My First Baby Signs Board book – 1 May 2002

Me and my 17 month old both love these books, she doesn't say many words yet but she's quickly picking up the signs from the Baby Signs books, and she loves paging through them.

ベビーサインを始める方にお勧めです。始めに取り組みやすい、10個のサインが、サインをしている赤ちゃんの写真付きで載っています。その、赤ちゃんの写真だけでも、かわいらしくって、見ていて飽きません。7ヶ月のうちの子も、まだ、サインは出来ませんが、写真にはくぎずけでした。

I bought this because my son's daycare class has the same one so he was learning these already. This book has a mix of true ASL (or modified ASL) and made-up signs/gestures. For instance, the first page is "ball" and they show the actual ASL sign for the act of "throwing [the ball]" and not the sign for the object "ball." Some other ASL signs in this book: hat, cat, book, baby. Some of the made-up signs/gestures: dog, fish, flower.My son loves this book and loves showing us the signs from it. I think he responds well to the actual photos of the toddlers making the signs along with the photos of the object they're signing, and from what I can tell there aren't a lot of good books with these qualifications that show the actual ASL. I would prefer if it was all ASL, sure, but if we are serious about our little guy learning ASL for real, then he still has plenty of time in life to augment these gestures with the actual signs. For now, it's super cute to see him so intent on learning these gestures and, let's face it, he's adorable when he pants like a dog or smacks his lips like a fish!

I am surprised to see quite a few negative reviews here on our favorite books - it looks like many people don't like the "baby signs" series of little books just because these are not based on ASL. IMHO, this is akin to criticizing a French text book because it doesn't teach Spanish. If it's ASL that you want to teach your baby, just pick books on that subject and leave these alone.My baby and I are casual signers and I have not read the author's Baby Signs book for parents, but just from my own experience as a mommy, I can think of several good reasons to use "made-up" signs instead of ASL:- If you're not already fluent in ASL, you won't need to go search in a dictionary or on the Internet every time you want to sign something new to your baby, which would mean losing good opportunities for introducing new signs.- Some ASL signs are more complicated and while not exactly difficult, can be pretty unnatural for babies to do when they're just starting to learn how to control their hands.- If baby comes up with a gesture himself that has meaning you understand, you can go along with him instead of "correcting" him.And here are some additional "pros" on this series of adorable board books:- Having the object pictured side-by-side with a baby demonstrating the sign is brilliant. The pictures of the object are often selected to include a version that babies would be more familiar with, like a stuffed animal. The pictures of the happy babies are great for your baby to identify himself with and to want to imitate.- The "review" page at the end of each book shows pictures of all the objects without the signs, so you can point to each one, say the word, and let your baby try doing the sign.- Did I already say adorable? Not only I love the pictures, my baby does, too! He not only learns the signs, but also learns to say the words with these books. "Baby" (or more like "baaa-beeeee") was one of my baby's first words, and he says it when he asks to read these books (which is all the time).And these provide such a fun and loving way for babies to learn to express themselves and communicate with their parents! Ultimately, that's what I want to do with my baby, not stressing ourselves out trying to do ASL correctly. Baby and I highly recommend all 4 "baby signs" board books in this series.

As a speech pathologist who has worked primarily with the 0-3 year population, this is one of my favorite books. It's a great way to introduce signs in a way that will interest your child. Baby signs are functional for ALL children, even typically developing children. If you look at the research, there are long term benefits from introducing baby signs at a young age. If you want to work on food and drink, get the book related to Mealtime. It's great as well. This is a favorite series of mine and the authors were leaders in the research on baby signs.