Baby Signing Testimonials

As well as the testimonials below you can watch actual video footage of babies using sign here.

“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

Lucas signs “eat”

“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

Harmonie signs “please”

“My 17month old Harmonie is a very bright child. As soon as I started using the basic signs Harmonie started copying me straight away. Her favourite sign is more she uses it all the time, ‘more breakfast’, ‘more drink’, ‘more food’, she even combines the signs. We use the eat sign for food and she signs ‘more food’.

Harmonies daddy works away a lot and I sat down today and said daddy is coming home today and she said and signed to me daddy I was so proud of her that she had used her sign and not only her language and she understood what I was saying.”

Thanks from Kate Dhu and Harmonie 17 months
North Haven

Tom signs “Teddy”

“Dear Jackie,

I have been signing with my baby since he was 7months old. Although I never gave up, I was pretty disheartened that at 12months he still wasn’t signing back. I kept going as I could see he understood some of the signs when I did them.

A couple of months ago I bought your book and read your recommendation to use fun signs as well as the practical ones. We had only been doing milk, bed, eat, drink, finished.

Tom loves books, so I started signing “book”. A week or 2 later I said to him (without signing), “Would you
like a story?” He signed “book” and crawled straight off to the bookshelf!

I was amazed that he’d picked it up so fast and that it showed me he understands so much more of what
I say to him than I had thought.

Tom is now 14months old and picks up new signs all the time. He now signs: milk, finished, eat, drink, change,
toilet, teddy, more, bath, poo. He has just started day-care and his carer is amazed at how well he communicates
when he is finished his lunch etc.

Thank you for your great advice, I’m so glad we stuck with it. It’s had a positive impact on everyone around Tom,
helping them all bond and understand him better.”

Kylie Seldon
Muswellbrook, NSW

“I’m so glad baby sign was mentioned to us with our first baby 3 years ago!! It provided us with so many experiences and benefits: emotionally connecting as well as practically getting messages across. Her Nana still raves about the time she baby sat over night (first time for all…) and could communicate with her 1 year old granddaughter so clearly and without frustrations!

I thought I wouldn’t be able to pull baby sign off or have the time/energy to learn it but I must say it’s very easy to incorporate into the daily routine. It gave us so much joy and we’ve now started eagerly with our 6 month old daughter. Her big sister is keen to join in too!”

Eve Walsh
Perth, WA

Kenzie signs “Hello” and “Milk”

“Hi Jackie,

I have a 6 and a half-month-old, Kenzie, who is signing. We caught him on camera at 5 1/2 months signing ‘hello’ as I was saying hello to make him smile for the camera. He didn’t do it again for a couple of weeks until the day before he was 6 months old, we were driving in the car and I looked around at him and I said hello and he signed ‘hello’ back to me with a big grin! He’s being doing it more since then.

The sign I’ve been most intentional about teaching him is ‘milk’ which I sign when I’m breast-feeding him. I wasn’t sure I’d done it often enough, but a few days after he was 6 months old, a few days into introducing solids, I saw him signing ‘milk’. He now thinks ‘milk’ is anything he eats so now we’re showing him the sign for ‘food’ when he eats in his highchair.

I used to teach Auslan and have a number of Deaf friends, so I’m so excited to be seeing Kenz signing.”

Sarah Nicholson
Wyndham Vale, Vic

Ethan signs “Milk”

“Hi Jackie,

We began using baby sign 4 months ago and only in the last month our son Ethan who is now 9 months old started signing. I was so excited when he started to sign “hello”, “bye” and “milk” back at me and he then claps his hands afterwards as if proud of himself . I am now teaching him to sign “eat” which I’m sure he will learn in no time. I’m so proud of our little boy.

Here’s a picture of my son signing “milk”.

It just goes to show that if you never give up, bub will do it if your persistent and make a fun thing out of
signing. Thank you Baby Hands.”

Mary Ann Plata
North Lakes, Qld.

Scarlett signs “More”

“Hi Jackie,

Well I can at last say that my efforts have paid off! I had been signing ‘milk’, ‘drink’ and ‘eat’ to Scarlett since she was about 6mths and really had just about given up! In fact, I didn’t realise that I was subconsciously still doing these signs with the words until about 2wks ago when my (now 16mth) daughter signed right back at me with a big nod of her head to acknowledge that ‘yes’ she did what some thing to eat/drink!!! I am so excited. Now I have her using the sign for

‘more’ and she even says the word ‘more’ very clearly to go with it. Thank you so much! I will continue to
use more words as soon as we have moved house and I unpack your book again”

Kindest regards,

Sarah Herft
Mum to 16 month old Scarlett

Nitara signs “Hello”

“Hello, We began using Baby Hands with Nitara just over a month ago now & she has really taken to it. As she is very dexterous baby and was already twinkling her fingers & making Mother Duck with her hand we knew she would take to signing straight away. At first she thought that we were very amusing making all these crazy gestures with our hands every time we said “Hello”, “Bye”, “Milk”, “Eat”, “drink”, “Mum”, “Dad” & “I love you”.

After only a few weeks she began to wave “hello & bye” & made the sign to “eat”, Then she began to sign
“I Love you” (In her own similar version) & we were amazed!!! Now at just 6mths she is attempting to sign
“Milk” & perfecting her “I love you”. Thanks so much Baby Hands!”

Sarah Herft
Mum to 16 month old Scarlett

Matthew signs “Helicopter”

“I have found your site great! I can sign Auslan pretty well as I am hearing impaired but didn’t use a lot of sign with my first child as she is hearing and my husband is hearing too but when my son come along I decided to teach him signs. I found that I had to be patient and consistent as your site mentions and he is now 18 months old- still not talking apart from Mumma (he is hearing and understands everything so I am not worried), he can sign a few things and gets very excited when his sister and I cheer him on.

His main signs are tummy, helicopter, bird and aeroplane. I have found that my daughter (4 years old) is
enjoying learning as well and is teaching her brother. Thank you for your advice.”

Carolyn Simpson
NSW

“I would like to thank you for your ingenious signing program.

My 2 year old son, Jesse, has picked it up with such ease and it is such a wonderful sight when he comes
up to me and tells me both spoken and signing that he wants to have a bath, or a drink, or play with the
dogs, cat, birds.

It is breathtaking and such a contrast to 6 months ago when he would be crying, yelling and so upset
because as hard as we tried, we just could not comprehend what he was asking for.

I am just 6 weeks away from having my second son and we will be using our signs from the first day in
hospital to get into the routine. We only wished that we had of heard of this fantastic program when we
were pregnant with our first beautiful son.

Thanks again, you have improve our communication with our son a milliojun times over!!!!!”

Dianna, Brian and Jesse Ray
Andergrove, Qld

James signs “Drink”

“I have found your site great! I can sign Auslan pretty well as I am hearing impaired but didn’t use a lot of sign with my first child as she is hearing and my husband is hearing too but when my son come along I decided to teach him signs. I found that I had to be patient and consistent as your site mentions and he is now 18 months old- still not talking apart from Mumma (he is hearing and understands everything so I am not worried), he can sign a few things and gets very excited when his sister and I cheer him on.

His main signs are tummy, helicopter, bird and aeroplane. I have found that my daughter (4 years old) is
enjoying learning as well and is teaching her brother. Thank you for your advice.”

Tania Martin
Winston Salem

“Hi Jackie,

Well I must be honest I tried signing with my little girl Ezra from about 4 months old and had no response and was ready to give up at about 10 1/2 months. Then out of the blue she was sitting in her high chair and I was about to feed her and she did the eat sign! WOW I thought! So I got my husband to come have a look and as we said it, then she did it! I couldn’t believe it! Now every few weeks she is picking up a new sign. She does eat, bye, hi, drink and just yesterday she did more.

So a word for everyone, don’t give up it will happen just be consistent!”

Jodi Taylor and Ezra
Palm Beach, QLD

“Hi Jackie, well reading the other stories of bubs signing I knew I had to write and share our success.

We have been signing to Anneka from about 1 month old (some might think this is a bit earlier but it was more about getting my husband and I into the habit – like you suggest a few key signs and we were on our way.

The funniest to date is whenever the vacuum cleaner or hair dryer are used we often see Anneka busy playing, stop turn, look have a bit of a giggle and then do the sign for noise! Sometimes she also gets a bit over excited (as she is in this picture!).

We have been really impressed (as have kindy!) with the ease that Anneka is able to express (pre-verbally)
that she is tired, wants food or milk.

Thanks for the encouragement and support.”

Kim Hoskin
NSW

“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

Alec 17 months

“I have a funny story from last week. Alec’s grandparents took him to the park, they weren’t there for very long, and he signed “finished” and “eat” and “bread” and said “home”. He said home like he was British, and he repeated the word several times before they realised what he was saying- take me home now so I can eat bread.”

Mary Lisa Gizariotis
Berowra

“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

Jed Signing “more”

“I have been signing with my 19 month old (hearing) son, Jed since he was about 11 months. It is amazing how quickly he learns and applies the signs that I teach him. I just love how he can communicate with me in a variety of situations.
When we arrive home and are in the driveway he gets excited and does the sign for house, if he hears a bird chirping, he signs bird. He can also sign toilet and has had many a dry nappy before we get to the bathroom.
His favourite sign would have to be more, which he now combines with saying

the word! When he is reading books either with me or on his own, he signs (and speaks) all the objects
he knows.I am very excited that his spoken vocabulary is progressing rapidly each day also. I highly
recommend other parents teach their child some signs as it is such an empowering tool for them.”

Tracey Kaufman

Melbourne, Vic

“Hi Jackie

I thought I would let you know how Bella and I are going at signing.

Bella is now 14 months old. I started signing milk to her at around 5 mths. From the age of about 8 mths I
really got stuck in to it. By approximately 9 months old Bella was signing milk back to us. Bella can now
sign milk, mum, drink, eat, and more and now nappy as of last night. My husband has been signing as well.
We also got Bella’s childcare teachers to sign in her room which is good so she has the signing at home and
at childcare. My next goal is to teach her a new sign each week or fortnight.

I always intended on teaching my daughter to sign after I worked in a special education unit at a local state
school for a while. I believe it will help her with her communication. I will teach her to sign her ABC and
colours when she is a little older as well.”

Michelle McIntosh
Oxenford Queensland

Charlotte signs “please”

“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

Isabelle signs “Mum”

“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

Tracey Kaufman
Melbourne, Vic

“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

www.childcarensw.com.au

“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

15 month old Gypsee

“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

www.playgroupaustralia.com.au

“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

“We have been signing to our daughter since she was 6 months old.

At 12 months she was signing back to us with “sleep” and “teddy” which was great.

She is now 14 months and her signs have improved in number and when she sees birds and fish she signs
these. She also is able to sign bath which is great for us also. I can’t believe how quickly she is
picking up the signs and how appropriately she is using them.

Thank you for helping open the communication between us.”

Sandy Jansen

The Australian Consortium Of Nannies

“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

https://tacon.typepad.com/

“I recently purchased the Australian baby hands sign book.

My husband and I have been having a wonderful time teaching our daughter Justine different signs.

I knew I wanted to try signing with our child before she was born and my husband agreed it would be worth
a try. We started when she was about 6 months old with some basic signs like ‘eat’ and ‘finished’.

Around 10 months she first did. We were astounded when she made the sign. We weren’t sure if it was going to
work, then one day she did it, and hasn’t stopped there.

Justine is now 15 months and since we have started using the baby signs with her she has started to try several
others. Her favourite one at the moment is the one for ‘Poo’ – of course. She does that a lot and picked it up
quickly she thinks it’s quite funny. She also knows ‘book’, is learning ‘bird’ although at this stage is doing
it backwards.

We really enjoy adding this bit extra when we talk to her about the different things she sees and does. It does
seem to us she remembers the new things more often if they have a sign associated with the name, and will often
look at our hands to see if we are doing the sign.

We’re very glad we purchased the book as I can see in the near future that Justine will be doing more signing
which will enable her to communicate with us more effectively. I have told many friends about this and have
encouraged them to give it a try as we have found it easy and fun.”

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.

“My son is almost 2 and I am happy to say that within 2 weeks of using some of the signs his first signs
to mewere “love you” (and he said it for the first time too) he now signs ‘thank you/please’ and ‘more’,
he thinks its a great game and often gets me to play.”

Sincerely Narelle Offord
Woodroffe NTroffe NT

“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

Junior Junction

“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

7 month old Oliver

“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

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

20 month old Cody

“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.

“Hi Jackie, just thought I’d drop you a line. I have used a number of the signs in your book. The ones
that I’ve been the most consistent with and have paid off a number of times are eat, drink and sleep.

One day Alexandra was following me with a whiny cry and when I looked closely I noticed she was twisting
her hand (although not near her mouth) and I realised she was asking for a drink. What a clever girl!”

Michelle de la Coeur
Red Hill, Vic