Baby sign language Q's ??

Hi, we have been trying to teach 10mo DD sign language. We have been teaching mostly "milk"and "food". She has just started to do the "milk" action with her hand, to try to reinforce this action, I say "milk" and do the sign back and if I can i try to offer her a breastfeed. Sometimes she seems to "mindlessly " make the sign (not sure if she is doing it intentionally). Should I wait until it seems intentional and she is looking at me and engaged? I guess I want to reinforce it without confusing her and having to rush to put her on the boob every 5 seconds. Do I need to offer her a feed every time she does the sign (sometimes she will do it after a feed) Has anyone had any experience with this? Any thoughts are appreciated :)

AIMZ - I would only teach her the sign just before you feed her then teach her finish once she has finished. Here is the link to the Auslan site where you can enter finish into the search bar Auslan - Signbank

Both my parents are deaf so we taught my niece at a young age. By the time she was 1 she could sign many words but didn't quite know what all of them meant. She knew what milk, finish & sleep meant. She was bottle fed so i'm not sure if that made it easier to teach milk. We would ask her if she wanted milk, sleep or if she'd finished, and do the sign for it, if she responded with the sign, she wanted it, if she didn't respond with the sign, she didn't.

I guess you could show the sign, point to your breast, show the sign again, then get her to sign it by controlling her hand yourself.

I hope this helps, at least a little bit. Good luck,it's a great tool to have.

We didn't do baby sign language, but I taught DD to gently pat my chest if she wanted a bf at around 6 mths. I got sick of not knowing what she wanted if she woke during the night. If she was whingeing for something I would pat my chest with her hand and ask her 'booby?' If she was eager, then I'd bf her. Didn't take her long to get the idea to just pat me herself whenever she wanted it. She learnt within a couple of weeks, from memory.

So I would suggest helping her make the sign for 'milk' right before bfing her. You probably know when she wants it anyway, given you've been bfing her for over 12 mths! It will just mean she associates the sign with a bf, not just hand actions that get Mummy excited.

I would wait until she is looking at you and "communicating" before I'd respond to the sign. You're teaching her to communicate, not just do signs, kwim?

We taught DD2 one sign for boobie (pat your chest) and another for milk as they get to the age soon enough when they are having milk from a sippy cup. It took my DD until she was a bit older to properly get the idea of signing, now she's picking them up really quickly and using them very intentionally. Your efforts now will pay off soon enough!

I found once my kids had one sign down pat, they tended to use it for everything for a while. Almost as if they know to use their hands to say something, but they only knew that one word. Tallon signed book for everything and Kayla did milk.

I think if you think it's a mindless sign, just ask her if she's wanting milk, repeating it to her.. just to reinforce that what she's doing means milk. In the book I was using it said not to rush and do everything just coz they signed it. You can still say no if you think she doesn't need milk right away. But you can still teach her that what she's signing means milk. If that makes sense :)

Maybe it's time to introduce a few more signs. I found my kids started pointing at things as if asking for the sign. But yeah, they did tend to use their first sign for everything for a while.