sign. I feel it has even improved her talking abilities because she will sign what she’s wanting and try to say it. Right now we’re working on learning the sign sorry and thank you.

I would say if anyone is interested in learning BSL to not give up and be patient. It’s so rewarding and they’ll start signing back out of nowhere!

This is the first in series of posts we are going to do about reader’s experiences with baby sign language. Christi, shared with us this incredibly cute video of her son Wyatt doing more, one of his first signs. Check out the video and read Wyatt’s signing story.

I found out about Baby Sign Language through Facebook- my cousin liked the Baby Sign Language page, and after checking it out, I did too. I saw a video clip of a little girl signing a lot- and I thought I’d try it out. I purchased the Deluxe Kit and read the Quick Start Guide. My husband and I started signing mom, dad, and milk when he was five months old. To be honest we were not consistent with it, and signing fell to the wayside.

Fast-forward a few months. Wyatt started eating food and I introduced the sign for more. I began just by asking if he wanted more, doing the sign, and then giving him a spoonful of food. Some days I signed, some days I didn’t. After a few weeks of doing that I’d ask him, take his hands and make the sign with his hands. I would get excited and say yeah! more! and give him a spoonful of food. When he was 7 months he did his first sign- mimicking me! I was SO excited… and what was so sweet was Wyatt was excited too! Now, just a few weeks later, when I ask him (without signing it) he responds with the sign! We are VERY proud parents! The video I took was just after he started mimicking me.

We are now working on all done, mom, dad, and milk. I’m so excited to see progress – and you can really see him soaking it in and thinking! I believe in this program and can’t wait to see how this helps Wyatt communicate with us and express his needs! Little ones are such sponges, are curious, and want to learn. If we can do it- you can too!