Baby Signing Testimonials:

"After a very difficult first 8 months with my daughter in pain, crying and not sleeping much, I knew that being able to communicate with her would surely make things easier.

We started signing when she was about 8 months old and after about 7-8 weeks she started to sign back to us. The first time she signed that she wanted milk was so thrilling. At last we knew what she wanted!

She is slowly starting to pick up more signs now and I know that things will continue to improve. My three year old son has also taken a very keen interest in what we're doing with our hands and has started to help his baby sister 'talk with her hands'."

Tanya Smith, Melbourne
Mother of Jessica, 11 months and Danial 3 years

“Hi Jackie, I thought I would share this photo of my gorgeous 9 1/2 month old son, Lucas, signing "Eat".

It is so exciting for all of us. To be honest, I think Lucas is the most excited - the look of sheer pleasure on his face when he signed "eat" and I understood what he wanted was priceless.

I had read a lot about baby sign language when I was pregnant and my husband and I knew this was something we definitely wanted to do.

We had been signing to Lucas on and off since he was about 5 months old, but we had been a bit haphazard in our approach. After reading your book, we implemented 5 signs and tried to be as consistent as possible with them.

Thanks Jackie, for helping us to communicate with our little man. His response has renewed our enthusiasm and now we can't wait for the other signs to start emerging.”

Elizabeth, Anthony and Lucas Anderson
Melbourne, Vic

Thanks from Kate Dhu
and Harmonie 17 months
North Haven

“Hi Jackie,
I am so pleased to let you know that my son Mylo has finally started to sign! It has taken a while and we have not been the best teachers, but he now signs eat, bath, drink, sleep and more. It makes life so much easier and he seems to really love the fact that he can tell us what he wants. We are now working on please/thank you, ball and dog.
Take care”

Jess Maude and Mylo
Brunswick West, VIC

"I thought Clay was never going to start signing even though I had been doing it since he was 4 months old. Finally at 10 months he starting doing 'dog' and saying 'dog'. At 11 months he was doing 'eat' for both eating and drinking. Now at 12 months he does 'horse' and has just started doing 'drink' and 'milk'.

My friends with babies think its great that I can communicate with him.

If he sees a dog on TV or a picture he tells us as he loves them. Lots of animals get called dogs.

This is just fantastic."

Tania O'Brien
Perth, WA

Tracey Kaufman
Melbourne, Vic

“Good Morning Jackie.

My daughter Charlottes signing just gets better every week and I love being able to communicate with her so easily.

She is 16 months old and we have been signing for about the last 6 months thru our day care centre.

I try to introduce a new word every week last week we have been using the word Car for every morning when we go to hop in it. They have started using more words in her room at day care too so it all helps.

My sister in law was a sceptic but when she visited at Christmas and saw with her own eyes she was amazed by it.

We now use about 8 words and her toilet training has started with the "POO" sign so every time she comes and tells us and on the potty we go, excellent!”

Lorraine Burow
Kellyville, NSW

“Two months ago, my then 18 month old son, had yet another massive asthma attack. This time was worse than any other; he actually stopped breathing and spent 24 hours in ICU. When he was alert enough to realise he needed a drink, he used sign language to ask for a drink of milk.

He continued signing for a further 24 hours using milk, food, thank-you and hello. After this period he continued speaking, but still to this day he will sign and speak many words at the same time.

Thank you for bringing communication to our little people long before they can easily be verbally interpreted.”

Sincerely,
Loren Costello.
Belmont WA

“Hi Jackie, I really enjoy receiving your regular emails and your photos of signing little ones always brings a smile to my face. Isabelle has been signing for a couple of months now and I finally managed to capture her signing "Mum" as I walked down the corridor at our house calling out to her. The photo is a bit side-on but it's so hard to capture a good shot with a split second sign!

I am a speech pathologist (although I haven't returned to work yet) so I know the benefits of signing and had always planned to do so with my own children. My husband was a little sceptical (to say the least!) and did not sign in the early days however he is now the first to espouse the benefits of signing and I think I may have even caught him telling a friend that it was a great idea that he had to sign with Isabelle!!

At almost 11 months Isabelle now signs milk, food, Mum, dog, finished, and more and can't seem to get enough of new signs!”

Kind Regards
Tiffany
Western Australia

“I thought it was time for me to tell you our story.

I have been using Auslan for years as I work in a Special School and have always treated sign language as part of an Augmentative Communication System, ie, often if the child can't say/read a word, they can sign it, particularly in times of stress. It also helps to take the talking/verbals out of a stressful situation. I have found it to be invaluable in my work. I also feel that it more often than not enhances a child's grasp of language than hinder it.

Around 8 months of age Amy began throwing her spoon and food when she'd had enough so I introduced the sign for 'finished'. That was when we began with Baby Hands. She is now 17months and has a great repertoire- more, finished, drink, hat, cow, duck, frog, dog, cat, milk- just off the top of my head. Our newest one is 'toilet'- trying to stop her from grabbing her crotch and saying 'yuck'- very elegant.

Baby hands has been fantastic for us- I've given a copy of the signs she knows to her Family Day Carer who has been using them with all of the children and has had enquiries from their parents as well.

Thanks for everything,”

Helen List
Darwin

“I have a 3 1/2 year old with childhood apraxia of speech and we have experienced many frustrating times trying to communicate with each other, and often complimented her speech with signing. So when we added to our family I decided to try Baby Hands with him (admittedly with scepticism that he would 'get it').

I was absolutely beside myself with sheer delight when after only 2-3 weeks he signed 'drink' to me!

Since this breakthrough his whingeing has decreased, and my daughter can also join in our communication sessions! What a nice way to be together.”

Lana Fisher
Mother of Ella 3 1/2 years and Nate 9 months
Newcastle

“Hi Jackie,
I just thought you might like to know, I have been teaching my daughter some of the basic signs like eat, drink and milk. And the other day she did food and today she did drink.
Now it has inspired me to teach her more, I can't believe how smart little babies are, it's unbelievable.”

THANKS
Kirsty

“Hi there just to let you know how we are doing using the baby signs chart...

As mum to Montana 4yrs, Hunter 3yrs and Andersyn 5 mths we have found the chart to be a very valuable tool, Hunter has down syndrome and with this he no longer get frustrated when trying to communicate with us have introduced baby sign to all 3 of our children who all have picked this up very easily...

A true but very cute story... We were out shopping one day and my daughter Montana spotted this little boy and started talking to him except the little boy was deaf and unable to hear what Montana was saying Montana then started signing to the little boy... his mum was amazed that Montana could communicate with her son still I had tears in my eyes watching how proud I was of her. It’s very important to teach to all your children you'll find life so much easier using this.
THANK YOU”

Donna
Melbourne, VIC

“Hi Jackie

I have used practical signs with all my children since birth (finished, more, mummy, daddy, stop, yes, no, milk, thanks/please) with limited success, all my children are great with 'finished', 'yes', 'no' and 'please/thanks', however this took considerable time (my now eight year old was 18 months before she started to sign, and often this was to clarify her words), my 10 month old has been able to sign 'finished' for a couple of months now, but that is all.

After reading your article I began using some motivational signs, 'book', 'cushion' (her snuggly), 'toys', 'play', 'block', 'ball', 'doll'.

Her favourite activity is reading books, and the very first time I signed 'book' to her she responded by signing 'book' back, and went and got one for me to read to her. I was happily surprised, I am now using more and more motivational signs, she especially loves 'play' and 'toys', and whilst she hasn't signed these to me yet, I am now certain she understands what I am saying by the way her face lights up!

Hopefully, this will be the start of some great two-way communication sooner rather than later.

Thank you”
Mel Thompson

“Hi Jackie,

I thought it was time for me to tell you our story.
I have been using Auslan for years as I work in a Special School and have always treated sign language as part of an Augmentative Communication System, ie, often if the child can't say/read a word, they can sign it, particularly in times of stress. It also helps to take the talking/verbals out of a stressful situation. I have found it to be invaluable in my work. I also feel that it more often than not enhances a child's grasp of language than hinder it.

Around 8 months of age Amy began throwing her spoon and food when she'd had enough so I introduced the sign for 'finished'. That was when we began with Baby Hands. She is now 17months and has a great repertoire - more, finished, drink, hat, cow, duck, frog, dog, cat, milk- just off the top of my head. Our newest one is 'toilet'- trying to stop her from grabbing her crotch and saying 'yuck'- very elegant.

Baby hands has been fantastic for us- I've given a copy of the signs she knows to her Family Day Carer who has been using them with all of the children and has had enquiries from their parents as well.

Thanks for everything,”

Helen List and Amy

“Hi Jackie,

Just a quick note to let you know my 15 month old has learnt the sign for "finished" after only a couple of months. It is really great as she now tells me when she has had enough of any task, whether it be at dinner, in the bath (even sleep) : ) Cheeky little devil that she is.

We are now focusing on the signs for food, more, milk and drink.

Happy signing,”

KIRI and ADELLE
Qld

“Hi Jackie.

When my son was born 3 1/2 years ago, he had a few medical problems and one of them was that he could not breathe normally. He needed a trachy (tube in his neck) to breathe until he could hopefully grow out of it. We decided to start to learn sign language so that we could communicate with him not knowing if or when he would grow out of the trachy. It was so difficult to find info on baby signing.

I am really happy that new parents have access to this information now and that you make it so easy.

It was a struggle but Aaron and I went really well with signing (mostly about our dog playing ball, and cars and trucks) and when the trachy came out at age 2 years the doctors expected significant speech therapy, but we didn't need any. His speech came along really well and by age 3 he was at or above the age appropriate level. I really think this is because Aaron was already used to 'talking' he just started to use words instead.

Sign language really helped Aaron to communicate with me and he was so happy when I could understand what he wanted.

Thank you,
Trish Brunings
QLD

“Hi Jackie,

We've been signing to our daughter since birth... Fortunately I was exposed to Auslan during my pregnancy and picked up a few words which is what made me get your resources!
She gets excited for the "bath" sign... and this week she's started signing hello and bye bye! I could have sworn she tried to sign "help" today when she fell onto her back!

Other than that she knows eat, drink, sleep, more and finished, good, mum dad and cat and where? She can't sign them back yet... but I know she understands them.. cause when I sign "where cat?" She'll look directly at the cat and smile... as if to say "right in front of you mummy... derrr!!!"

Cheers
Tracy Young
Repton, NSW

"Australian Baby Hands is a well written and researched book that is easy to read. Implementation of Australian Sign Language to babies is shown to be easy and most beneficial to all who use it.

For child care centres that have babies attending, I recommend the use of Australian Baby Hands in the children’s program. Research shows that babies who have used baby sign language have advanced communication, literacy and memory skills and high self confidence and self esteem."

Kay Lockhart
Professional Development Manager
Child Care New South Wales
www.childcarensw.com.au

“Our son is 15 months old and just recently has “clicked” with the fact that he can sign for things.

His manners are fabulous, 'Please' and 'Thank You' are always used and the other day he spontaneously said 'Thanks' to another little girl without being prompted. He really understands it!!!

He is getting a handle on 'help' at the moment instead of crying.”

Jodi Pantu
Mother to 15 month old Lachlan
Ringwood Vic

“Our most noteworthy observance of her signing is when she gets so frustrated with us not understanding what sign she is making and wants something new or different that she doesn't know the sign for that she uses everything she knows (usually a desperate combination of Daddy and milk), waves arms and hands frantically and uses urgent voice sounds too to get the message across.

It's great that she realises to use sign to request. She seems to pick up new signs very quickly now (almost 15mths old).

She does dog, bath, baby and eat a lot more now too. Loves sitting in bed in the mornings and going through your Baby Hands book giving me pictures to sign to her and teach her.”

Dimity and Gypsee
Coomera, Qld

“My 14 month old Emilie loves signing so much she keeps getting the reference book off the shelf herself and looks through all the pictures on her own. Her first Nanny taught her babysign at about 8 months of age. It was actually the Nannys' first time trying it. The Nanny has 15 years of child care experience and has never had a child with such an advanced vocabulary.

It has now inspired the second Nanny who has followed in her wake (the first unfortunately leaving for overseas) to take it up. The word has been spread to my sister and her new baby as everyone is amazed with Emilies' development.

We even had a few days of Emily signing and saying 'poo' and 'toilet' and then doing a poo on the big toilet at 14 months of age! (Worth writing home about).

It is a very special way of communicating. Sometimes it feels like our secret language. It also helps check what is being said if there is some confusion with the verbal words.

We are all enjoying it. Thank you,”

Alison Macquet
Ormond, VIC

"The Playgroup Association of The Northern Territory is extremely impressed with this easy to read handbook which will allow children to communicate with parent or carer to express and create a more bonding relationship.

Understanding the importance of this book and the steps forward in the communication barrier between parents and their child/ren can help overcome tremendous barriers."

Sue Wainwright
Executive Officer
Playgroup Association of the NT
www.playgroupaustralia.com.au/nt/

"Dear Jackie I am having a lot of fun with Babyhands and my little fella is very responsive he can do quite a few signs and has now started saying things like drink, hot, sore, mum, dad and dog I think he is doing great and at 10 months feel he is well advanced for his age. Thank you for the guidance and we are doing great."

Bindi Morris
Malanda Qld

“I’ve been using Australian Baby Hands to teach my Sunday school class for the last 4 weeks, just 4 lessons of 2 hours each. Last week something happened that I thought was amazing.

One of the hearing impaired members of the church was 'chatting' to one of our adult members who signs. She must have asked for a drink, because one of 'my' children toddled over and offered her his bottle. She just stood there looking at him, and when she didn't take it he signed 'drink' and offered it to her again. She was thrilled, the member she was chatting to was stunned, and I was pretty darned surprised myself!”

Dianne Fernandez
Sunday School Nursery Teacher - ages 18 - 30 months
Brisbane

"Two young children and a book that can save us (The Parents) from frustration.

We found the philosophy behind the sign language fascinating.

All of the signs are easy to follow, thank you for opening our minds to 'sign fun' and allowing our youngest to start to communicate in ways well beyond other children of the same age."

Paul & Liz Hunter,
Parents of 4 year old Hayley & 9 month old Sarah

"Baby signing is a fantastic tool for babies and toddlers. I had picked up signs from toddlers over 20 years working as a nanny, but to be able to teach babies and children a non-verbal language to communicate is an invaluable gift.
Tantrums, frustrations and fear are reduced dramatically and to be able to use a sign based on a recognised sign language means the use will extend throughout our children’s' lives.

We had used Australian Baby Hands with our three-year-old boy who did not speak clearly and was becoming frustrated, to the point it affected his behaviour. 'Practice time' was his time, he knew this was his special time, but the whole family was involved.

The bonus is our now 10 month old is signing. She spoke earlier than her three siblings and like many programs now used in our schools, the combination of verbal and physical activity has a bigger impact.

Even though our youngest boy is now speaking clearly, we'll continue to use signs for our baby to better meet her needs and ours - I love a calmer household!"

Marina McHutchison
TACON – The Australian Consortium Of Nannies

The Australian Consortium Of Nannies
www.tacon.com.au

Felicity & Ian Kerin
Carryong Vic

"What a brilliant idea. I only wish Australian Baby Hands had been around when my children were tiny. Simple to understand, and helpful on so many levels. More than that, an Australian first!"

Lisa Wilkinson,
Executive Editor of Madison Magazine, Editor at Large Australian Women's Weekly, Host of Weekend Sunrise.

"What a terrific idea! The staff at our centre were truly amazed at such an interesting concept that allows us to effectively communicate with children who are preverbal and understand what they want or need. We have started to implement Australian Baby Hands in our centre’s developmental programme and have included relevant information and some basic signs for our families to use in our recent monthly newsletter.

Being someone who speaks English as a second language, I have also found this is an excellent tool for helping children at our centre who come from non-English speaking backgrounds. The basic sign language helps them to communicate with others, play and make friends. Furthermore, it empowers them by eliminating the frustration that comes with not being able to interact with other children or their teachers.

All in all, a great resource that is already showing effective results!!"

Carla Vargas
Kids Business
Long Day Care and Pre-School
Level 3, 20 Berry Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
Phone 02 8968 1500

"Thank you very much for the opportunity to use this great idea.

My two and a half year old (Xzavier) was signing back within the week and my eight month old (Phoenix) has started with the odd sign two to three weeks in. We love it.

Both my husband and I are doing it and all the grandparents and uncle.

Thank you, Regards"

Perian Mendelson
Jimboona Qld

"By learning to use ‘Australian Baby Hands’ sign language we have found children are better able to communicate with family and carers.

Once some basic signs have been learnt and incorporated into the daily routine the opportunities to effectively communicate are increased significantly. Furthermore, this alleviates frustration and can minimise a child’s crying or misbehavior resulting from an inability to convey their wants or needs.

Saying the word out loud whilst using the appropriate sign can increase a child’s vocabulary and improve their interactive skills.

‘Australian Baby Hands’ is proving to be not only a successful educational tool but a fun way for young children at our centre to bond with their carers."

Junction Juniors
Long Day Care and Pre-School Station 1
Westfield Shopping Centre 500 Oxford Street
Shop 6016, Level 6
Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Phone 02 8968 1500

“Hi Jackie, I have a two year two month old and a 4 month old at home. My daughter, since my son was born, has been very helpful and often gets me a nappy when it is time to change him.

This morning was no different as I told my 4 month old son I needed to change his nappy my daughter went and got me one as usual and after she'd handed it to me she made the sign for and said the word change.

I only purchased your book in December and we have only gone through the sings maybe half a dozen times, last week being the last time. I'll often sign to her and get no response so I thought I was too late to benefit from it.

Thanks to this new achievement I will certainly start putting more effort into the signing and hopefully my son will pick it up as well.”

Kindest regards
Suzi Brown
Kilburn SA

“Hi Jackie,

We have been using basic signing with our 7 month old son for the past month or so.

He has reflux & so my husband & I have been signing milk, mummy, daddy & finished.

He used to cry every time he had finished his bottle or solids. Now when he has finished, we sign finished & he smiles at us. What a relief to have an action that he understands & responds positively to.

Thanks!”

Tamara Krepp
Menai, NSW

“I started signing with my little girl at about 8 months. We used the most common words like milk, eat, finished, hungry, mummy and daddy. Although I could see her respond to the sign (visually), there was not much signing back other than the occasional sign.

However at about 13 months she came to life and can now sign over 20 words…and uses them without prompting. An example: it was nearing dinner time and she walked up to me and tugged on my leg. When I bent down to ask her what she wanted, my daughter made the sign for eat. I asked her if she was hungry and she then made the sign for hungry.

My husband and I were very excited. Now she also uses signs for things like teddy, dog, cat and elephant without prompting. And if I ask her what the animal in the book is, she can tell me using her signs straight away.

There were many times early on when I thought that she was not ‘getting it’ and was tempted to stop, but a few emails to the Australian Baby Hands team reassured me that with continual use, she would eventually start using the signs. It is so much fun now sitting down together with the Australian Baby Hands flip book and going through the signs together. She even sits on her own with the book sometimes, turning the pages and signing!

I have to say that teaching her signing is one of the best decisions we made. Not only is it a lovely bonding time for us, but our little girl can actually tell us what she wants…and that is good for everyone!

Thank you to Jackie and the ABH team for such a fantastic and useful tool!”

Lisa Mills
Mayfield East, NSW

“Hi, I thought I would share my story.

My son will be 20 months old on Christmas day and he has mild hearing loss in one ear and moderate hearing loss in the other, he is on the waiting list to see a specialist to see what treatment he needs, but we weren’t given any stratergies to help him communicate.

He developed his own way by pointing and grunting but this was often confusing if you didn’t know what he was pointing at.

Then a friend told me about Baby Hands and I ordered it and now he can sign "dad" "baby" "where" and "eat" and the other day he signed "eat" to his dad for the 1st time.

It is a bit harder I think to teach him sign because he can’t hear me very well and doesn’t talk yet. But it has made him so happy to be able to tell us what he wants."

Jessica Gray
Mum to 20-month-old Cody and 7-week-old Tyson
East Geelong, VIC

"As an Early Childhood Professional and as a long time advocate for the use of signing with all children, including those with hearing and communication difficulties and those from non english speaking backgrounds, I would recommend the use of 'Australian Baby Hands' to assist staff and families to explore and embrace this form of communication with infants and children.

Signing is a very easy way to develop a second language that does not rely on verbal communication skills. It builds on infants and children's skills in communicating their wants and needs.

Staff and families will be amazed how easy signing is and becomes, and how responsive children become to it. Sign and enjoy building the relationships that come from communicating with infants and children."

Anne Clark
President
Childcare SA

Sal Steeple
Willunga SA

"Australian Baby Hands is an extremely interesting book providing the tools to effectively communicate with any baby - it's a must on any parents or childcare teacher book list!"

Leah Kelly
Just For Kids Childcare Consultant
www.justforkids.net.au

"The simplistic and consistent approach behind the philosophy of Australian Baby Hands was very appealing to us when introducing baby sign into our centre.

The book's dictionary of signs are all very clear and easy to follow.

Communicating with the children here through baby sign helps us bridge that communication gap and with the material supplied in the packs, being able to involve the parents as well is a bonus."

Starting Blocks
Long Day Care and Pre-School
Lot 4 & 5, 486 Pacific Hwy
St Leonards NSW 2065
Phone 02 8968 1500

“The baby signing has been fantastic. Just to be able to ask my daughter Sienna (18mths) What she wants and she can tell me or ask for help or tell me she is finished is amazing. I have nannied for seven years and I have never seen such young children signing. It is wonderful.

I see people looking at me when talking to my daughter as if I am mad but when I explain they think she is very clever. but most of all when I see the smile on her face when I finally get it right!!!

That makes it all worth while. thank you thank you thank you x x xx x x x x x xx.”

Helena Byrne
Canberra

“As an Early Childhood Professional, I have always believed in the value of signing with young children and the role it plays developing young children's communication skills.

Australian Baby Hands is an easy-to-read book which I highly recommend to all families and educators of infants as an ongoing resource......not only for strengthening child-parent/carer relationships.

Whether signing is your first or soon-to-be second language....this is a 'must read' for anybody living or working with young children.”

Emily White
Playgroup SA Inc.
91 Prospect Road
Prospect SA 5082
Free Call: 1800 171 882
www.playgroupaustralia.com.au

At Playgroup SA, our vision is to create the opportunity for every child to learn through quality play experiences while supporting their families / carers in their role as primary carers.

"We are very happy to have introduced Australian Baby Hands into our centre. The book and additional reading materials in the pack are all very easy to follow and we are all enjoying learning sign with the children."

Junction Juniors
Long Day Care and Pre-School Stations 2 & 3
Westfield Shopping Centre 500 Oxford Street
Suite 1200, Level 12, Tower 2
Bondi Junction NSW 2022
Phone 02 8968 1500

"Having seen the effects of delayed language acquisition in hearing impaired children (especially those children who struggle in an oral setting) I began researching the use of signing with babies and young children.

What I have learnt excites me enormously and I am passionate about sharing my findings and experiences with parents and child-carers.

My darling niece and nephews have experienced the benefits of signing during infancy and in their early years and their Mum has found the experience to be very rewarding!

My niece is now 18 months old and her parents cannot believe how well she is talking for her age, but also how she uses her signs so inventively!

She began to toilet train herself a few months back by ‘telling’ her mum when her nappy needed changing in sign! She even has taught some of her friends in her family day care the signs for their toys."

Angela Tilbury - Teacher of the Deaf & Mum to be!
Advanced Certificate of Applied Language (Auslan)
Advanced Certificate in Disability Studies
Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary Education)
Post Graduate Diploma in Education of the Hearing Impaired

"A great book for potentially increasing communication opportunities through language and signing."

Debra Evans
Development and Support Worker
ACT Playgroups Association
www.playgroupaustralia.com.au/act/

"I work in a child care setting and have been using Baby Hands with the children in my centre.

Since I have been using Baby Hand's I have seen a positive change in some of our children who have had difficulty in communicating verbally. It has had excellent results in children's understanding of language and helping them to say key words with a sign. Thank you."

Hayley
Happy Valley. South Australia

Amanda Lonergan
President
www.loddonmalleekids.org.au
03 54432556

Tammy Taylor
Trainer - One World For Children Pty Ltd
www.oneworldforchildren.com.au