Secondly, we see that children can usually communicate manually before they

can communicate

orally. An example of that might be for an infeant to do "more," with their

hands

its easier than saying "more," with your lips

and so by being able to communicate

wants and needs, it reduces frustration not just for the infant but also for the

parents.

The earlier the better. The more a child

sees a signed word or hears a spoken word,

they learn it faster so as soon as you

want to dive into learning sign that's the best time to start.

Children will usually start communicating things they want

or need. For example milk would be one of the

signs that a lot of times children will

say or sign early. This is just actually made, when you think about milking a

cow,

that's where that comes from, mom and dad.

Get a book, check out one of the DVDs from the library, start learning the

the vocabulary, it's nice to kind of keep a list

and check it off with mom and dad. The more you use it, the easier it becomes

and the more natural.

One thing that I think some parents do is their thinking so much

about their signs that they're not communicating

naturally the way they would with their child and you don't want to do that. You

want to be just natural and if it starts to get in the way of

communication, if you thinking more about what you're signing

thing what you're saying and the way you're interacting, you want to slow down

a little bit.