Myth: Signing is expensive and time-consuming
Excerpt from SuperBaby: 12 Ways to Give Your Child a Head Start in the First 3 Years
Signing does not take a lot of time or cost a bundle. The amount of time you devote to signing and the degree to which you integrate it into your family’s life is completely up to you. Granted, the more you do, the more likely you are to see results. I have seen families who use only three signs benefit from the experience. As far as the financial commitment goes, it can be as little as the cost of one paperback book. Compiling a signing library, using DVDs, or taking a class can be a lot of fun and will enhance your signing vocabulary, but they are not mandatory, especially when there are so many helpful resources online. – Dr. Jenn
Truth: Signing doesn’t take a lot of time or money!
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Our local library has so many signing sources. They have all of the “Baby Signing Time” and “Signing Time” DVDs, books, and CDs. My 4 year old knows exactly where they are and runs there first thing to find a book and a DVD (the CDs are a bit more confusing for her.) It’s definitely not expensive.
As far as how much time we spend, I just try to make sure I anticipate what signs they may want to learn. My son learned “orange” because when we were in the store he pointed to them and I said “orange” and then signed it. He knew it from that point on. We were in a big store and a little bird was in there (hanging out by the birdseed…) When my son saw the bird in the store, the novelty fascinated him and I signed bird. He didn’t need it signed again, months later he still signs bird when he sees a bird in a store. Just making sure I knew the sign for tree, flower, icecream, cake, cookie, etc before they did meant that when my son asked, I would tell him, and that’s all the time it took.